On Sunday, Becca started playing in the Plymouth High School Lady Pilgrims Little Kids Basketball Camp (Becca is the one in the blue shorts). The goal is for the girls to come out and have fun playing, and learning how to play, basketball. The organizers - coaches at the various levels in the school system - broke the girls - more than 300 0f them - down by grade. More than 80 participated in the K-2 group where Becca played.

You're saying, wait! Becca isn't in Kindergarten yet. Well, Becca has been seen by several of the coaches at the basketball games and when we asked about her participating this year, they all immediately said, "Sign her up!" You see, Becca stands nearly a head taller than 90 percent of the kindergarten girls in Plymouth, although there are some tall ones playing in this league, let me tell ya!

In the video, Becca and the other girls work on shooting drills. After that, they broke down into practice teams and played a few minutes of 5-on-5.

Becca shows how much she's learned after an hour practicing some basics of basketball. Here she guards a girl during a practice game. Becca loved being at the camp and will be placed on a team and will practice one night at week and play in as many as five games.

DO I HAVE TO GIVE UP MY BALL?

Becca holds on to a basketball while waiting for her turn to dribble. She had fun with more than 80 kids in grades K-2 learning some basics about baskeball.

IT'S TIME I LEARNED HOW TO SHOVEL!

After a couple of recent snow stormstorms, Daddy used his brand new snow blower to clear the patio and wlakways. The snow blower, however, won't work on minor accumulation of less than inch.

That's where Becca comes in. She asked Daddy for the shovel the other day and began clearing off the patio. She did a great job!

We hope everybody out west is keeping warm! We've had a few days of sub-zero temperatures and we're hunkering down in the house cuddling next to the gas fireplace.

CHRISTMAS AT GRANDMA'S AND GRANDPA'S!

We spent Christmas and New Year's with family in Bullhead City/Laughlin. We decided to fly this year into Las Vegas, but weather was horrible the weekend we were supposed to leave. The last school day of the year, Friday, Dec. 19, turned out to be a snow day.

We finally made it to Bullhead City, via Las Vegas, after weather delays caused our flight to go out a day later than than usual. We spent the Christmas holidays at Grandma's and Grandpa's house and saw the family there.

After Christmas, we made a short trip to Phoenix and spent some time with Russ and Lee. We also got a chance to visit with Uncle Ken and Aunt Fran.

After New Year's we went to Las Vegas for a couple of days before flying back out to South Bend. We enjoyed the weather in Arizona and Nevada and enjoyed seeing our families.

We wish everyone a wonderful, happy New Year!

TWO GENERATIONS OF RATLIFFS!

Over the Christmas holidays, we managed to make if to Phoenix for a brief visit with the brothers. We had breakfast together at Cracker Barrel. Here, the boys and their kids pose for posterity: from left, Larry, Caius and Ailey; Charles and Becca; Russ and Evan; and Lee and Ashley.