Thanksgiving

Giving Thanks

Posted on November 28, 2011. Filed under: Thanksgiving |

I’ve been up since 4:30am. I’ve had one cup of coffee (I predict the first of many), a piece of Kringle (Wisconsin specialty I’ve been told) and a New York bagel with schmear. I think my stomach is still expanded from Thanksgiving because it’s asking for more food. Back off, stomach! While I didn’t do a Turkey Trot (go, Addy!), I did have the chance to eat a large amount of delicious food and spend solid time with my family. Every year, and even every day, I am thankful for many people/things however, this is what I am especially thankful for after this Thanksgiving weekend at home:

1. Amtrak – Roundtrip ticket home for under $100 and I get to keep my sanity because I’m not driving alone on 95 in massive amounts of traffic. God bless you, Amtrak.

2. Cranberry log – The canned log of cranberry is my favorite dish at Thanksgiving. My mom buys one for me every year and we bring it to whichever family member is hosting. Everyone makes fun of it and says it looks gross and then without fail they all eat it. Layer turkey, cranberry log and gravy. Hello, heaven.

3. Pizza – There is just something about NJ pizza. And yes I have had lots of delicious pizza here in DC but nothing compares to an NJ slice. My perfect slice has green peppers and onions. To enjoy follow these steps: pick up, see the droop (the key to the perfect slice), fold and throw head back to chow down. Perfection. I consumed four slices on Saturday night and kind of wish I had some right now.

This is real pizza.

4. Family – Yes. Obvi. Duh. But I’ve been living in DC for 6 years now and while I love it, I do go through tough periods of homesickness. They come out of nowhere and hit me hard so when I get home and get to see my family for four days, it’s truly amazing. My parents, my sister, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents – so much family – all of them so wonderful in their own way and there are days when I do wish I could see them on a daily basis (or maybe just a little more regularly…).

5. 10 Year High School Reunions – If I couldn’t feel old enough lately (I know, I know I’m not old), my 10 year high school reunion was this past Friday. I was on the planning committee that consisted of me and my two guy friends and I have to say, we totally killed it. We had a great venue that was easy to get to, tons of great food, decorations, a slideshow and a rockin’ playlist. We ended up having a bigger than expected turnout of classmates and it was really great to see everyone (even if certain cliques did act exactly the same as they did in high school).

6. Gingerbread houses – Every year my Mom makes a gingerbread house for a holiday show. She has the patience of an angel and has my younger cousins come over to help her decorate. It always results in a slightly odd looking house with too much frosting and candy globbed on (and on the kitchen floor as well). One year we tried to make one together but has some serious creative differences and it didn’t really work out. This year though, we totally clicked and my mom created a masterpiece. It was truly the best house she’s ever made and she went a little Tracy Flick and only allowed the little cousins to help with the fence. Whatever, I can’t blame her, it is her best house ever. I’d like to live there if the mortgage wasn’t so high and don’t even get me started on the lawn maintenance…

Ariel view of the Gingerbread House.

7. Friends – I will always be thankful for the diverse group of friends I have in my life. They range from people I met when I first moved to DC, colleagues from various jobs, college girlfriends, childhood friends and of course, high school friends. I’ve been really fortunate to have a very close-knit group of high school friends and seeing a bunch of them this past weekend reminded me how lucky I truly am to have all of them in my life.

Man, that’s quite the list. I am one super lucky gal.

Now I have to go mentally prepare for the fact that I have to run over 9 miles on Saturday and haven’t run at all in the past 4 days. Talk about a long taper…

Happy Thanksgiving!

Stephanie

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Team Sparkle Debut

Posted on November 28, 2011. Filed under: Thanksgiving |

I ran in our second annual Turkey Trot for SOME on Thanksgiving morning in D.C. I love this race for many reasons, it’s for a great cause, it’s a great way to get some exercise before stuffing your face later and it’s so much fun to run with my family.

The fam, post Turkey Trot

In addition, this year was the debut of my green sparkle skirt. Stephanie mentioned the company in a previous post and I have to agree, they are amazing. The skirt was delivered within two days and included an email following up to ask if I had any upcoming races. I totally appreciate the online small business community – where even a brief handwritten note is included in the package, thank YOU Sparkle Skirts!

Fun with Sparkle Skirts

I will be wearing this skirt again this coming weekend during the Hot Chocolate race. I, however, will only be doing the 5k while Stephanie rocks the crap out of the 15k in her skirt. Not to worry, I will be there at the finish for the skirts to re-unite!

I am trying to pick up my running game and have signed up for my very first half marathon in D.C. on March 17. I’ve only ever run a 10k, so this will be a new and exciting challenge for me!

Back to Thanksgiving before I wrap up this post. The food is always the highlight of the day for everybody, right?! This year was no different for me and for that reason I decided to make mini pumpkin whoopie pies for dessert.