Welcome to the last day of the Winter Games. It's been a journey. We began our Olympics in 2014 with the Sochi Games. We continued with the summer games in Rio in 2016. In 2018, we celebrated the Pyeongchang games. And even though I thought those might be my last, the guys were on board for the 2020 summer games, which had to be delayed to 2021 in Tokyo. I thought that might be it. But, at the end of Tokyo, the Winter Games were just six months away, and everyone was on board to do this whole thing one more time.
So here we are. One last go. Day 17, of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
If we're going out, we're going out with good food, lots of events, and a look back at all the fun we've had (seriously, I would do this with a group of adults next go around if I thought I could convince other grown people to ride down a sidewalk on a dolly/broken computer chair turned bobsled).
Our events today included the Curling bronze and gold medal matches, Bobsled, and lots of medal ceremonies, and an unexpected one last event, but I'll get to that.
We kind of had two spotlight countries. They all found this one in the mailbox yesterday. Hayden easily got Andorra, Calib went with the wrong tiny country (with Monaco), and Peyton didn't even venture a guess. He knew it was a tiny county, but all he could think of was Monaco, Vatican City, and Luxembourg, and he knew it wasn't any of those. So, Hayden continued his tradition of getting the hard ones right, and the easy ones wrong.
But this morning, I placed one last REAL easy one in the mailbox, and Hayden was sure to get it. I don't know who wouldn't get this one correct, but it's a nod to the next Winter Games in Italy in 2026.
The last medal event to bet on was women's curling. They got a dollar for each medal they linked to the correct country.
I'm not sure Peyton knew how the gold medal game worked, so I let him switch GB to silver, and Sweden to bronze, leaving Peyton and Hayden with the same line up. The both got Bronze correct, as Sweden bested Switzerland, but that was it.
Calib didn't get anything from his last bet, Because Great Britain won gold (coincidentally, it was their only gold of the whole games).
Before everyone got up, I did an audit on everyone's sheet. Hayden inadvertently got an extra gold medal along the way. And, since the Olympics are technically over in Beijing, I could figure out how many medals their extra countries got. I realized things were looking possible for a tie, but figured there were still a few medals to give out, so I wouldn't worry about it, yet.
For lunch, we had an around the world charcuterie. Lots of leftovers from the last two weeks, and this is an easy way to use them up. I did get a few fresh favorites, too though.
And, we had some mimosas to celebrate too.
After lunch, we held our medal ceremony for the most bets correct... Hayden took the gold here, with 12. Calib took the silver with 7, and Peyton got the bronze with 5.
And the largest spotlight country tally (all the countries you got correct, we took their medal count, added it up, and awarded our medals accordingly) went to Peyton with 67 medals from the spotlight countries he got correct. Calib was a close second, with 65. Hayden came in with the Bronze, even though he always chose an advantage in the events over the countries medals.
In case you didn't notice, I did get everyone to wear their Olympic shirts today too.
Up first we played the medal matches for Curling. If you missed it, yesterday Asa and Hayden advanced to the bronze medal match, and Calib and Peyton advanced to face off in the gold medal match.
Asa and Hayden went first...
Ultimately, Asa took home the bronze.
And then Peyton and Calib vied for the gold.
I think you can tell by this picture who got the gold and who got the silver.
Your 2022 Curling medalists...
But, after this, we knew that we had a tie between Calib and Peyton, and the overall gold medal would come down to the Bobsled. So, to the Bobsled we went. i built this out of Calib's old computer chair that broke a few days ago, some duct tape, and the dolly. We then just made a "track" out of the sidewalk in front of our house. Asa kept time and I took pictures.
We decided this was the "two man" Bobsled, so you'd pull two different people, and score a cumulative time for your two runs. Best time wins. Oh, and the people you pulled were the two closest people to your weight. So, Hayden pulled Peyton and Calib...
Peyton pulled Hayden and Calib...
And Calib pulled me and Asa...
But then, we ended in a tie.
So, we sort of kind of decided on one run to decide it. But, Peyton was up first, and got hurt when he took a tumble into the flower bed by the tree. And then yelled at us all, because he said it was dangerous. To be fair, I did make people wear a helmet. But, I was more worried about the person ON the bobsled getting hurt, than the one pulling it. So, then we mulled over what to do. We couldn't end the Olympics on a sour note. (Also Peyton let me take a picture of his hand, so he wasn't THAT mad at me).
So we decided to give out two golds for Bobsled, and work on coming up with another event, while I double checked the accuracy to make sure there was in fact a tie (which there was!)
I mean really, out of 17 events, how does this happen?!
After much debate and discussion, everyone agreed on one more run in Cross Country Skiing. It's how we started these Olympics, and it seemed fitting to end them that way too. Plus, it incorporated both their skis and the flags, and everyone was good with that. So Asa and Hayden helped me set the course back up in the backyard. It was one run, you stopped at each station/continent and named five flags correctly. Once you did that, you moved on to the next continent and so on and so forth. It was a timed event that stopped when your skis crossed the finish line.
We tossed a coin, which Calib won (on tails), and he decided to go second. So Peyton put on his skis, and headed outside.
Calib went second (but I only have a video of it), so no pictures for you. But this was a good opportunity to get a picture of all three of them in their shirts, with their skis!
This event was really won on African flags. Peyton did it faster, and he came out the winner.
But, Calib injured himself in the process, twisting his ankle as he dashed to the finish line. Which is why he insisted taking the medal stand picture this way.
Of course, final overall medals had to be awarded.
You get totals by giving 3 points per gold, 2 points per silver, and 1 point per bronze.
Your 2022 Overall Winter Game Medalists.
And this time, thanks to my cricut, they get themselves some real fancy medals.
Fun fact: Peyton is the all time winningest Olympian in the Waterstraut household. Him and Calib were tied at two a piece going into Beijing, and with Peyton winning this one, he's got three overall golds, to Calib's two.
They also got their money they had banked, and a basket of goodies color coded with their medal (after this picture, trading was allowed).
A close up look of the baskets (I took these pictures in my closet after I put them together, so the background isn't super pretty.)
There was very enthusiastic trading, including with me and Asa. The boys know I have a candy stash for movie nights and such in my closet, so they were wheeling and dealing.
Hayden was living his best life. While he's never won the overall gold, he's happy with the most money banked, and the Bronze basket, which everyone agreed was the best. So he just ate his pudding and talked about how he felt like the bronze medal winning Japanese skater, who was just happy to have medaled.
For dinner we had Italian food, celebrating the 2026 Winter games in Milano and Cortina. We had Chicken Valdostana, Rocket Orange Salad, and some basil pesto farfalle pasta.
We also added in some Italian wine, a small characuterie..
And for dessert some tiramisu and canolis for dessert.
Everyone agreed the dinner was a hit.
After dinner, we all sat down to watch the Olympic compilation video I put together. It doesn't just feature these Olympics, but there is a nod to them all, since this is our last ones (at least in this kind of form).
It's nine minutes long. Basically two Olympic fanfares in length. So, I'm not even sure I can upload it to blogger, but here is the link, if you want to check it out.
And then, of course, the Olympic flame had to be extinguished. And that honor always goes to the overall gold medal winner, so that's Peyton. Whether we do these Olympics again or not, I'm keeping our Olympic flame and lighting it every Olympics until it dies.
So there you have it, the Beijing Games are officially closed. I keep saying that's a wrap for Olympics here. But, we'll see, never say never, right.
Thanks for following along for the last 17 days, I hope you've enjoyed watching all of our shenanigans.
I'm off to play some board games, and catch the Closing Ceremonies in Beijing.
No comments:
Post a Comment