January 2022

Happy New Year!  January 2022 was a great month.  I love the slower pace of January.  Here are a few pictures from our month.

Eli has been super into ping pong lately.  He practices and plays all the time.

We are really enjoying our latest animal addition- Lulu!

He hates it when I make him take pictures like this.  :)  But I treasure our little "dates."

The big event of January was Eli's karate black belt test!  He has been working his way through the belt ranks for 7 full years now, and he finally got to test for his black belt this month!

This is before the test, along with the two friends he has been working with for 7 years.  We are so thankful for this program and these kids.

They had to go through all of their "katas" and their "6 counts," which are series of jumps/kicks/punches/moves/etc. There was a panel of black belts judging their every move.  It was a feat of endurance, for sure.  They were EXHAUSTED by the end of it.

Then they went through their "board break circle," where they had to break a series of 5 boards with punches and kicks.  SUPER impressive!

They went through 15 rounds of sparring with other black belts, also insanely exhausting.

After 2.5 hours of non-stop karate, they each gave a short speech about what they have learned in karate and what it means to them.  And then after the judges deliberated, they were each awarded their BLACK BELTS!

Here he is!  We are SO PROUD of this young man and for all the faithful hard work he has put into karate over the years.

Reygan, Fabian, and Eli.

And that's it for January.  Love to you!