December 25-28

The final week of 2023 began with "the big day" itself, I was at Jenny's place for supper. Helen made an excellent meal of ham, scalloped potatoes and Brussel sprouts with pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert. This is a time of year that I personally care little for and the reasons are very deep-rooted and long-standing, Jenny's presence is my life is the only thing that keeps it from being a complete steaming pile of nothing. On Thursday we were at McCaskey for the opening day of the annual holiday tournament featuring perennial participants York and Harrisburg, suburban neighbor Lampeter-Strasburg also appeared for the second straight year. The day started at 2:00 with a junior varsity game, JPM lost to L-S. York defeated the L-S varsity in the first semifinal, in the nightcap the Red Tornado lost to Harrisburg 82-70. We trailed by nine and the quarter and three at the half but the second half was like running in mud, for everything we did Harrisburg had an answer. Jared Kumah had a huge night with 28 points, De'Andre Jones had 16 and Aiden Burgess added 13 but as we often say it means very little without the W at the end. The boys stand at 3-5 overall, they meet L-S in the consolation game on Friday. Every year I seem to miss one night of the tournament thanks to hockey and this time around is no exception, I'm out on Friday because the Royals are at home for the weekend. Take care, thanks for reading.