Eric's First Belt Ceremony

Grandma came with us to Eric's first belt ceremony this morning. Grandpa didn't come because Grandma told him that she planned on going shopping after Eric's ceremony and he didn't want to go shopping with her. He could have hung out at our house instead, but he was probably more comfortable at home anyway. Alex also came with us, but Natalie was still in her pajamas when we left the house at about 9:40am.

I'm still new to the whole Jiu-Jitsu experience, but Patrick has been saying that they don't have as many belts as in Taekwondo that our family used to participate it. To me, this means that each belt ceremony will be fewer and far between, and therefore a little more special. This one was special just because it was Eric's first belt ceremony.

Professor Daniel, Eric's instructor, gave an opening speech, then gave out stripes, which consisted of putting "stripes" made out of tape on the belts of those that qualified. Those that were receiving new belts had to test separately, which Eric did the week after Thanksgiving. He basically had a private lesson/exam where his instructor would ask him to do certain moves. He had to come back on another day because he didn't remember four things, but he remembered those things during the second "test".

I remember when we had the big, public tests followed by the belt ceremony when we used to participate in Taekwondo. At first, Grandma had thought that this would be the case with Eric, and she wasn't interested in seeing her grandson in a headlock at any time. We reassured her that she wouldn't have to see that today.

Eric was the first one to get his new belt. Professor Daniel called out Eric's name and Eric came forward. He went down on one knee and took Eric's white belt off, tied the belt so Eric could hold it, then proceeded to tie Eric's new grey white belt on. As with all the others who received belts, he would tell them something privately as he did this. You can tell the man loves what he does and he loves each of his students.

After the ceremony, we dropped Grandma off at home, she got in her car, and went shopping. I had some lunch, then Natalie went with me to go shopping for stocking stuffers. We were at World Market and I saw this collection of different hot sauces.

I immediately thought of Anthony, so I snapped this photo and texted it to him. He was going to be traveling from Venice to London today. He will have a long overnight layover in London before he gets on a plane to go to Houston. Patrick left late this afternoon so he can spend the night, pick up Anthony from the airport tomorrow afternoon, then drive back home.

After our shopping trip, I spent most of the afternoon in bed, either asleep or relaxing. I got maybe one hour of very broken sleep last night in between all the "major" traumas that came to our ER. I was very tired today, but I had a great day watching my Eric get a big reward for his hard work, and spending time with my dear daughter. She is very helpful with gift shopping because she is very decisive. She also saw how tired I was this evening, and frustrated at all of the dirty dishes in the sink from earlier today when Alex had some friends over and didn't clean up. She cleaned up all of it, even the big crock pot from Friday's meal. She even hung several ornaments on the tree. She really made me happy today!