A visit to Colorado

We are back in Minnesota after a week with our Colorado family!

It was special to spend Thanksgiving in Colorado because we are especially grateful this year for Josh's mom's health: she is in remission now after several months of challenging treatments. We stayed with Josh's brother and sister-in-law, took our niece and nephew to the park for some batting practice, caught a showing of Big Hero 6, enjoyed the 70-degree weather on Thursday and Friday, and visited with lots of family all week.

Here's a group selfie from batting practice:

Now we're settling back into our routine at home. Other notes to begin the new week:

1) A huge thank you to my sister and her boyfriend, as well as my mom and dad, for taking such good care of Wish while we were away.

2) On the flight out to Denver, I got drawn into Rainbow Rowell's debut novel Attachments, which I chose because of how much I liked Eleanor & Park. (Next up: the rest of her books.)

3) Josh and I visited Menards yesterday and left with a Christmas tree, some garland, and a couple of window insulation kits. By the end of the evening, our fireplace mantel was adorned with the garland and some white lights, the tree was up but not decorated, and (thanks to Josh) a bunch of our windows were insulated with plastic.

4) There were some very exciting football games this weekend. The University of Tennessee won its sixth game of the season, becoming bowl-eligible for the first time since 2010 (and the first time since I started following the team)! That means that the team's season is extended for another month, until its bowl game.

5) Lasagna soup is in this week's menu plan for the first time this season.

Thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Josh and I spent the holiday in Minnesota. We missed being with family in Colorado, but we had a great day, first at my parents' house and then with a big group of extended family at my grandma's (29 of us, I heard by one count).

Here is an abridged recap via photo collage (counterclockwise from top left): my sister completing the Star Tribune turkey coloring contest as dictated by tradition, our caramel rolls at brunch, the popcorn, cranberry and orange strands we strung for display on the pine tree outside my grandma's kitchen window, Josh in the comfiest chair in my grandma's house, me proudly displaying my pecan pie.

This Thanksgiving marked the first holiday at my parents' new house. After brunch and before leaving for my grandma's house, my mom requested some time for the first family holiday photo in the new house. We are well, well versed in this particular tradition. We've done at least one for every year I've been alive.

I have a hunch, though, that it's actually getting harder, not easier, to corral all of us. My mom and I were setting up the timers on our cameras for the photos while these goofballs were goofing around, and we were both laughing so hard we were crying.

And finally:

We have so much to be thankful for, this year and always. I hope you had a great holiday.

Pie experiment

Here we go!

The pies are in the oven and my fingers are crossed.

Marvelous Monday: Week 47

Marvelous Monday! Here we go:

1) I ran nine miles on Saturday with Molly. Running buddies are always amazing, but especially so when the weather report looks like this when you wake up:

per Weather Underground

We haven't run together in awhile, so we got to catch up. It was great.

2) This weekend, I got a haircut! I've had it long, long, long for ages. I am happy to make a change, happy with the cut, and happy I got to spend the afternoon with my mom. (Thank you, Mom!)

3) It was a chilly weekend, but it also served as a good reminder of how comfortable being outside can feel if you're dressed for the weather. I took long walks with Josh and Wish, and I was extra-grateful for my favorite hat and down jacket. I'm beginning my second winter with the down jacket, and it's a game-changer for me.

4) I have a batch of Moosewood chili to work my way through this week.

5) I've got yoga class on tap this evening!

I'm also looking forward to time with my family, extended and immediate, for the Thanksgiving holiday and weekend.

What's nice about the start of your week? Where will you spend Thanksgiving? And what's your key to staying warm in chilly weather?

Turkey Day Trail Trot

Earlier in the month, blogger Lora wrote about the Virtual Run for Hurricane Sandy Recovery she and a friend were organizing. Basically, you'd sign up, pledge a donation that goes straight to the Red Cross, and find a race in November (or just do a run on your own). I think it's the first time Lora and her friend have done a fundraising project of this nature, and they've raised nearly $1,500! Pretty wonderful.

I thought it was a fun idea and signed up, so I was on the prowl for a local turkey trot. My search, though, was pretty restricted: it had to be close enough to St. Paul, and early enough in the day, to allow me to get back home, pick up pup, and scoot over to my parents' house in time for brunch and the rest of the day's festivities. (My priorities lie with brunch!)

Then I found the Turkey Day Trail Trot: a 5K and 10K at nearby Battle Creek, a popular park in the winter with cross-country skiers. I emailed my brother and asked if he wanted to run it with me, and he was up for it! It would be a total fun run for both of us, as neither one had been racking up the miles this fall.

On race day/Thanksgiving, I woke up really early to take Josh to the airport and took Wish for a sunrise walk. That's always a good way to start the day - the sunrise walk, that is.

Then Brother and I went over to the race. The field was capped at 400, which is a pretty nice size that allows for nice race energy but not too many logistics headaches. There was a big parking lot right by the start line, and we checked in easily and did a warm-up shuffle (and I saw my friend Holly from running club!). The sun was rising over these fields of tall grass by the start line, and it was gorgeous. I was excited to try the Battle Creek trails.

Oh, yes. Shorts! The day ended with blowing snow and temperatures in the 30s, but temps that morning were in the 50s. I almost wore a tank top!

The race began. Reader, do you know those runners who take long breaks from running for whatever reason and then crank out amazing results at a race, like, "I took five weeks off and ran a three-minute PR!"? I am totes not one of those runners. I was happy to be out on the trails, but man, I felt sluggish. I wanted to try to run this one as my first harder workout post-marathon. That turned out to be no problem at all, because the trails were ski trails: that means hilly!

There are several trail networks inside the city limits of Minneapolis and St. Paul where it's hard to believe that you're technically in a city, and now I know that Battle Creek is one of them. There were a few spots on the course where you could see railroad tracks just outside the park, but most of the course felt like it was in the middle of nowhere - not five minutes away from the state capitol and downtown St. Paul.

I crossed the finish line totally spent, in 28 minutes and change, and 45th of about 200 runners. There was trail mix at the finish line, which I will always get a kick out of seeing at trail races. All in all, I give this race a thumbs up. (My brother is probably laughing at that endorsement, given how tuckered out I was at the finish line.) It was a good way to explore new trails without heading out there solo, and a fun start to Thanksgiving before the drive and all the food that would follow - and my caramel roll (or two) later in the morning did seem extra-tasty.

Thanksgiving at Grandma's

This Thanksgiving, I was grateful that my plans worked out to include time with both my extended family (Thursday and Friday) and time with Josh's family (the rest of the weekend).

My immediate family's tradition is a brunch at my parents' house before spending the rest of Thanksgiving at my grandma's house, about 90 minutes westward. Get this: when we left my parents' house, it was about 55 degrees and beyond pleasant. (My 5K race that morning was done in shorts!) We drove straight into a crazy front, and by the time we got to my grandma's house around 1:30, the temperatures was in the 30s.

A relatively new tradition on my mom's side of the family involves threading long strands of popcorn, oranges and cranberries to string on my grandma's beloved birdfeeding station outside her kitchen window. I was in Colorado last year and missed it, so I was happy to join the crowd around the table working on the strands.

When it was time to arrange the little bird treats/holiday decorations outside, the snow arrived: big, fat, fluffy flakes. It was really beautiful. My mom and cousin got to work on a snowman.

Meanwhile, I was captivated by how pretty the popcorn and cranberry strands looked hanging against the snowy bushes!

The snow stuck around through the evening - and overnight, it turned out - and so did the snowman, although he began to tip! (He looked not unlike how I felt after my gigantic Thanksgiving dinner.)

And then I got to go home and finish the day by playing with Wish in the snow. It was a very happy Thanksgiving.

Back in Minnesota

Hi, Reader!

We've hopped on a plane from Denver to Minneapolis, picked up the pup, had dinner with my parents and just got in the door and dropped our bags from our Thanksgiving travels. It was a great long weekend (well, except when I got sick for one day, which wasn't great) and I have much good news to report, including but not limited to a Turkey Trot, Thanksgiving with my family and my time in Colorado with Josh's family.

Many more details, as soon as I catch up on some zzzs. Good night!

Green beans, Black Friday, La La and Loco

We're home!  First, the facts.  Later in the week, some silliness is on tap. 

Josh and I arrived in Colorado on Thursday and pulled into his aunt and uncle's driveway minutes before the Thanksgiving meal was ready.  It was a fantastic feast: turkey and stuffing and sweet potatoes and pie and all of what you'd expect at Thanksgiving.  I also got to try my first green bean casserole and it rocked my socks.  Yum!  We played tag and kickball outside, and it was sunny and about 75 degrees, which obviously felt amazing.  There is not much that's better than running around in a t-shirt, chasing goofballs in a serious game of tag.

Speaking of: Josh has a large and wonderful extended family, but two characters you should meet right away are his now-four-year-old niece and five-year-old nephew, who we will call La La and Loco, respectively.  These are two of many family nicknames for these critters.  We love them both dearly and I rarely laugh as hard as I do when I'm spending time with them.

Here I am with the two of them.  I'm kicking off my Colorado report with this photo because it's representative of our time with the kids.  These two are rarely still.

I handed a time-honored tradition in my family over to Loco, and he took to the challenge well: tackling the Thanksgiving "Oh, You Turkey!" Star Tribune coloring contest.  By the time he was finished, he concluded that his effort was probably better than my sister's back in Minnesota.

At this point, Reader, I should admit to a bit of revisionist history, so to speak.  I wrote on Friday that I would not be partaking in too much Black Friday madness because I was in a town without much Black Friday shenanigans.  Well, this was totally false.  I found myself at Walmart at 10 p.m. on Thursday, wading through hundreds of shoppers clutching two kinds of coffeemakers and frantically trying to find a telescope with Josh on behalf of Josh's sister-in-law, Dawn.  We ended up being pretty successful, and the group effort was completely necessary.  It was utter, complete madness.  In between stalking deals, Josh and I picked up a few groceries for our temporary home's fridge.  The people in front of us in the checkout line was like, "You braved this for that?"  I couldn't blame them.

The next day, preparation began for the big event of the weekend: La La's fourth birthday party.  For this occasion, she had requested her first manicure.  On Friday morning, her mom and I headed over to the salon (Josh: "When are you going to the shop for nails?" La La: "It's not a shop, it's a salon") and met another cousin, who works there and was in charge of La La's nails.  (And mine, too.  La La tried to stick me with a weird mauve-y color and I asked her if she was okay with a dark pink instead, and she agreed that it was fine.)

Anyway, she sat still long enough to (mostly) get a successful manicure.  (Ashley did a great job with her.)  I asked her to show me her nails afterward.  Isn't this kind of how we all feel after a good manicure?

And don't we all feel like doing a little dance afterward, too?

By Saturday, it was party time.  I was left alone for approximately 20 minutes and apparently stumbled on how much I love making paper snowflakes.  This theme will probably resurface in the next week or two.  I have plans.  But just skip over the fact that this snowflake has eight points instead of the traditional six.

We all met at a local community center to set up and decorate the space for the lady's princess-themed party.  I was in charge of crepe paper (and loved every minute of it).  La La eventually wore what I had hung in the window.  Who am I kidding?  By the end of the party, I was wearing it, too.

Lots and lots of extended family and friends came, and La La had a blast.  We ate pizza and cake and ice cream.  The kids played Pin the Tail on the Donkey.  Josh held up a pinata because the ceiling didn't have any appropriate hooks for it, and the kids went crazy for it.  Presents were opened.

Meanwhile, Loco was helpful, especially regarding supervising the balloon supply.

La La was very proud of her "high-heeled dancing shoes," which she wore on Thanksgiving and again for her birthday party.  I'd be proud of these guys if they were mine, too.

I love her zest for life.  Shouldn't we all spend our birthdays dancing around with a balloon?

That covers the basic, basic basics of the weekend's key events.  Much more to come later, including the best newspaper feature I've ever seen.  It's good to be home, but we miss everyone already.  It was a great weekend.