Turkeys, Ghosts and Birthdays

What a fun title. Sums up my long weekend. What a great weekend it was.

With my parents in France, In-laws in Texas, Local Brother in Eugene and Older brother in Atlanta, I was left to fend for my own family this Thanksgiving. It was wonderful.
I woke up to a very cold morning and went off to run with the Y group over at the track and park. It was a nice, pokey run.

Then it was home to start cooking. My husband Paul took our 8 year old son Michael and went off to meet another dad and son for a 9 hole round of golf. 5 year old daughter, Annika, stayed home and we watched Sleeping Beauty while preparing dinner. It was good bonding time. Dinner was ready by 3pm and we sat down and gave thanks. As we do at every meal together we share our blessings of the day. This time though we tried to go a bit deeper and share bigger things in life that we are thankful for. It went well! Ya never quite know what an 8 and 5 year old will come up with, but they did well. Later we went over to the family that Paul and Michael had golfed with's home for pie and conversation. It was a great day. Both families called it an early evening in order for some of us to prepare for an early morning of shopping!

I woke up at 5am and didn't really hurry out the door. I brewed some coffee while the car defrosted and left about 5:30am. I didn't think I'd ever hit Toys R Us on Black Friday again, but there I was. It makes a huge difference in attitude and demeanor when you are not shopping for electronics the day after Thanksgiving! I found a few of the items on my list and patiently waited my 40 minutes in line. I only got after one small group of people who were trying to merge into our line. I said," You know, there are going to be some very angry people if you try to get into this line when these people have been waiting over a half an hour and started at the end of the line." They replied that they had been waiting a long time too. This was not true, they just kinda made their own line where there wasn't one. They did merge, but they made sure they waited till I was past them and then merged! Then it was on to Target and a few other stores. I was pretty successful and only have a bit of shopping left to do. I am trying to get less "stuff" this year and focus on experiences together. So I did purchase a few more board games than I might otherwise have.

Anyway, on to the Ghost of Seattle Marathon. It was awesome. I loved it. Again I wasn't trying to go for any speed as my ITB is still on the mend. In fact, according to my therapist, I am supposed to be on a hiatus and focusing on strength training. She is unaware of my recent 50k and marathon! Sssshhhhh! Don't get me into trouble! I am taking it easy and am running less than I would like to be and still using the 5/1 ratio for run walk. I'll send you over to Michelle's blog for her detailed report that included photos. It was a great day. Thanks for the great report Michelle!

Sunday the 25th was my 34th birthday. I spent it with the kids and the going out to dinner as a family. It was low key and restful. A good day. I made sure I spoke with my brother after I figured he made it home from Eugene. He spent the day driving, Yuck! It was a good year and I look forward to an even better one, God willing.

Grace and Peace to you this Christmas season.