Merry Christmas!

Let me just preface this with the fact that I have only run 2 times since my last race on Dec 7. I have a marathon on Feb 1. I can't get in to see my fix-me-up Dr. until Jan 2. You do the math. So, I'm grumpy. and I can't take a decent picture with my camera to save my life. now that that's out of the way...

So Christmas. It was fun in a usual fun sorta way. Christmas seems to be either magical or one colossal mishap after another. This was a healthy dose of both.

I did all the Christmas shopping and spent Monday night at the office wrapping gifts and figuring out that I hadn't shopped evenly. Ignoring what was going on with my body. By Tuesday midday I was feeling like poop and had no energy to do anything in between shifts. By Tuesday night I was in the ER with a raging UTI. They didn't let me leave until 2am. Work on Wed was rough. I came home and spent the afternoon in bed while Mike took the boys out to do his Christmas shopping. Later that afternoon, we snuck out for final stocking items.

By 8pm I had my first meltdown but recovered in 15 minutes. We had a lovely fire,
watched a movie
and sent the kids to bed so we could finish up.
Unfortunately, I fell asleep on the couch but Mike actually picked up the slack and took care of everything, including cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

Christmas morning we opened stockings.



The big kids helped the littles with Legos.

I sat with my new laptop.



The big hits were the legos, wi, Mike got a new backpack, and of course my new laptop.

And then the photo opportunity of the year was lost in screaming chaos. Christmas morning I had prepared a roast...complete with red potatoes, onions and too much garlic, yum! Threw in some onion soup and basted with red wine all day. It was finally done in the afternoon. I pulled it out for a while and decided to set it back in oven to keep warm while I set the table with our finest china and crystal, cooked the asparagus, and poured the Christmas ale. Almost time for pictures! As I pulled the roast out of the oven, the disposable aluminum pan it was cooking in, collapsed and roast, potatoes, and yummy juices went all down the front of my legs. I was screaming...half in pain and half in terror as I watched my dinner spill all over the floor. Mike ran in and yanked my pants off of me(he's such a pro, lol) and got me into a cold water shower. Then he went back and rescued what was left.

Sigh. they said it was good. Oh well. The burns weren't bad at all...only one blister.

Oh, the memories.

Hope you all enjoyed the Reason for the Season. We are blessed.