O'Christmas

You may have noticed my sporadic postings lately but I have to say, in the O'House, we're having the best.time.ever this season. The kids are finally at the age now where they "get" it and it's so much stinkin' fun!

So here's what we've been up to in a post best told by pictures.

I'll start at the beginning where we made O'history here by getting our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Turns out it totally beats getting it the week before Christmas (who knew!?) Though I have to say, watering it and keeping it from being kindling/and/or a fire hazard has been a challenge. Ya know, because of my extensive history of neglecting foliage and starving it to death and all...

Me and my little mens decorated.

But I should really take an updated picture of the tree because it now has only ornaments on the top half. The ones on the bottom half have been destroyed by a certain two-year-old with an affinity for glass Christmas bulbs. The rest of the bulbs I intend to keep have been moved out of reach.

So then we had two birthdays. One child turned 2 and the other turned 30-something (oh, I kid, husband, I kid!) and he requested we take the kids to Disney for his birthday so we did.

Where I promptly learned that Florida, though normally above 70, can turn 40 and rainy in 1.2 seconds and only on the one particular day you want to actually do something. I also re-learned the importance of restocking the diaper bag snacks. Because above is the face you get when a 3 year old is at Disney in desperate need of breakfast and it's now approaching 9 o'clock in the morning and you're hoping to scootch in to have breakfast with the characters without reservations.

Then, we did (hurrah!) and I learned that someone loves the characters...

And someone doesn't.

(I know, you'd think I'd have been a little more consoling and less paparazzi here, right? Mom of the year.)

Then, a day later, everyone was sick. Probably from waiting in lines at the theme park where Sherm the Germ hangs out on all those metal rails and whatnots, and well, despite the amount of hand sanitizer used, made it into a nose or a mouth anyway via thumb or forefinger I'm sure.

Yeah, that was a great couple days.My kids were like caged animals. I did my best.

After that was done, we went back to Disney because we had tickets to the Christmas parade the week before but it was too cold and rainy. Turned out pretty cold and rainy this night too, but it was fun anyway. And honestly, Disney at Christmas at night is just simply magical.

Seriously. Beautiful. We loved every minute of it and the kids who normally go to bed at 7, lasted the whole night long without crankiness even.

Plus we got to see one snowflake. Mr. Disney made it. It wasn't real. Shhh. Don't tell.

(I also learned that my son is afraid of automatic flushing toilets and will refuse to go, even if he's busting at the seams and hasn't gone for 8 hours and has had water, juice, chocolate milk and several cups of hot chocolate, until we find a regular DIY flushy toilet at a random Hess station at midnight.)

Then one night, Santa came through our neighborhood riding around on a firetruck. (Boy with all that work to do, that guy really seems to have a lot of time on his hands.)

Then another night, we got our jammies on, put hot chocolate in our sippy cups and went driving around to look at Christmas lights.

And then we saw Santa again where someone wasn't so sure about him and was caught giving him the stink eye.

And I learned that the automatic flushy toilets at the mall were just as bad as the ones at Disney. We thought it might spell trouble for Santa because of the pee-pee dancing I saw in the line, but Santa made it out ok and we found a DIY toilet at Dillards. FYI on the DIY.

Then, the coolest thing ever happened. A couple of elves popped in for a visit from the North Pole! Turns out they like to get into trouble at night.

They TP'ed the place one night.

And made forts.

They also had a "snowball" fight in which the living room was covered in big and little marshmallows that were subsequently attacked by a 2 and 3year old and devoured before I could take a picture. OK, they didn't eat all of them. But close.

The elves will be returning to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. We'll be sad to see them go, they've been a lot of fun to have around and the kids wake up every morning wanting to know what mischief they've gotten into.

All of this of course is in addition to the shopping and the baking and the getting up at 5:30 in the morning to get to Toys R Us for a Zhu Zhu Pet or 3 (which I totally scored) and two more family birthdays and whatnots.

But we've truly been having a great time. The best part about this year is proclaiming myself "stress-free." I promised I'd slow it down this year and even though December has gone by in a blink, we all took time to stop and smell the poinsettias. So far.

Did you have a holiday "philosophy" this season? Did you stick to it??

Whatever happened, I hope you have or had a happy holiday everyone, whichever you celebrate!

Follow me on Twitter.
Subscribe to my blog.

O'Christmas

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2009/12/ochristmas.html?m=0

Running in Knee Highs

There comes a time in a girl's life when you sign up for a 5k, finish, then ask yourself that one important question. You know the one.

Where's the beer tent?

It was called the Blue Moon 5k and the beer tent forgot to show up! Didn't someone tell it? Did it confuse its days, did it think the race was Saturday? Maybe it showed up yesterday and sat around all morning and no one came. Or, I bet the beer tent got up too early like I did (I set my watch for 4:30 instead of 5:30. Well, I mean, I forgot to change the time on my watch so I woke up an hour early.) So I bet that's what happened. The beer tent got up too early, saw that no one was there, and left.

Besides the absent beer tent (imagine how 12-step-program I looked walking around in a "Will Run for Wine" shirt asking about the beer tent), this was absolutely the best 5k EVER. EVER! FOR SO MANY REASONS!! The first of which was that:

I BEAT MY TIME! I ACHIEVED THE HOLY GRAIL OF 5K-NESS! The time I've been seeking for a year and a half!

Official time: 29:45. I have long wanted to do a 5k in 30 minutes or under. I know, it's not like a real runner time (those people have 17-21 minute 5ks and they are not me). But I have been running and running and running and I hadn't gotten below 31 minutes yet. When I passed mile one and it said 9:35 on my watch, I wanted to cry tears of joy! I knew at that point it was actually going to be possible!

You know, besides being in your own head or the music or any of those things that keep you going, if you keep your eyes open to the people surrounding you, you'll find inspiration throughout the whole race. I always do. Like the mom who passed me pushing a TRIPLE STROLLER! Now that's a mom who rocks. Complete and total superstar-rockstar-mom. Because a stroller with just ONE child in it is 30 pounds at least! And then there were the 8 and under kids, those little tiny bodies with those little skinnypeople not-yet-developed legs, trucking along. SO.CUTE. (Hell, if they can do it!) There were two little boys who placed in their age group that were the same age difference as my two sons, and all I could think of was how amazing it would be to watch mine cross a finish line one day and I got all choked up.

Then there were the men who I would run alongside for a little bit, who you could just tell would rather give their left arm than be passed up by a girl wearing knee-highs and a headband. They would linger alongside you, pass you for a bit but not too far because all they want to be is just far enough ahead of you that they're in front of you. And then I put the motor on and too bad, SUCKA! You've been CHICKED!

(I really need a shirt that says that on the back.)

But all funny aside, this 5k for me and for so many was part of the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans, where 4 weeks ago, all of us sisters, from all walks of life and all parts of the country, got together and picked the goal of running a 5k this weekend, for World Run Day and also as part of the EA Sports Active Challenge. The folks at EA Sports are really the ones who dared us to do this and we took them up on it! And it has been so.awesome to read about everyone's training over the past four weeks and watch (virtually) as each one of us crossed the finish line. We weren't there in person but I can tell you I saw my fellow runners' faces in my head when I ran! And a few of us ran in solidarity wearing our knee-socks and headbands! I gotta tell you, at first I was a little embarrassed when I got there (I really did look a little silly), but with some encouragement from my husband before I left ("You don't even look that ridiculous!"), I forgot within a few minutes about what I was wearing and actually it was all so supercomfy and even empowering to have taken this creative license! So people were looking, so what! I rocked my headband.

The other best part of this race for me was running with my dad. This was my dad's first race ever, and I am so proud of him. He's been training with all of us the past four weeks too. I was so proud watching him cross the finish line and watching the fire inside him light up afterward as the excitement to do more races was just bursting out of him! Isn't he awesome!!??? Dad, you ROCK!!Oh and to hug my dad as he crossed the finish line and get all choked up because crossing any finish line is always symbolic with a milestone met and a goal achieved and to be able to do that together, was just amazing. My dad. To a million more races!

There is nothing -- seriously nothing -- more empowering than crossing a finish line. I used to say, "I don't care where I finish as long as it's not last." But that is completely untrue now and I'm almost ashamed of even saying it. There is honor in finishing last, just as there is honor in finishing first. Because there is honor in just finishing. Whether it's finishing a race or finishing something you've started, it is all the same. You should be proud. So I change my mind. I don't care about where I finish. As long as I've finished. I will always have my own personal goals in my head about where I want to finish, a certain time I want to beat, a level of performance I hope to accomplish in a certain event (i.e. swimming) because that is just the way I am. But it's not so much about success or failure anymore, in fact my idea of "failure" has changed so much since this all started. It's about putting in the work, having a good time, and finishing what I started and being proud of what I've done. Even if it means having a rough race or a slow time or a crappy swim or a flat tire. The honor is in finishing at all, and if you can't finish, in trying again.

So what a wonderful day for a race it was! What a wonderful day. I can't wait to read everyone's race reports, and if you didn't run this weekend and have no idea what I'm talking about, we will be starting a new round of running and logging miles on Monday, so head over to the Sisterhood to join us for this next go round! (Nope you don't have to be a runner -- you just have to wanna get healthy.) Because there's nothing more motivating than doing this together!

ps. RUN-- DON'T WALK-- TO GO LINK UP YOUR RACE DAY POST AT THE SISTERHOOD RIGHT HERE!

Running in Knee Highs

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2009/11/running-in-knee-highs.html?m=0