In the holiday spirit and bad weather time

Now that Thanksgiving is over I can officially be in the Christmas spirit! Pandora radio is blaring Christmas tunes, and the decorations are up!  Something about having a little one around that is so excited for Christmas just gets you in the mood.  He is super excited for Santa this year. and so are we.  We have been watching every Christmas movie on tv including Polar Express and the old Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer.  We even got the tree up and decorated the day after Thanksgiving.  Yeah us!

Let me go back to Thanksgiving, real quick, because as always, my hubby was an amazing chef.  We tried brining the turkey, a tradition we will forever do from now on.  I hate turkey and this was the most succulent and tender meat I have ever had!

He even went all out and made two home made pies complete with fresh made whipped cream.  No wonder I have gained 8 lbs recent!  I don't care, his home made food is to die for!

Glad our guests were dog lovers.  After stuffing our faces we all watched Despicable Me 2 with little red, and snoozed while the dogs snuggled and the ice pelted.

Ignore the muddy nose prints on the door and the cluttered deck.  See the ice?  I hate ice.  We had a sort of ice storm that night and throughout the rest of the weekend into monday.  Little red even got a day off of school, and me off of work, due to it downing power lines and making roads a mess.  We got lucky and only had a few power outages, nothing major.  Some were without power for the entire weekend.

I finally got a run in outside on Sunday.  I had 9 miles on the books and was NOT looking forward to milling it.  I had done almost 5 miles on friday on the mill, and had one of the worst runs ever.  Between indigestion and a toddler not wanting to leave mommy alone while she is on the mill, I just wanted nothing to do with it.  My luck happened that we got a ton of real rain.  While that meant slush and mud on our gravel long run road, it meant that the main roads we travel on to get to the gravel would be ice free.

my leg and mel's leg. You can tell that stella runs right behind me!

After 9 miles, two potty breaks and lots of mud later, I returned a very happy camper with a large load of muddy laundry to do but all in all, worth it.  Our last race of the year is this Saturday, and while I haven't really been on many trails or hills for that matter, I am so excited.  I love running races with my dog, since she trains with us, and I can't wait for the fun of one of the Trail Nerds races.  I have heard such great things about their races plus they give great swag and FREE pictures!  I will finish with a big smile on my face even if stella and I are covered in head to toe mud.  I am glad we can get outside for the rest of the week, since the weather has turned nicer and a tad bit warmer, and I look forward to some easy runs after monday's tough fartlek session (which is meant to be fun but somehow turned into work).  

The best part about running at night during Christmas time?  Seeing all of the lights!  This is the park by our house.  Our city goes all out and even has new lights this year that are so wonderful to see,  Have a great rest of the week and hope you are having a great holiday season!