Grace absolutely loves Christmas

Well, It’s the most wonderful time of the year (at least until March Madness)!!!!

I am writing to you all with finals FINALLY behind us! We are so excited for our upcoming road trip first to Chicago and then down to Knoxville. Our team seems to really enjoy the holiday season (how could you not?!) so I thought I would talk a little bit about what we have been up to since the holiday season began…

I absolutely love Christmas. I love Christmas movies, music, books, and even, clothing. Since I was young Christmas has easily been my favorite time of year and I always look forward to it greatly. I think a lot of my teammates share in this love for Christmas. However, the difference between my love and theirs is “the Mashore family Christmas rule”. “Papa Mashore” or “papa mash” as some of our team (especially Mel) jokingly call my father, has had a rule in our family that we are not allowed to listen to Christmas songs, watch Christmas movies, or buy Christmas gifts until AFTER Thanksgiving. He is an equal opportunity holiday celebrator. I have carried this tradition along with me to the Farm and obnoxiously (to the team’s dismay) refused to partake in anything Christmas oriented until after Thanksgiving. I must admit I was getting anxious to partake in the Christmas cheer so I was very excited when Thanksgiving came! On Thanksgiving day we had a great practice and then a great meal with the team at Jimmy Vs. Having Thanksgiving dinner as a team is nice because we get to collectively take a moment and step outside ourselves a bit and think about the things in life we are truly so fortunate to have and are grateful for.

In that same vein, recently we have been able to be apart of some pretty cool things within our local community. Last Saturday we helped serve and prepare a meal for homeless at St. Anthony’s Church. Our team had a great time, we split up our time in small groups doing different tasks in terms of preparing the meal and then we helped serve and accommodate the guests. I met some really great people, some of whom said they were big fans of our team (bonus points!). In addition, a small group of us went to Children’s hospital here at Stanford and spent a couple hours volunteering and playing with the kids in the hospital. I think both of those experiences were fun, and eye opening and I know as a team we look forward to many more opportunities like the ones we’ve had recently to really interact with the community and make small differences wherever we can.

Regardless of what you celebrate, I hope you all have a great holiday season, and you get to watch some GREAT basketball!!!

Go Card!

Grace