thanksgiving week
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoying a relaxing Black Friday either at home or hitting the stores. I am not ones of those crazy ones who does the whole early morning shopping thing to get the “good deal” – no deal is worth fighting with the crazies over. Plus, I absolutely hate crowds, so it’s just not my thing.
We had quite a busy but enjoyable Thanksgiving week. Monday night we took MacKenna to a free introductory class at The Little Gym. OMG, she LOVED it! Not only did she love getting to play with a bunch of other kiddos that she didn’t know (she gets that from her daddy), but she loved being able to climb, run, spin, jump, and play with balls and bubbles! It was a blast and we were so surprised at how well she did with movements we thought she just wouldn’t get! I immediately signed her up the next day for the spring semester classes. It’s going to be so much fun!
Tuesday was my last day of work for the week, although it wasn’t much of a work day. My morning classes had open gym and helped me decorate the health room for a visit from the Cardinals on Monday. Then, the afternoon involved our school’s Turkey Trot. It’s not the first year for it, but it’s been probably 15 years since they’ve done one, and guess who got put in charge of it? Me, of course. I spent my time before school driving around the course setting up cones with one of the principals so that by the time the afternoon rolled around, all we had to do was get the kids ready to go.
I’ve been smack talking my Exercise + Fitness elective class for the past 3 weeks, telling them how I’m going to beat all of them. For some reason, I think they think I’m too old to be fast. It’s a bunch of boys, so they also just think that since I’m a girl, all of them can beat me. And I’m so competitive that I was determined to prove them wrong. I sort of lucked out though because the fastest boy in the school got a concussion the day before at basketball practice so he wasn’t able to run. When he told me he wasn’t running, I said, “Well, that’s good for me!”
I actually was supposed to “lead” the race, sort of as the rabbit that the kids were supposed to chase down. But, when I started jogging out for a little bit of a head start, the kids took off sprinting after me. I ended up completed the 1.1 mile course in 6:17, coming in 4th overall, by maybe a few seconds, and beat all but 1 kid in my elective class. BOOM! And somehow, they’re still giving me crap. Gotta love middle schoolers…
Tuesday night was Matt’s cross country banquet, officially marking the end of BOTH of our coaching seasons! Woohoo! I am so looking forward to getting to spend more time together as a family and just the two of us. I see a “Breaking Bad” marathon in our future…
It was soooooo nice to get to sleep in on Wednesday morning! My body was craving some extra shut eye and I can already tell the difference (although my 3-day headache my say otherwise). I woke up before both Matt and MacKenna and was able to get in a nice 5 mile run. The weather definitely wasn’t ideal with 18 degree temperatures without factoring in the wind chill, but it was a nice way to start my Thanksgiving break.
Matt and I like to do something the day before Thanksgiving since it’s a long weekend and we really don’t have many other commitments besides on Thanksgiving day. Usually it involves going out somewhere for lunch. We have been wanting Pretzel Stop for a few weeks now, so we headed there for a delicious, carb-heavy lunch. I went for the regular pretzel, but couldn’t resist the Pumpkin Spice Pretzoli they were advertising. A canoli-like pretzel stuffed with cream cheese icing and drizzled with a pumpkin spice caramel. It was sickeningly sweet but still yummy!
Thanksgiving Day also started out with a chilly morning run. Although I’ll take 28 degrees over 18 any day! 8x400-meter repeats on the roads in the cold. A great way to burn off some calories before stuffing my belly full of more delicious food! And I started off eating early with making some pumpkin French toast with some leftover bread from Tuesday’s banquet. Kenna ate her’s in about 2 bites, so I’ll say that it was pretty darn good!
We spent the afternoon over at my aunt and uncle’s house with my mom’s side of the family, all 20-something people. We talked, chased around 2 little ones, playing Polish Ping Pong (OMG, I am so going to add that to our racquet sports unit!), and ate and ate and ate! So much food and it was all so delicious!
It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for another year full of life, health, friends, and family! I’m also thankful for 3 more days off work to spend with my family with no commitments! And doing all of my shopping online. Have I mentioned that I don’t do crowds?!
