Saturday, December 31, 2011

Christmas break

Christmas was full of Christmas parties with family and friends. I am so thankful for two full weeks off work, which is unfortunately coming to an end for me. I go back to work on Monday. Chris's break started a couple of days later than mine, so he's off until Wednesday.

I got a lot done over break. The first couple of days were full of Christmas shopping. I basically got 2/3 of my Christmas shopping done on those days. Of course, the gifts were mostly all planned in my head. I just had to brave the craziness that is Bowling Green around Christmas, which means 10x's more traffic than normal.

Wednesday was the start of Chris's break. We celebrated with pancakes and several episodes of Gilmore Girls. Gilmore Girls has become a habit for us on lazy mornings. Then, he left to hang out with is buddy, Mr. Bailey, and I wrapped presents for several hours. I basically didn't wrap anything until that day. I still had to keep them tucked away in our bedroom for fear of Penelope tearing the paper off.

I finally finished my Elizabeth George book, A Woman's High Calling while relaxing at Spencer's Coffee House on Thursday after a yummy lunch with my hubby. He had lunch with me, and then left me there alone to read while he went shopping for some stocking stuffer gifts for me. Friday I took Chris to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. We both thought it was really good. We hadn't been to the movies since the summer, so it was a real treat.

Saturday we opened gifts at home before heading to Henderson to see my family.


Penelope actually got her new squirrel-friend after Christmas because we felt bad for not getting her anything.

We went to Granny and Poppa's for a Christmas Eve party, and then to my parents to open gifts with the immediate family. We stayed two nights. On Christmas, I visited with my sweet grandparents in Evansville.

I did a terrible job of representing everyone in my photos this year. Sorry, family.

Tearing into his first gift.

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Christmas morning "coffee" and "reading" the newspaper.

Monday we went to see Chris's family in Elizabethtown. We opened gifts, ate, visited, played with Penelope and relaxed. We stayed until Chris's dad got off of work on Tuesday evening. Then, we headed home with a carload of wonderful gifts.

Finally opening the gift from his parents after it was shipped to our place. He was excited about this one from Musician's Friend.


Penelope attack!


When I say carload, I mean carload. We packed home many beautiful gifts, but among them were some large boxed items:

Chris got a Shop-Vac from my parents. 
I got a toaster oven from my parents.
I got a standing mixer from Chris's parents.

Our carload unloaded.


We were certainly blessed again this year with lots of nice things for Christmas.

The rest of this week has been a little bit of work and a lot of relaxing. Sadly, we put up our Christmas decorations kind of early. We took down decorations on Wednesday. It marked the beginning of our packing for our move next Saturday. We started going after moving boxes and newspaper on Thursday and Friday, and we've already packed many boxes.

We still have lots to pack, but it's hard to know what to pack up a week before you move. We are slowly working on it, and I think we're in good shape for still having a week left to get it all done.

Packing up them liquor boxes!


Monday, December 12, 2011

marathon

Last weekend, December 3 was the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis, Tennessee. My hubby made it across the finish line along with this father.

He started off pretty strong in the race. He kept a good running pace for a long while, but did not get the results he wanted. He said his knee started hurting a little around the halfway point, and by mile 17 he was in severe pain. Stubborn as he is, he ran on it until mile 19.  At that point, he said he couldn't run any further, so what did my stubborn husband do? He hobbled the last 7 miles.

Luckily, he seems to be recovering very well. We're thinking it was just a stress injury.  He was really sore for a few days, but now, a little more than week after the race, he's pretty much better.

I think his knee may have become inflamed because he did all his training on a gravel trail instead of real asphalt. Also, finding time to train became a real problem for him toward the end. He's had to work so much during the week the last couple of months, Saturdays were pretty much is only day to train.

Within minutes of finishing the marathon, he started talking about training for the next one. Oh dear!

I am proud of him for finishing and furthering such a great cause!

And they're off!

Random balloons.
Some intense runners at the beginning of the marathon.
Waiting on the men to finish.
Getting their medals.
No pain, no gain.
Yay!
The aftermath.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

christmas time

Well, it's getting close to that time of year again. I have the tree and all the rest of my Christmas decorations out. I've been listening to Christmas music all week, but I still don't feel like I'm in the spirit. So far, whenever I think about Christmas, I think about how much I still have to do at work before we shut down for Christmas break (less than 2 weeks now!) I think about everything that still has to be prepared so that we can go to parties to exchange gifts with friends and family. I think about the hustle and bustle of driving to see loved ones over the holiday break. I love it, but man it's exhausting.

Perhaps I am missing out on the fun part of Christmas. Or maybe I am just a normal adult. I can only imagine the chaos that ensues when you have children to provide for around this time of year, so perhaps I can be thankful that I am not having to manage that on top of everything else!



more thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving we headed up to Lexington to see Chris' stepmother's family. These folks are fun to be around. It's too bad I only see them once a year, if that.

The day after Thanksgiving, Chris' mom and stepfather drove through Kentucky on their way home from Atlanta. They were visiting family for Thanksgiving. It was great to get to see them. We hadn't in a really long time.

They finally got to meet Penelope in person. We showed them around our town and had dinner. Then on Saturday morning, Niki and her roommate drove down. They were on their way back to Jackson from E-town. We made breakfast for everyone and visited for a few hours.