Christmas

Christmas this year was really relaxing this year. I was having a bit of a hard time because I was really missing my family. It has been a few years since I have seen my family for Christmas and most of them were in Utah this year. On top of that, J had to work Christmas Eve and didn't even get home until 6. I tried to make the best of it and still planned our family traditions.

We started a few new one's this year. There are a lot of tree farms in the area so we decided to go and cut down our own Christmas tree. It was a lot of fun especially because this is the first time I have ever done that. It didn't disappoint Camo either. He had a blast.  Not to mention we enjoyed some delicious pumpkin donuts that the farm sells. I have made quite a few stops at this farm just to pick up pumpkin donuts. The only downfall was that the Christmas trees at a farm are so dang expensive. I think we paid almost 30 dollars for our 4 foot tree!! It fit perfectly in our house though!

 Next we decided to start the tradition of making gingerbread houses. We decided to do this because now we have kids that will really enjoy this activity.  J and I quite enjoyed it ourselves as well. I think J ended up building most of it because he couldn't stand to have pieces and frosting all out of place. He is a bit of a perfectionist. Maybe next year we will have to make two gingerbread houses so Camo can do whatever he wants to his.

Christmas eve I decided to do my family tradition of soups for dinner and acting out the Nativity. J wasn't so thrilled about the acting part, but I'm hoping each year he will be more willing do it. I had great memories growing up of doing this with my brother's and sister's. We invited his parents and J's sister and her family over. We made broccoli cheese soup and Zuppa Toscana soup. We also celebrated J's sister's birthday since it is on Christmas eve. We enjoyed some delicious cheesecake. Since J's mom could not be at our Christmas eve dinner because of work, we decided to go to her work and surprise her. She works at a nursing home. We decided to bring a few items to act out our Nativity while we were there. I think the boys quite enjoyed going to visit their Grandma.

Christmas day we opened presents from Santa at our house. Camo loved all of his gifts. His favorite was probably the play dough. He also really enjoyed his remote control car. We then went over to J's sister's house for a brunch. We made waffles and she made her sausage egg bake. The rest of the day was really relaxing and all the cousins played really well together.

In no particular order, here are some pictures from the month of December.

Polar Express

We recently had the opportunity to ride the Polar Express in Mount Hood, Oregon. J's parents treated us and J's sister and her family to this. They even made us little treat bags. Camo devoured all the treats in the bag about 10 minutes into the train ride.  Camo was super excited the 2 weeks prior to going. Every day he would say it's getting closer. We had a blast. Camo was super excited to see Santa and sit on his lap. We read the entire book on the train while they passed out cookies and hot chocolate for everyone.  Then halfway through, the train slowed down so we could see Santa waving to all the kids and to see his house all decorated in Christmas lights. We then picked up Santa and each kid got to sit on his lap. He then handed a Christmas bell to every kid.  After the train ride we went to a hamburger joint with the whole family. It was a super fun day!

Deck The Halls

One of the exciting things about moving to Wilsonville, Oregon is that there are farms everywhere. There are pumpkin patches and Christmas tree farms. This year we started a tradition of going and cutting down our Christmas tree. The best part about having an almost 3 year old is that they are super excited about all the festivities of Christmas. Camo had so much fun cutting our tree down and decorating it. Every morning he wakes up, that's the first thing he does is turn on the Christmas tree lights.

Turkeython 5k

This was my first race post baby and my first 5k. I didn't really think that racing a 5k would be fun. I actually quite enjoyed it and want to run another to try to beat my time. I have always like running longer distances  better than shorter distances because every time I run shorter distances my body builds up lactic acid and makes me feel like puking. I hate that feeling so I always try to avoid racing shorter distances. Not anymore. I actually think the next race I sign up for will be another 5k or 10k. Don't get me wrong, I  loved doing the Sauvie Half last summer, but I think I might stick to shorter distances for awhile. Not to mention it's easier to train for these races with 2 small children that require so much time and attention.

I wasn't so sure how I was going to do come race day. I was feeling a little nervous because I was having some major stomach issues. It might be due to eating Little Ceasar's the night before and having a pumpkin doughnut for breakfast. I know, what was I thinking. The funny thing is, is that it didn't stop me from running 30 seconds faster per mile than most of my training runs. I finished in 24:01. If only I could have pushed it a little harder at the beginning. I say beginning because I was sprinting as fast as I could towards the finish line which goes to show you that I had way too much energy stored up for the end. I could have probably pushed it a little harder at the beginning. I was just so worried about losing steam at the end if I went out too fast.