An apology...

First, let me apologize for my absence as of late.  It seems like life always gets really busy around the holidays which makes it hard to have the time to get on here and write a blog post.  I have been attempting to stay up to date on everyone's blogs even if I don't always post a response.  Probably the most labor intensive thing I have done since my last post was making snacks for my daughter to take to preschool.  I couldn't decide on one treat, so I ended up making two different kinds for the kids.

I am definitely not Martha Stewart, but I think they came out okay and my daughter was super excited to take them to school!

Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats

Rice Krispies Turkey Pop Treats

And here they are all packaged up for her to take to school... I made 24 of each and they were way more time consuming than I could have imagined!  The biggest challenge for both of them was that it was so cold the chocolate kept wanting to set back up which made it hard to dip the marshmallows and the rice krispie treats.  The other problem I had was with the turkeys - the candy corn kept wanting to slide off so you basically had to hold it in place until the chocolate started setting up!  I also found the sticks fell off so I had to glue them in place with melted chocolate on the stick.  

We were supposed to have company for Thanksgiving - my husbands' family was planning to come down Wednesday evening and play cards and then we would celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday.  Unfortunately, Tuesday night I came down with the flu and they decided not to come.  Or, I guess I should say fortunately - because when we woke up Thursday morning to go to the Galloping Gobbler my hubby was suffering from the flu as well.  (More on the Galloping Gobbler in my next post).

So, I ran my 4 mile race and that was the extent of my holiday celebrations.  I decided to run some extra miles to celebrate my "runiversary."  I strapped on my fuel belt and headed out.  I ended up running just over 7 miles.  They weren't the speediest 7 miles nor were they the easiest, but it felt so good to know how much I have progressed in the last year.  Last Thanksgiving I did 4.5 miles at the Y - it wasn't even a race, just a chance to be active, I think they called it a "Turkey Trot."  Most of the 4.5 miles was walked, but I did my best to do some jogging, but I couldn't keep it up for more than a minute or so.  It was painful, but I remember being SO proud of myself for what I had done.  

I ended up going out black Friday shopping at 8 pm Thursday and spending way too much money.  I didn't get home until like 4:30 am on Friday and then we celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday evening.  Nothing too exciting, but the food was tasty and we enjoyed it.  See the lovely picture of my cheese queen daughter!  And, all my son wanted to do was dig his fork into the turkey!  Which, may I say is the ugliest turkey I have ever made - but it was TASTY.  It was still partially frozen so we cooked it breast side down to let the more frozen thigh area have more  heat and man was it the best turkey I have ever made!  And our Thanksgiving miracle was that my picky daughter actually ate everything we put on her plate and said she liked it!

We used Saturday as an opportunity to get the Christmas decorations put up outside - and not a moment too soon - its been raining or snowing pretty much non-stop since we got them up!   It's nearly Wednesday and I feel like I am still recovering from our long weekend!   I hope to put up another post tomorrow regarding my running plans for the rest of the year, the Galloping Gobbler, and my thoughts on "Holiday Cheer."

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving with your families, and I promise to try not to abandon the blogosphere for so long in the future!