Merry Christmas!

It always makes me sad that we say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and then POOF! It's all over. I try to not let it just come and go like that. For example, lets leave the tree up for another month. Seriously. I love the lights, Why not?

And of course still wishing your loved ones, family, friends and co-workers a happy new year and good health...does that have to end on Jan 2? I hope not.

Anyways....lotsa fun pics....Pre holiday swims: And I forgot my phone so you dont get to see this suit on me, but i love it. It has gingerbread on the butt ( um, and spritz and sugar cookies and m and m's and...oh wait... you know what i mean) and Peace and Happy Holidays on the back side too. I may even wear it this week again.

This is why we arent grilling outside. Or swimming, for that matter.

Where's Waldo? Scroll down to find Waldo ...

Yes under that white fluff is Waldo. Our pool. Sweet, just named the pool. I am all about naming things, makes them more personal. Notice the diving board and the grill. No, we arent currently grilling much.

We had family pizza on the 23rd and hung out with Ruby. She had fun..or we did. Dressing her up in my scarf, and laughing way more than was warrented. A year ago she wouldnt have gone for this, and we are happy to say we think that Ruby has forgotten her depression days as a RAGOM pup when she was in a kennel with two other dogs and never had anyone to love on her.

Finally she gave me the "Where is my mom?" look. Her mom ( my mom) was out to dinner and i think Ruby was crying "uncle." And really we werent abusing her, she just loves it when we get down on the floor and hang with her, so I did:)

Christmas eve was fantastic and full of extended family at my parent's house. Lots of good humor, fun, giggles and memories of our family members that we miss so dearly. We try to keep those traditions alive:

Orange Jello ( with cool whip)

Christmas tree socks

Chocolate chip cookies for dessert ( in addition to the sugar cookies of course)

Beef Tenderloin...wait...not this year! Honey baked ham won out!

Red wine...wait...Julia made Cosmo's too...Just call me the " Enabler" and my cousin Ann who introduced me to the phrase " I want a tiny --TINI" cute! Ok, got it Ann!

Me: Ann: Heide ( my oldest sister)

Ruby got a flashing necklace....

Sisters!

Chippy's au apair, Janis, is from Bogota, Columbia and has never seen snow like this before. She ice skated, went sledding, and gave Ruby her fair share of love. Janis is fantastic, Chippy and Heide are so lucky to have her.

Kitchen Aftermath:

So....xmas eve was a success...we woke up and did it all over again.

Crack me up: the boys cant contain their excitement for the gifts Heide brought from her international travel, Eyeflaps, ear plugs and likely some booties for comfortable travel. Chippy put his headlamp on to better get a view of the loot:

Joe has found a new way to make it thru the school day:

His mom is the cupcake chef. I sent this pic to her and said we had her son hostage and she had tobring us cupcakes or we wouldnt let him go. Hmm. We havent heard from her yet. Anyone else feel that way about their 6 and 8 yo son's?

Willie in the background thinks the idea of his older brother being kidnapped is JUST FANTASTIC!!!

Brunch back at my folks...lots of fun stockings and presents and then back to our place for Xmas dinner with Weisbeckers and Mairs. What a great day! I hope you all had a restful weekend and Santa was generous to you and your's.

Saturday's Shenanigans

What do you get when you put this:

In a bag, carry it up the stairs:

Put it in here: ( You know where this is going)

Sadly remove the down jacket, the Lulu shorts, put on the designated "warm" shorts and...

In we go...

But its too cold! I think the tap water was cold enough. Water shoes are mandatory.

This expression pretty much says it all: HOLY COW!

I guess taking an ice bath means that either I really did some work that required it, or we just have so much snow I figured why not. A little bit of both I guess. Working back to some lunges, squats, etc with the TRX coupled with some hard(er) rides and a few miles on the TM meant when i got up in the middle of the night to go use the bathroom I could barely walk! oops.

But maybe not oops. Now is the time to be sore I guess, even tho I wince thinking about increasing the strength sessions in the future.

So another exciting day in Minnesota.

The Aftermath and Cupcakes in a Jar

I Realized I should have done a vide of sunday, when it had stopped and It was light outside. But it was too cold, and even today i went out and took my mittens off and my fingers were so cold. It took me about 4x as long to drive what usually takes me 10 minutes. The sidestreets are nutz, people are stupid, they just stop and try to park in the middle of the street when there are snow drifts as high as:

If i had another person i could have shown you to scale that this is about 12 feet of snow.

But my other hand had this in it:

So far my quest to cut back on coffee is going ok. But when Caribou has $2 spicey mocha's, its hard to resist, even tho i dont really like chocolate. I get it home, sip it and go "ehh" and make tea ...I keep trying to love that chocolate. But not yet. I have lovely tea choices, So far my faves are green tea with mango, green tea melange and Jasmine. All loose leaf.

In other non weather and non caffeinated news:

The Dome collapsed.

Farve gets another day to pretend his SC joint isnt killing him and he is not in excruciating pain. IT makes me cringe to think of snapping that football when your SC ( Sternoclavicular) Joint is in jeoprady, but then again maybe he can pass it underhand, get a few shots to the joint and still keep his record, whatever it is. Kari, you know what it is dont ya? :) You are such a fan. NOT.

My sister in law had an emergency cupcake delivery saturday mid snowstorm. She gets a call asking for 6 dozen cupcakes in a jar. Lets back up.

CC in a jar =

1/2 a cupcake baked in a glass jar

topped with frosting

another 1/2 like a muffin top ( cooked separately) put on top of the cupcake and then more frosting.

They are then eaten with a spoon, out of the jar.

*** And having just seen the originial Gene Wilder "Charlie in a Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl, dont you think Aimee would be on to something if she were able to create a jar that then could be eaten? Like when they are drinking tea near the chocolate river right before the blueberry girl explodes?

Turns out she could only turn around 2 dozen in the short timeframe she was given, but the customer was insistent. So Aimee drops the 2 dozen CC in a jar off in a snowstorm saturday morning, and Mrs. #4 has her party favors for that night's party. Wonder if the party took place of she was trapped in her house with 2 dozen of the best buttercream frosted cupcakes known to humankind?:)

I rode my bike on the trainer alot this weekend. I mananged a short T run, and no butt pain. and when is say butt pain gotta just trust me it isnt piriformis and maybe i will write a post about what it is/was but for now its too long a post and too much that i will lose Kari, and i want her full attention since i have included all her favorite things thus far except

Yorks. There, now i did it.

YORKS are better than Junior Mints. I agree.

Ok that is all from the winter wonderland, but really this is going to make my outdoor riding a bit tough for the next few weeks.

What Did You Do Today?

MN Tri Awards Night Plus Dick Beardsley

Last night we had the MN Tri awards banquet. I have never been to one of these and was not sure what to expect, other than the promised good food and of course seeing some nice people. We were excited to hear Dick Beardsley talk about his 1982 Boston Marathon duel with Alberto Salazar. Wow. What an incredible tale, and vivid memory Dick has of that day. He said he remembers it like it was yesterday. I knew Dick had returned to his farm in MN and had a terrible accident with some farm machinery, that nearly left him dead. I also knew he had struggled with addiction to Pain medication and Narcotics. But until you hear someone recount it, you cant even imagine the grip that addiction holds on someone. If you want more information on Dick, or his foundation please see his foundation website.

http://dickbeardsleyfoundation.org/

Dick now lives in Austin, TX...smart guy. Funny that he comes back to talk to us on the coldest and snowiest night we have had all winter:) If you get a chance to hear him speak, by all means take it. He was funny, emotional, honest and most of all he is real.

As for the rest of the night, well there were alot of awards to be had. I was nominated for Master of the Year and Most Improved. Tho i did not receive either award, and I had some really nice shout outs from my peers telling me that i deserved one or both, it really is fine. Every one of us is deserving, and honestly? If you had told me in April, 2010 as i lay in bed in Galveston TX before my VERY First Ironman event, the Texas 70.3, FREAKING OUT, that i had no idea what i was doing....if you had told me i would be on the dream team TEAM MN or even nominated for either of the two awards i would have said " Ha, funny."

When i come full circle, I woke up today the same person, with the same little ache in my Right hamstring and butt, ( that is getting better btw) and the joy of having a loving husband, super nice friends that love me, and even some super nice friends i have met thru racing that i didnt know at all this spring. I would be lying if i didnt THINK i deserved to win one of those awards, but at the end of the night I was sure happy to be there to support Cathy, Julie, Jenny, and those people that attended. Men and Women, we really have a great talent up here in MN.

The Committee that organized it did a fantastic job and if any of you are reading this. THANK YOU!! WELL DONE!

So, do i have the inner fire now in my belly to come back and PROVE that i deserved to win? Nah, not really. That isnt what really motivates me to be honest. I have my own goals, many of which involve racing out of state and seeing my camp friends and friends i have met thru my fantastic coach Jen. It's all good, we have to remember that people. I can tell ya, how quickly running a certain pace seems like H- E- double hockey sticks right now. Granted the snow isnt helping. But my point is you can have it all taken away so quickly, so enjoy the ups and try to weather the downs as well. Hopefully we have alot more of the ups to come!

And i think we have more snow and sub zero to come so i am gonna have to wear my new bracelet the nice K Swiss Sisters gave me that says WYAO. Its not quite HTFU. But any guess what it is?

WORK YOUR ASS OFF