I Hope Santa Treated You Well

Caroline's friend Bailey called yesterday morning so they could chat about the goods they scored.  We're used to Bailey's early morning phone calls, but this one in particular made me smile.  I smiled because, despite my best attempts to reiterate the true meaning of Christmas, kids just like to talk about their loot.   As a parent, it's nice to be able to give Caroline the things she wants.  We try hard not to spoil her, but she's an only child, so let's face it, most of the presents under the tree are for her.

But, like I said, we also talk about the real meaning of Christmas.  On Christmas Eve, we gather our favorite books and read about the birth of Baby Jesus.  One of my favorites is called "Follow the Star," which is about a little camel who carries the gold, frankincense and myrrh on his small back all the way through the desert to give to baby Jesus.  It's really cute.

On Christmas Eve, we tracked Santa on the NORAD site.  It was fun, but I couldn't help but laugh, because Caroline, a child who has never believed in Santa, was totally in to it. It was fun to see him schlepping his sleigh all over the world and watching the presents ticker increase with every stop, however, I question Santa's route.  He went from Iceland to the Azores, down the South America then back up to Nova Scotia, Canada.  He was working the reindeer hard last night.

Anyway, we woke on Christmas morning, ready to see what was hidden beneath the pretty wrapping paper and bows that had been tempting us for so long.  I asked Santa for a coffeemaker and a new scarf.  Thankfully Santa and his lovely 8 year old assistant, obliged my wish.  I have a french press, which makes good coffee, but it's a pain and a half to clean; I'm really looking forward to brewing up a big pot of coffee.  We all must have been good boys and girls this year because Craig was the recipient of an iPod touch.  And keeping with our "lets make Steve Jobs even richer" theme, Caroline, among other things, got a little iPod shuffle.

And this is where I must confess that I did not take one single picture yesterday.  Lame blogger.  Actually I have two reasons:  it was dark and gloomy, which makes for ugly dark pictures and, more importantly, I had an impromptu long run, which kept me out of the house and away from all Christmas festivities for quite some time.

So after the presents were unwrapped, the paper and  boxes cleaned up and breakfast had been made, I went downstairs to sit at the computer for a minute.  That's when Caroline informed me that it was really going to snow on Sunday.  Her hopes for a white Christmas had been dashed earlier in the week, but the potential for snow on Sunday or Monday was still floating around.  But you see, I had plans to run my last (thank God!) long run of 20 miles on Sunday.  Originally, I planned to run on Christmas Eve, but the bitter cold winds (with gusts in the 20ish mph range), put a big damper on those plans.  I'm not a sadist, I don't run outside on blustery days.   Since I didn't want to run on Christmas day, for obvious reasons,  I planned to run today.   At the time this decision was made, the chance for snow on Sunday was still in the 30% range.  I don't believe anything, precipitation wise, unless it's over the 50% mark.  Well, the percentages drastically changed overnight and because I'd rather not run in the wind or with snow dumping on top of me, I quickly decided to run on Christmas.

And that's what I did.  Being a neurotic, control freak, I generally despise spur of the moment plans, especially those which will require over three hours of running and more than likely, a whole host of new blisters, but with the marathon two weeks  away, this run was absolutely necessary.

It was cold and flurries fell from the sky, but I did it.   My run wasn't without incident, however.  My  CamelBak hydration back pack started leaking four miles in; thankfully I devised a route that brought me back by my car so I was able to dump the CamelBak and grab a few bucks so that I could buy a bottle of water at a Starbucks that is on our running route.  Before I made it to Starbucks, my GPS watch informed me that the battery was low, but by some great divine act, it worked throughout the whole run.  Kind of like the Maccabees and the oil that lasted eight days.  Wait, that's a different holiday.  It's a Christmas miracle!  I digress... after I stopped at Starbucks to quench my thirst, I forgot to restart my watch; I didn't notice it until I'd probably run a half a mile.  Oopsie.   As much as I don't like lugging around the heavy CamelBak, I don't like running with a water bottle in my hand even more.  It was awkward and hard to drink from.  Cold weather = cold fingers.  Cold fingers don't work well when you're trying to screw on a water bottle cap.

But what's a girl to do?

Anyway, 3:30:55 after I started my impromptu run ( not including the time and distance I spent running without my watch turned on) I finished. 

Let me tell you, sitting never felt so good.  Eating comes a close second, but sitting reigns supreme.

Speaking of eating, due the fact that I didn't return home until nearly 3 pm and also, because running 20 miles makes standing kind of painful, our Christmas dinner has been postponed until today.

Last night's Christmas dinner was a mish mash of whatever we could find, but today we'll feast on roasted pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, homemade apple sauce and, per Caroline's request, homemade macaroni and cheese.

What better way to spend a snowy day than puttering around in the kitchen, cooking a delicious meal?

So how about you?  How was your Christmas?  Did Santa treat you well?

Edited to add:
It's hardly snowing at all!  Flurries, yes, but no accumulation.   Sigh.   I could have run today, after all.  Oh well.  It's over and that is all that matters.  Now, if I could just bend my legs....