It’s a fun and exciting time in the sports world!
Looking forward to:
š·The Winter Olympics!!! I love the Olympics. I love everyone in the world coming together and caring about the same thing at the same time and cheering people on. I love that theme song. I love watching the actual sports. I love the athlete interviews and deep dive bios. I love seeing the tears in the athlete’s eyes when they achieve their lifelong dream. I love the stories of grit and determination. I love seeing the video footage of whatever cool place the Olympics are being held. I love there always being something exciting and interesting to watch on TV for 2 weeks!
Opening ceremony is Friday, February 6th! In Milan/Cortina, for anyone not paying attention. š
š·The Superbowl. Sunday February 8th. I can’t say I have any skin in the game with these particular teams (Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots, also for anyone not paying attention), but we always watch the Superbowl! It’s just fun.
Speaking of people not paying attention, I laughed out LOUD this past Sunday while texting with Sarah (SHU). She was telling me what they were up to and she wrote, “josh is watching a game of some kind.” I was like, “a game of some kind”? It’s the AFC Championship to determine which team goes to the Superbowl! š š lol. (I totally know that not all people care about or watch football games. It just still made me giggle. hehe!)
š· The World Cup! Coming up in June 2026. I am not normally a huge soccer viewer (besides Ethan’s games), but I do love the World Cup and watching the progression through the rounds. IvĆ”n is a VERY HUGE soccer viewer at all times, so this is basically his favorite thing ever. Ethan is very excited to follow it, too.
Also, bonus, it’s being hosted in North America this year (jointly between U.S./Canada/Mexico)! We have actually entered the draw for tickets for the U.S. vs Australia game in Seattle on June 19. Our names are in the hat for I believe two 4-packs of tickets. There are some games being played closer to us (sort of, still an 8 hour drive away)- in Kansas City. But none of the U.S. team games are being played there, and Ethan specifically wants to watch the U.S. play.
(In Ethan’s perfect world, he wants to not only win tickets for us, but also to bring his 2 best friends, in honor of his 18th birthday this summer.) I guess I’m not sure what will happen if we do win but only 4 tickets- I have a feeling I would not be getting one of those. š I also have a feeling that the hotel prices will jack up to approximately $5,000/ night, so, there’s that… š
(IvĆ”n does not seem optimistic that we’ll score tickets, especially for this big and high-profile game, anyway, but who knows. I think we’ll find out relatively soon?)
š· Farther in the distance, but still coming onto the radar: The L.A. 2028 Summer Olympics. I recently entered the lottery for those tickets, too. I have no idea how/if that would even fit into our (currently nonexistent) 2028 plans, but at this point, there is zero commitment. Besides, you first have to even win a time slot to try and buy tickets during one of the ticket drops. Would be cool to say I went to the Olympics at least once in my life, and on home soil!
Has anyone else entered any of the lotteries? If not, don’t, so our chances will be higher. š
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for this little plaid bandanna that the groomer gave Charlie the other day. He looks so innocent and cute. haha. (In a few days, his SUPER TIGHT CURLS will grow back, but for the moment, he’s a fluff ball.)
GRATEFUL KAE 
My husband and two of my son’s are HUGE soccer fans. There are world cup games being played in our area and I know my husband has entered the lottery for tickets. I don’t know any of the other details.
A friend whose husband is a broadcaster in the soccer world joked that she was planning to travel with him, but didn’t expect to be able to actually attend any of the games. Tickets are scarce!
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Ooh, I hope they get tickets, too! I can’t image a broadcaster wouldn’t get at least ONE companion ticket!! Jeez! Let’s hope she can at least get one! š I think Ethan said last night that we should find out about the Seattle game sometime next week!?
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I absolutely love the Summer Olympics but I have a harder time getting into the Winter Olympics–I think the sports are just not as interesting to me. In the summer I really love track and field, swimming, and gymnastics. I kind of wish I was more into the winter ones, though, because they come at a time of year where staying inside and watching TV is much more appealing than in the summer!
Re: the Super Bowl, the last few years we have hosted a Super Bowl party for my big family and my daughter gets super into it, planning the menu and going shopping with my husband to get all the food and then setting everything up. HOWEVER, we have a bit of a problem this year, which is that my husband, who’s originally from Boston and is a HUGE Patriots fan, prefers to watch “big games” that his team is in on his own (or at least just with the four of us) and not really talking haha. He gets super intense about it and does not want commotion/other people around! And this preference is exacerbated by the fact that he lives in the Midwest, not the Boston area anymore, so none of the people around him are Patriots fans. So he is undecided about whether he is okay with us hosting a Super Bowl get-together this year. I am deferring to him on this decision….but I do find it funny how he likes to watch big games alone because I am not sure many other fans are like that!
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I like the Summer Olympics sports better, too, but I still enjoy the Winter ones! Mostly figure skating, some of the skiing is super fun to watch, and the snowboarding can be great too. But I agree, on the whole the Summer games have more sports I’m into.
I totally can see your husband’s point! I think Ivan would feel like that if it were a big soccer game he really wanted to hear the commentary on and we had a bunch of people over who are not as into it just blabbering on and talking and interrupting the game! In your situation I would do the same as you – just defer to whatever my husband wanted in that case. š Good luck to him!! š
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Love all these fun events to look forward to ahead! I’m in Seattle at that time, and recommend booking a refundable hotel now. Prices are already high (a friend paid $800+/night for the Holiday Inn downtown) and will skyrocket once tickets are confirmed.
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EEK, I KNOW! We’ve talked about this- I brought it up a long time ago and was like, shouldn’t we just book a hotel in case…?? But we honestly haven’t yet… hmm maybe I’ll talk to him tonight about that. It’s just so tricky since I think we’re both kinda assuming we won’t get tickets, but you’re right- what if somehow we do?!
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Ditto, ditto, ditto! LOVE the Olympics (both summer and winter) and am excited that North America has the World Cup this year! Iāll add March Madness to your list since we like making brackets and competing against each other as a family (though none of us know the teams that well). The college football national championship means more to me than the Super Bowl (unless the Packers are in it), but I love the comradery around the Super Bowl! This year weāll be out of the country for it though, so Iāll miss it.
Canāt wait to hear if yall get tickets to the World Cup game or not- how cool would that be?!
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YES, as soon as I hit post on this I remembered I forgot to list March Madness!! I am not really a big college sports follower at all, so it’s not something I really prioritize watching – but that said, we totally enjoy catching some of the March Madness games (especially like out at our Mexican place, they’ll put the games up on the TV, etc.)
Is your Switzerland trip coming up already?! I was thinking summer for some reason!! EXCITING!
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Oh, I hope you get tickets for everything! We got tickets for one event at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and took the whole family. It wasn’t even an event any of us were particularly into — but we had a blast and it is so fun every time the Olympics comes around again for us all to know we were at one!
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YES, this exactly! I feel like it would just be an experience you’d remember forever, just being there and being part of that. Especially since I’m a lifelong “Olympics fan” and have always paid pretty close attention to them.
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YES!!! With all the excitement over football, I have to keep reminding myself that the winter olympics are coming RIGHT UP. I don’t love the winter games like i love the summer ones, but I do like them. In a way this is better because I won’t be constantly staying up too late to watch like I do in the summer. I’ll put it on whenever possible, but it’s not like there’s anything I HAVE to see.
The Super Bowl!!! Yes, it’s super fun. I’m still trying to decide on a menu- we’re rooting for Seattle, but I can’t think of a Seattle food themed dinner. Maybe we’ll just make typical Super Bowl foods. Definitely looking forward to it.
About the Olympics- I’m torn between thinking it would be really cool to go in person, and thinking it would be a horribly crowded nightmare. What I would like to do is go to the Olympic track and field trials one year. It would be much less crowded, but still exciting as it’s a make or break event for the athletes (to see who’s going to the Olympics and who’s not).
I’m not as excited about the world cup, but I can see how you would be with all the soccer players in your family!
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We haven’t made any plans at all yet for the Super Bowl but should probably think about that! We are never too adventurous with the menu- usually just nachos or something. Ha.
The swimming Olympic trials were held in Indianapolis last time, so not too far from us really, and I know several people who went. It looked amazing! I think that’s a great idea to do for track and field. I can’t remember why we didn’t try to make the swimming trials happen- maybe the dates just didn’t work or something. I think the tickets for even the Trials were $$$.
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I keep forgetting the Olympics are next month. We don’t have any TV channels so I feel like I don’t think about it like I did growing up when every commercial in the lead up to the Olympics seemed to have something to do with the event.
I love watching the winter Olympics. I think because it gives me something to look forward to in the doldrums of winter. I need to latch on to this next month because it has been SO cold and snowy. Plus, there are fewer events and Canada tends to do fairly well in winter sports (go figure) so it’s a bit more fun to watch.
I have not entered any lotteries, so no competition from me š
We’re going to probably go through Turin mid-April, so maybe we’ll get to see some remnants from the Olympics. We were in Paris a little over a year after the Olympics and they had the rings set up in front of the Eiffel Tower which was cool!
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Exactly, it’s so fun to have that bright spot for a full 2 weeks in the middle of winter! I always feel weirdly a little sad when it’s over- it’s like my little “companion” for those 2 weeks. We get TV channels that cover a lot of it, so I’ll often just have it on sort of in the background when doing other things. I love that.
I would love to see some of the Olympic remnants! I remember your pics of the Paris rings- SO COOL!
Hope you enjoyed the Olympics commercial I sent you. š š
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We live in Seattle and my husband is a huge soccer fan. We have several entries in the lottery but have no idea if any will come out with tickets. I hadnāt even thought about hotel rooms since we are local.
Thanks for the reminder about Winter Olympics since I had totally forgotten they were coming. The Canadian channels do such a better job of covering these than the US, I wonder if we even get any of those any more.
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Wanna make a buck? Weāll rent out your guest room. šš jk!! š Good luck in the drawing!! If youāre there and Iām there, letās meet up and say hi!
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I am so excited for the Winter Olympics! It’s a little weird that the Opening Ceremony is two days before the Super Bowl, lol, but what can ya do?!
I’m also excited for the Super Bowl and rooting for the Seahawks! Although I made a playoff bracket with the Patriots winning it all, so it wouldn’t be too bad if they won, ha.
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Nice dog
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