Team Davis

Lately there is quite a bit of rivalry and quarreling among the best friends, the Davis sisters. As a result we had another "Team Davis" family night last night. We set out to make crepes, each person in charge of an ingredient. Once the batter was ready we went out to the strawberry patch and loaded up some baskets of berries. All had a role either in washing or cutting the berries, or starting on the crepes. The girls were singing, and helpful and tolerant. Working together means happy kids. And eating the crepes was oh-so-joyful!

Mmmm...Nutella

We watched a short clip from the movie, Miracle, (if you haven't seen this movie it is well worth a rental!) where the coach has the USA Olympic team do hours of drills after losing a preliminary game where each player was playing for himself. After being pushed to the point of exhaustion one of the players yells, "I...(heavy breathing)...play for...the United States of America." This is what the coach wanted to hear. Instead of playing for themselves or their college team, he wanted to hear that they were playing for the United States and not for the name on the back of their jersey. They, of course, go on to win the gold against the Russians.

We talked about what that means for our Team Davis. What is our goal? How does a team work together, and why? The girls seem to get it...in theory.

After every family prayer we gather our hands together and in French say, "Davises Forever!" This tradition came from Geoff's family and I admit that at first I thought it was a little hokey. But it keeps the end goal in our minds daily, and it reminds us that we belong to something much larger than ourselves.


Sometimes as a parent I wonder if any of this kind of stuff sinks in. But I have to teach it anyway...and often over and over again. I choose to believe that in the long run we'll realize our goal, even if it takes us awhile.