Jan. 3, 2008

Auburn, Ala. - Holiday greetings from the Auburn Gymnastics Team! What an awesome and fun-filled month it has been. Starting this month, we all came back excited from our Thanksgiving break and ready to tackle the hectic month that was about to present itself. Due to our finals schedule, we only had a few practices before open gym began. We knew they were very crucial for the success of our upcoming season. To spice up those few practices, Rachelle made up a game using Monopoly money. Every time we stuck a dismount, hit a routine under pressure, made a new skill, or worked exceptionally hard, we were awarded a certain amount of money that would be used at the end of the week at the auction. For the auction, each gymnast brought in a five-dollar gift and the coaches added such items as "get out of conditioning" cards for a day of your choice. By the end of the week, everyone had accumulated various amounts of money and it was fun to see everyone bid against each other for the most popular items. The "get out of conditioning" cards were definitely a favorite!

The next week was very stressful and difficult with studying and taking final exams as well as going into the gym to practice. A couple days into our finals week, our beloved team fish Curveball, who we keep in our training room, passed away. Everyone reflected on their favorite memories of Curveball as he was buried underneath the pitcher's mound of the softball field. The night before our final intrasquad, we had our Christmas party at Jeff and Rachelle's house. It was a pajama party with breakfast for dinner and everyone brought a gift to play Dirty Santa. Dirty Santa is always fun considering we are a bunch of competitive girls who know what they want and will stop at no cost to get it!

The next morning we put behind our hectic month and ended our semester with an awesome intrasquad. Although some of our regular competitors rested, the remainder of the team rose to the occasion and competed well when we needed them. After the intrasquad, we all parted ways and headed home to our families for the holidays. Even though we were home for ten days, they flew by and before we knew it we were back in Auburn and practicing! Now that we are back, we are really excited to watch our football team play in their Bowl game against Clemson but even more excited about our first meet against Kentucky. WAR EAGLE!!!