Christmas, Football, and the Weekend

Last week was a bit crazy around my house. We had something to do outside of our home almost every night of the week last week and I had to plan a big church function that I oversee which took place last night. Needless to say, I was exhausted every evening and went to bed as early as possible (hence the sparseness of my blog posts last week). This weekend however, we had a blast!!

On Friday afternoon after work, I had a few tasks to complete. Brayden's 6 month pictures were ready, so I picked those up on my way home. I love them, especially considering how cranky he was that morning!

I also put together several Operation Christmas Child boxes to ready them for delivery. The girls group I'm in charge of at church sponsored these boxes with the kids bringing items to stuff them with. We have been teaching them about foreign missions and how it's possible to impact a life right here from home. I love this organization and the cause! We were planning on five boxes, but the girls brought enough items to stuff seven boxes! I'd say that's a win win!

My last task of the day was to help Jason get the Christmas items out of the attic. I know it looks like a lot of stuff, but it's stuff I've accumulated over 10 years and there's a few boxes in the mix that we no longer use. I definitely need to take the time to throw away, donate, and downsize. Maybe one day!

When Saturday morning rolled around, so did a COLD front! It was in the 40's for our run and I was at a loss on how to dress. It's been so long since I've had to deal with really cold weather! Yes, that's REALLY cold to me! 

My running buddy Heather and I ran our last really long training run before our next half marathon! We ran 12 miles and it was an amazing run...I'll tell you all about it later this week! :)

After my run, I stopped at Starbucks for my usual Saturday morning coffee. I'm so hooked on their new Chestnut Praline Latte. It's a Christmas beverage and oh so delicious! I might have also picked up a snack for later in the day. :) Yay for red cups, too!

Brayden has a few Thanksgiving outfits so he had to start wearing them early! :) This is one of my favorites. Well, I lie...I love them all! These pants are especially adorable - they have a little turkey on the butt and they have turkey faces on the feet!

I spent a good portion of Saturday afternoon and night setting up our Christmas stuff. This Mickey village takes a while to setup, so that was my first big task and I tackled it during Brayden's nap time. So far, the entire inside of the house is complete minus the tree...I'll get to that this week!

My dad and mom are season ticket holders for our local university's football games. Well, they were unable to attend the game on Saturday night, so they gave their tickets to us! Bonus: we all (my dad, mom, Jason, myself) graduated from this school! Fun times!

After dinner, we bundled up and headed to the stadium. It was SO COLD, y'all. Thankfully, I had a blanket, too.

Brayden LOVED the game. Jason and I took bets on how long he would last and we were both WRONG! He loved all of the movement on the field during the game, ate some puff snacks, then intently watched both bands during halftime (a total of 5 songs). Our band even played the theme from the Incredibles! How fitting for our little Disney guy at his first football game! :)

He started getting restless after halftime, so we decided to call it a night. I couldn't believe he lasted 2 quarters plus halftime - it was definitely past his bedtime too!

Remember that cold weather snap I mentioned? Yeah well, it was enough for us to turn on the heater AND I got to wear my hoodie footie pajamas for the first time! My dad bought this pair for me last Christmas and I love them!! :)

For our "Thanksgiving Sunday" morning, Brayden wore his fall/Thanksgiving outfit.

On Sunday night, we had a function at church for our girls program and I spent most of my afternoon working on last minute things for the program. We also dropped the Operation Christmas Child boxes off at a local church.

Whew. I definitely slept well last night!

Here's to another fun week! Hope you all have a great week! Happy Thanksgiving prep! 

Christmas Time Is Here

Christmas in in full swing here at my house!

I began decorating the weekend before Thanksgiving because I was out of town for Thanksgiving/the weekend. One of my favorite Holiday traditions includes watching Hallmark Channel Christmas movies, in the living room, with with the Christmas lights aglow. I absolutely love this time of year!

The idea for a Mickey front door wreath came from a Disney message board several years ago.

Two of my favorite sets are by my front door – my grandmother’s nativity and my little Disney village.

Christmas villages were always a thing with my grandmother and I know she would have loved this one!

Breakfast nook – the reindeer on the table is also a decoration that belonged to my grandmother.

I decided to decorate two trees this year. The tree show in my dining room is a 6 ft tree and it belonged to my grandmother. After she passed away, my grandfather gave all of her Christmas decorations to me. With his passing this year, I thought it seemed fit to put their tree up once again.

This tree is decorated with red/green ornaments I had on hand and there’s only one “hidden Mickey” on this tree. :0)

Dining room place setting, Winterberry by Pfaltzgraff – given as a Christmas gift from my parents several years ago. 

Disney snow globes from JC Penney, a collection from Black Friday mornings since 2000. Currently, I’m missing two – back in the “early” days of 2000/2001, there was an assortment of globes handed out. Apart from Pooh and Piglet, Tigger was also given out…and apart from Mickey holding a wreath, Minnie Mouse holding mistletoe was also given out.  For some reason, I’m thinking there were three globes handed out in 2000, but I cant remember which other globe was given out with Pooh/Piglet and Tigger. I’m thinking it was not a 100 Acre Woods character?

In order to (mostly) complete my collection, I was missing a 2012 snow globe (JC Penney didn’t give out snow globes in 2012). They saw a snow globe tweet of mine and asked for my address – within days, a 2012 snow globe had arrived at my door direct from JC Penney! I was stoked!

(Pam, I got it!! Yay!)

My puppies wondered what all the fuss was about! It’s Christmas time, girls!!

Last but definitely not least, the tree!

Our tree is filled with Hallmark ornaments, ornaments from trips we’ve travelled together, and ornaments that hold special memories or meaning.

I have so many favorite ornaments, I can’t pick just one (but my runDisney ornaments definitely rank high on the list)!

What’s your favorite part of the holidays? Do you have a special decoration or ornament that holds special meaning?

12 Miles and a Little Christmas

In preparation for the Woman’s Half Marathon on December 10th, I ran 12 miles with Heather on Saturday morning. It’s been a while since I’ve run 12 miles, but it wasn’t bad at all…I actually enjoyed it!

 

I was grateful for the cooler weather, even though the temps did drop while we were running…and there was a light, nasty mist in the air.

If you’re from the north, you’re probably looking at these weather temps and shaking your head at me. For the south, this is cold…and it only got colder as the weekend went on!

An enjoyable run as always…the miles flew by as we chatted!

Here’s where I made an uh-oh. I never ever stop my watch on GoRun Saturdays when we stop for water, stop to chat with another runner, stop midway for GU, and I almost always forget to stop it at the end when we are finished with our run. (In this case, it stayed running for a good 8-10 minutes.)

I do know that the first mile was a 9:35 and we kept a pretty consistent pace the entire time….so if I had to guess, I’d say between a 9:35 and a 9:50 is a good overall average pace for us.

It’s been a habit for years…if I stopped my watch, I always always always forgot to restart it – so I quit stopping it. Oh well.

There is one thing I didn’t forget to do…..I did not forget to stop for Panera after my run! :0) I even brought breakfast home for Jason and he was exceptionally grateful.

For lunch, we ate at a local Mexican restaurant with my parents in celebration of Jason’s upcoming birthday (on Thanksgiving Day).

We also put up our tree. Sad star.

My favorite ornaments are the ones that were made in the Days of Christmas Store (Downtown Disney) during Marathon Weekend over the past few years.  Of course these ornaments were the first to go on the tree!

2010 Half Marathon, 2011 Full Marathon, 2013 Goofy Challenge

I’m proud of each and every one of these accomplishments. Disney was my first Half and my first Full and I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything in the world!

After all of the Christmas excitement at my house (2 days worth), I went to my parent’s house last night to help them decorate! (I’m a bit obsessed with this season if you couldn’t tell.)

It was fun re-living old memories with my parents and remembering where certain ornaments came from. These mall Santa photos crack me up. I was not impressed with Mall Santa on the bottom right. I didn’t want to take the picture because I was too old for all of that business (even though I was  wearing a Santa shirt…go figure), but I agreed because my brother wanted to take the picture. Aren’t I a sweet sister? Yes, I’d say so.

We had a great weekend and really enjoyed the extra special moments that made it a memorable one.

How was your weekend? Anyone run a race or a long run? Share the details!

----------------------------------------------------------

Don’t forget about the Spartan Racing giveaway happening right now! Ends Wednesday, November 27th!

Fitness Friday–11/22

Happy Hunger Games…and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Kidding! Well, sort of!

Yesterday was the movie release of Catching Fire and I am so excited! My co-workers and I are going to see it after we finish with work for the day. I’m also going to have my first Chick-Fil-A Peppermint Shake of the season before the movie. Cannot wait!

Currently training for: Woman’s Half Marathon - December 8, Louisiana
Rock N Roll New Orleans Marathon – February 2, 2013, Louisiana

Saturday – 10 mile training run
Sunday – Rest Day
Monday – 3 mile solo run (with negative splits); Squats/Lunges Routine
Tuesday – Squats/Lunges Routine and 30 Day Core Challenge
Wednesday – 4 mile run – Madalynn made it to 2.5 miles! Squats/Lunges Routine
Thursday – Squats/Lunges Routine and 30 Day Core Challenge; also spent 45 minutes climbing up and down the attic ladder (taking down Christmas décor).
Friday – Squats/Lunges Routine and 30 Day Core Challenge

Tomorrow, I’m hoping for a 12 mile training run for the Woman’s Half. It’s coming up so quick and I cannot wait!

Monday, I challenged myself to run three miles with a negative split each mile. All miles had to be under a 9 minute pace.

1st Mile – 8:48
2nd Mile – 8:36
3rd Mile – 8:25

It gives me satisfaction to know I am pushing myself, I just don’t want to over-do it because I’m so over that injured wagon. Whomp whomp.

My watched died mid run with Madalynn on Wednesday, so I don’t have any pictures….but I can tell you that this girl was WORN out after her run! She made it to 2.5 miles and did great. She loves to run, but always lets me know when she’s finished and needs to stop. (Definitely a good thing – we don’t push it distance wise!) On Wednesday, when our 2 mile loop was complete, she wanted to keep running…so we did!

Another exciting thing going on over at my house is Christmas decorating! I began taking the boxes out of the attic last night and I set up all of the non-tree items.

This was hard work, I tell ya! My husband was at work and I wasn’t patient enough to wait on him so I got them all out of the attic myself. The only thing I needed his help with was the Christmas tree.

I decided that 45 minutes of climbing up and down the attic ladder with heavy boxes and nasty, hot, humid weather outside equaled a 2 mile run (at least). :0)

My newest collection, a mug tree! I love it!

Last but not least, peppermint is everywhere! Yogurt Mountain recently released their Christmas flavors and “Candy Cane” is on the list…along with peppermint topping! I mixed my Candy Cane froyo with “White Christmas” (white chocolate) and it was the perfect combination!

Have a fantastic weekend! Any fellow Catching Fire fans? Who’s putting up their tree this weekend? Anyone running a race?

----------------------------------------------------------

Don’t forget about the Spartan Racing giveaway happening right now! Ends Wednesday, November 27th!