The Frain’s Road to the Winter Classic

“Happy New Year”  Woo Hoo it is 2015.  I really want to leave 2014 in the dirt, because that is where it belongs.  I’ll save that for another day/blog.  It is a beautiful, sunny warm day in Richmond, VA.  I am celebrating New Year’s Day with my guys, the husband  Michael and our two sons, Matthew and Connor.  We are going to the, “Winter Classic.”  This is an outdoor hockey game hey do every year on New Year’s Day.  This year it is our Chicago Blackhawks vs. the Washington Capitals.  We are huge, huge Blackhawk fans.  Going to this game was just a dream/wish come true.  The tickets were way out of our budget, especially because my husband lost his job last year and we were unemployed, but the Christmas Angel’s came through and we were able to get the tickets.  And they were not just any tickets, they were really great seats.  If it had been at an actual hockey rink, you would have said you were on the, “Glass.”  My youngest son Connor was over the moon with excitement as he is the leader of our Blackhawk’s fan club in the family.  He has been with the team since he was a little one.  Matthew had his new camera that he got for Christmas with him.  We all had on our Winter Classic gear.  The guys got new sweaters, (I call them jerseys) the exact ones that our Blackhawks were wearing.  Connor was wearing Kane #88 and Matthew was wearing Sharp #9 (I think).  I had on a hoodie with the Winter Classic logo and the husband was wearing my Hossa sweater (jersey) with the same hats the Blackhawks were wearing during the morning skate.  So we are all ready to go.

We were leaving from Richmond, so we had about a 90 minute drive.  Connor made sure we were up like at 7am (we were staying at, “The Jefferson” hotel.  I’ll post pictures of that on another blog, because that’s another story…”The Legend of the Stairs”  Oh my it was a beautiful hotel.  I told Michael that is where we are going to stay from now on when we come to Richmond.  Sorry, getting off topic, but it was a magnificent hotel, anyways back the Frain’s Road to the Winter Classic.  

We got to the game about noon at the Washington Nationals Baseball Park.  It was a sea of red, because the Washington Capitals were the home team so their sweater’s were red and ours were white.  We did see some Blackhawk fans and that was pretty cool.  We were like high fiving, and fist bumping them because we were sure we would leave victorious.  We were just all so happy to be there, at an outside hockey game and it was a beautiful day.  Sunny and in the 40’s.

We got to our seats and they were just perfect.  My face hurt because I had not quit smiling since Connor woke me up that morning.  This was just the perfect way to start out our new year.  Making new memories with the people that are the most important people in our life.  The guys looked great too.  Really happy to be there with us as a family.  What a Happy New Year 🙂

The game started on time, they were worried that they would have to postpone it because of the glare from the sun but they were able to start on time.  So I’ll give you the highlights of the game.  Our seats were perfect, the weather was perfect (except my toes were a little cold because I had to go with the stylish boots, rather than with the warm ones, uggghhh).  It was a good hockey game, except they lost boo hiss 😦

The memorable parts of the game were we just about got into a fight.  I just forgot where I was, a hockey game hellooo and I was wearing the visitor’s sweater.  It was a close game.  We were tied with 12 seconds to go, when they called a penalty on our Captain, Toews and he went to the box.  That meant we were short handed by 1 guy and yes those stupid Capitals got a goal and took the lead.  First all what referree gives a penalty with 12 seconds to go in a tied game???  I’ll tell you, an incompetent one.  Then when they scored the goal, the people in back of us banged my husband and Connor right on top of their heads.   O M G I thought I was going to jump out of my seat and start banging on their faces.  Now I’m a small middle age woman, with a not so small disposition.  Connor was ready for a fight and the husband just didn’t get what just happened (Thank God !!!)  Matthew the calm one of the bunch just turned me around and said mom just let it go.  Well the game was over, and we lost.  The people in back of us were just a couple of no class drunks, so we headed for the exits.  As we are all filing down towards the door, and they are chanting CAPS, CAPS, CAPS suddenly there was a moment of silence and the words just came out of my mouth, I said to Connor, “How many Stanley Cups have the Capital’s won ???  Oh that would be none !!!”  The Blackhawk’s have won 5, 2 of them as recent as 2013.  Well the entire crowd wanted to jump on me, but they didn’t and we got out of there in a hurry 🙂

All in all it was a good game and we all had a really fun time and made some really great new memories.  That is what we all needed to do to start our new year off in the right direction.  New memories with the ones we love.  Happy New Year to all, and Happy Blogging.This was the picture I took on the way back to Richmond, VA