Tis the Season to be Jolly

We had a wonderful Christmas break this year! We were able to see all of our family and squeeze in a little time for ourselves!

We started out our vacation by making the journey to the Gaylord Ice Exhibit, Merry Madagascar. It was very cool (pun intended)! The tent where the exhibit is held, pumps refrigeration in to make it 9 DEGREES!

From there we had dinner at Patrizios in Highland Park Village. The food was AMAZING…the service, not so much.

I had the Eggplant Parmesan and Jason had the Lasagna…typical.

Next we went to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra, who were AWESOME! The show had great music, flashing and colorful lights, fire and fireworks…what more could you want?!

I'm not sure why the picture of us turned out blurry.

The next day we ventured up to Denton and had Christmas with my family at Josh's house. I'm mad at myself for not taking very many pictures…

Carter and his cousin, Shiner playing tug-a-war with Shiner's raccoon.

Mom and Dad stuffing jalapenos.

We had tamales, fajitas, black beans, and stuffed jalapenos for dinner…amazing Christmas Eve dinner!

From there we made the trek to Austin to visit with Jason's family…again I am disappointed with my lack of photos!

Christmas scratch-offs! Cody was the only winner! 

Cody and Jason got to test out the K1 Racing Track in Austin.

We had such a great time with our family! I am so thankful that we are able to see all of them during our very short break…I go back to work on Wednesday!

26.2

This weekend Jason, our friend Courtney and I completed our first (Courtney's second) full marathon!

The Dallas weekend started off with picking up our race packets and running into one of our fellow Cabin 8ers, Ashley (who stalked us for the rest of the expo)! I haven't seen her since my wedding in May, so it was a wonderful surprise that her and her cousin were running the half marathon!

We run for cupcakes and wine…truth.

Next up, we met our other Cabin 8 friend for her mini birthday celebration at Deep Ellum Brewery. It was a pretty neat place. I would definitely like to go back when I can actually partake in the festivities!

From there we checked into our hotel and watched "Johnny F. Football" win the Heisman! Pretty exciting day for an Aggie!

After that, we met my parents, my brother, my Aunt Jan and her family at Ristorante Bugatti to carb up before the race. I am in love with their eggplant parmesan! It is now a tradition when running the White Rock/Dallas Marathon! We ran the half 2 years ago and happened upon this awesome restaurant due to them being the only Italian restaurant with reservations left.

The next morning we dressed in our cute Santa skirts and zig-zagged around Dallas for 26.2 miles….which was probably the hardest thing I have EVER done in my life!

Though Jason and I's time was not what we had hoped, we finished and met our goal of completing our first full the same year we got married!! I would like to run another (and actually complete our training program) to get a respectable time…we will see if/when that happens! 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

I officially am a terribly blogger!

Well, October and November have flown by and Christmas will be here before we know it!

Here are some highlights from October and November. I, hopefully, will be a much better blogger this month!

In October, I went undefeated in district coaching my 7th Grade A Volleyball team! Whoop! We only had one loss on the season at a non-district tournament. I am going to miss coaching those girls next year!

Jason completed his first Tough Mudder. 

Everyone asked why I did not participate with him and the answer is…me and electric shock/ice cold water do not get along well. 

Though I was not a participant, I still was part of the action. I purchased a spectator pass and roamed along the course collecting photo evidence of Jason being a BEAST!

November is always fun because it is my birthday month! I thoroughly enjoyed being spoiled by my wonderful husband and friends!

My birthday gift to myself was a girls trip to Florida to run the Disney Wine&Dine Half Marathon. We are princesses in real life, but we decided to dress up as Disney princesses for the race.

From Left: Jasmine (Dana), Cinderella (me), Goofy, Belle (Courtney),  and Pocahontas (Leah)

The coolest part of our race was running through the Osborne Lights in Hollywood Studios!

Finally, November ended with a trip to Galveston for the TAHPERD Convention held at Moody Gardens. Dana and I booked a hotel in Galveston and made a weekend out of the conference where we visited The Spot, The Poop Deck and some other interesting Galveston attractions.

This weekend Jason, my friend Courtney and I will be running the Dallas Marathon clad in tacky Christmas attire. Courtney and I bought some awesome red sequin Santa skirts from Claires that will be sure to make the 26.2 much more fun! I am hoping to talk Jason into wearing a pair of Christmas boxers over his running shorts…we will see how it goes. Wish us luck!!