After Christmas Joy

We had a marvelous Christmas morning opening gifts, eating massive amounts of calories, taking naps, and enjoying new toys! We had a week full of cousins too. We went bowling for the first time, went the the movie "Princess and the Frog", went to In N Out (we have brain washed the kids that this is the only place to buy a burger), went to Chuck E Cheese, went sledding, and ate lots of Grandma Barlow's scones. The kids stayed up late every night and embellished every activity!

One of my favorite treats of the week was running with my sister in law, Mandy. Many moons ago, we raced against each other during high school at a national cross country meet. Little did we know that I would marry her brother! She's fast and is always willing to talk "running". PLUS, we both got Garmin watches for Christmas. Nothing like a new toy to make a run great!

On New Year's Eve, I ran the "Beat the New Year" 5k. The race started at 11:30pm and if you finished by 12:00am you got a plaque. I was excited that my race number was 2010. I thought there would be good running karma for the upcoming year - then I realized that everyone had that number.

There were prizes for the best costumes and for the coldeeeeest runner. I wasn't sure what the "coldeeeest runner" meant until I saw the big hairy dude in the red speedo and the girls in the string bikinis....brrrr! It was a really fun race!

I always feel a bit overwhelmed when the holidays finish and my house looks like a tornado. But everything is put away and all the new toys have found a home. I am catching up on church work, emails, facebook and blogging (slowly but surely on the last one). All the junk food is gone and I picked up lots of fruits and veggies yesterday at the market. On to a new year with new goals!

Bowling excitement:


Beat the New Year 5k: