Cookie making is on the agenda for today. Maya and friend Allison prepare Christmas cookies. Note the efficiency of Maya’s layout. I assist by preparing to eat the resulting cookies, a very important and often overlooked job.

This evening we hosted 4 of Nicolai’s and 1 of Maya’s friends for dinner and an informal holiday gathering. Jeanine joins the kids for an extended match of Catch Phrase, a great multi-generational game that had everyone in hysterics by the time it was finished. Because we waited so long to get our Christmas tree this year (due to my travel in Asia) we had only very tiny ones to pick from. None the less, it is a happy tree and Maya in particular found it easier to decorate. A nice fire and holiday music from the Sonos completed the ambiance. Neither of the boys wrestled today, Kyle because of an injury and Nicolai because he was exhausted from two soccer games he played late last night. I photographed the match anyway and constructed a website for the team (CCHS Wrestling Team).

Kyle injured his elbow in wrestling practice today and will miss his match tomorrow. Hannah came over after dinner to offer a measure of comfort, and we enjoyed having her with the family as we trimmed the Christmas tree and enjoyed the season’s first fire.

This evening, the Sonos Cambridge office celebrated the holidays with a gathering at the Blue Room. Featured activities included a music trivia contest, numerous raffles, and a version of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey that we call dock-the-controller-in-the-cradle.

It was a good night for the Calabria men in the sporting arena. Concord Carlisle faced Arlington High School. Nicolai wrestled up one weight class (heavier opponent) and came back from a 0-2 deficit to win with a pin at the end of the first period. The sequence shows a front headlock to the flying cradle which ended the match. Kyle for reasons not yet clear to me decided three days ago to take up wrestling. With essentially no training or conditioning he walked onto the mat and battled mightily before pinning his opponent in the third period. Hell of a way to start a wrestling career. I had two indoor soccer games the first of which I missed due to the wrestling meet. In the second game I scored three rather nice goals. 2 pins, a hat trick, and three men that will sleep well tonight.

Nicolai has been selected to field test a new forearm crutch design pictured here on the right. I am not at liberty to disclose any of the features, but I can say that Nico likes them quite a lot. On the left is the aluminum crutch that I built for him, and in the middle his current titanium crutch.

Maya spent 2 hours with her friends selling Girl Scout Cookies in front of the local grocery store this afternoon. Business was brisk, no doubt due to the excellent sales skills the girls have developed.

This afternoon I attended Maya’s winter dance recital in which she performed wonderfully. Jeanine left for Indianapolis yesterday to help her sister as she recuperates from hip replacement surgery so I also videotaped the jazz dance routine for her to enjoy when she returns on Tuesday.

Nicolai has been experimenting with wrestling from his knee in the neutral position. It makes him less vulnerable to being thrown off balance but requires additional effort to move around the mat. It is an interesting approach, and we will have to see how it works out over the course of the season.

Nicolai wrestled in his first two high school matches today with a split outcome. He lost by a score of 9-1 to his first opponent and won with a first period pin (shown here) in his second match. He showed great composure and strength but will need to continue to develop his technique and endurance.

I was clowning around in the lab at work today. Suctioned to my forehead is the speaker cone from the woofer used in our most recent product.

As the parent of a child with one leg, one finds oneself making many clothing modifications. Jeanine and I share equal responsibility for the task. Shown here is the stitch I used to close a leg opening on a pair of compression shorts that Nico will use under his wrestling uniform. This surging stitch also can accommodate a great deal of stretching which was needed for the material being used.

It is nice to be back home after 9 days on the road and to be greeted with a Christmas e-card from my sister Alissa. We had 6+ inches of snow this morning so I opted to work at home catching up on a mountain of e-mail. This evening Nicolai and I discussed strategy for his wrestle-off tomorrow in which he competes for a varsity position at 103 pounds against the incumbent junior at that weight. I lost all track of time and was late for the opening game of my indoor soccer season. I missed the entire first half and found my team losing 0-3. We finished with a 10-5 win and I chalked up two rather pretty goals, the first a nutmeg (through the legs) of the goalie and the second a nice lateral move and quick release.

I will travel a total of 24 hours straight to go from the hotel in Hong Kong to my home in Concord. A small consolation was some nice aerial photos of snow-swept landscapes.