Trotting

For not being home at Thanksgiving, we had the absolute best weekend we could have dreamed up. 

I started the the weekend a little early on Wednesday by making a surprise visit to Joel's office. A lot of his co-workers had been bringing in their dogs that week, and I knew he would love to see Roscoe, so we went over lunch hour and brought some sweet treats for the office to enjoy.  

  

I was so excited that I actually had an excuse to make a cute craft. And the dish came home after work wiped clean. 

Thursday morning was our big 10k turkey trot in the mountains! I trained with Joel and Shelby, but they both kicked my butt. 

 

Shelby and I were so freaked out at the beginning of the race because all of the other runners looked so legit. They were slurping back energy gels and going for warm up mile runs (which.....???), but we actually turned out to be stronger runners than we thought.

 

I finished in the bottom half of the 10k group, it took me an 1:30, but it was a 7mile 10k, with sick hills so I was happy with it.

 

We raced home, got all of dishes ready to bring to Thanksgiving and freshened up. I found this turtle neck tank top at TJ.Maxx while I was picking up some candles, and it's the perfect California sweater, since our Thanksgiving temperature reached almost 80 degrees. 

 

Before we left for Dawns, my family in Chicago had arranged a skype time for all of the people that couldn't be with the group. It was absolutely hectic, but so much fun to see everyone and it made me so much less homesick. 

 

 

Our dear friends Brent and Dawn hosted Thanksgiving this year and did not disappoint. The food, setting, and company was absolutely perfect. And, they even let us bring Roscoe.  

 

It was so nice having Joel home for a long weekend and Friday we just relaxed. Shelby and I treated ourselves to a massage for running the race, and then Joel and I decorated the house for Christmas. I love the beginning of the Christmas season and I love the way our house feels with all of the decorations up.

  

And because we just couldn't get enough Thanksgiving, we did it all again on Saturday, except for this time it was at our house. Joel's brother and sister-in-law drove up from San Diego to spend the day eating, drinking, and playing games with us. We always have such a great time with them, I'm so happy that they are just a drive away. 

 

Joel did almost all of the cooking and everything was perfect. It was just another one of those nights were I took a step back and felt seriously, seriously blessed. 

Clearly, By the time Sunday rolled on, I was pretty much done, but alas - no rest for the wicked. We had made a registry appointment at Bloomingdales a week or so ago, clearly not realizing that this is the busiest shopping weekend of the friggen year.

We got to the mall, saw police directing parking lot traffic, and knew we were in for big, big trouble. The first hour of registering was really fun. We picked out beautiful Waterford china, and had a good time walking through the store.

The last two hours, it got hot, I got overly exhausted and aggravated, and after gunning a $1200 carry-on luggage piece on to the list, Joel, rightfully, decided we were calling it quits for the day. *Word to the wise, register first thing in the morning.*

Even though that adventure was a bit of a failure, it really was such a fun, holiday break.

And now, back to reality.