Mini Christmas 2022

 Hosting Mini Christmas is one of the great joys of the entire holiday season. Every Bankhead in California (and even a few outside of CA) gathers at our house for food and presents and a whole weekend of relaxed festive fun, including a game invented by older cousins many years ago called Bankheadia. One great insight into the Bankheadia game came from Miles: "This year my Bankheadia goal is to not lose all my money at the casino." Less than an hour later he announced that he had indeed lost all his money at the casino.

Creche Exhibit 2022

Although the Bankheads have attended the annual Christmas Creche Exhibit for many years, this was the first year they had participated in the creation of the event. Amy agreed to design the room for children. Miles was happy about the cool wooden creche that kids were allowed to rearrange, and Sadie posed as Mary for local artists.

Thanksgiving 2022 (But you might think it's Halloween again)

We are lucky enough to have cousins live nearby, and every time we get together the costumes come out in full force. This holiday, the gaggle of cousins invented a game called "Backstab" which obviously requires disguises like a winged Spiderman wearing knightly chest armor. Nothing says thanksgiving like a happy round of Backstab. Plus the delicious homemade sourdough bread the cousins bring with them.

Halloween 2022

As part of the blog resurrection, the next several posts will be throwbacks, starting with some creative Halloween costumes. Miles as Satan (featuring mom's face painting skills), James as a Hollow Knight character that he crafted himself, Sadie as Scarlet Overkill, and Amos as a ninja.

Resurrection

During our robust Holy Week celebration, the Bankhead children mentioned that they would like to see this blog continue. So in the spirit of celebrating resurrection, their request shall be granted. 

This year we held an Easter scavenger hunt in which the children had to follow clues to find their Easter presents while bound to each other by loving (and colorful) ties. 

Goodbye Summer, Hello School

The Bankhead family had a rolling start to school this year, with kids at three different schools. Over the course of 6 weeks, we had multiple first days of school, but the process is now complete and everyone is back in the groove. 

Before heading back to school, we had to commemorate summer with this visual representation.

James began a program at the local community college for high schoolers. He said he wanted to take an easy class to ease into college life, so he registered for calculus. 

Sadie started high school!

Amos started his final year in elementary school, and he refuses to ever tie his shoes.

Miles wore his lucky shark shirt to start his year off right. 

 

Laurie and Alfonse's Wedding

Paul's sister Laurie got married in June. The event was magically perfect. Highlights:

• Laurie's new husband stunned us all by naming all 39 Bankhead siblings, spouses, and children in his remarks during dinner.
• James used the wedding as an opportunity to obtain his first formal suit.
• Miles discovered social dancing. After dancing in the center of a circle of people cheering his name, he told me, "I think I'm a little bit famous here."
• We managed to fit in some waterskiing before and after the wedding.

An hour before go time, Sadie became the "get children ready for the wedding" General.

The children clean up pretty well.

Here are just the nieces and nephews that 
Alfonse married into--and he can name them all!

Miles's uninhibited dancing was a hit.

The cousins needed a break after warding off the paparazzi.

 

Highlight of Amy's Summer 2022

The heartbreak of living in the Bay Area is all the friends who move away. This summer a gaggle of friends who have left the area flew to California to celebrate a milestone birthday, and thus began a multi-day adventure that filled Amy's emotional bucket for months to come.

Patio yoga that ended with tearful expressions of gratitude

Getting ready to kayak

Visiting the elementary school where we built our mom friendships day by day at drop-off and pick-up.