Christmas + Birthday Celebrations

I had such a great Christmas this year. I've been a bit of a Scrooge the last couple of years since my mom passed away because she was always so obsessed with Christmas, it was hard to celebrate without her. This year I decided to pick up the slack and be back to my typical Elf self and celebrate extra hard.

Including getting my nails into the spirit with a fun manicure before the occasion.

Ollie was pretty excited that there was a snapchat filter specifically for dogs.

One of my running buddies got me this awesome travel tumbler which worked really well for Christmas flavored wine!

Family photo. Ollie is super enthused. 

Ollie and I were excited to stay in our matching pjs on Christmas morning since we didn't have plans until later in the day.

Kyle and I attempted to take a nice family photo, and it was a struggle, per usual.

But eventually we succeeded.

The day after Christmas was my birthday and I took a vacation day from work. I had a super low-key day planned including a long-is run, yoga at the running store, followed by some beers at my favorite brewery in town.

I did make a run to Target and bought some extra Christmas ornaments that matched mine. I'm probably the only person that decorates their Christmas tree AGAIN the day after Christmas, but whatever.

It snowed, and then torrentially rained. It was the craziest weather I've experienced on my birthday.

My running buddy Chris got me a donut with some candles for before our run. 

Dallas Fort Worth Trip Part 3

Monday morning we got up and made our way out for some breakfast. Of course the one meal on the menu I was dying to have was sold out. Luckily there were delicious mimosas to cheer me up. Dominique had some freelance work to do, so we attempted to get things done, but managed to find terrible wifi after terrible wife.

Dominique took me to a cool area with a beer bar that had 100s of beers on tap. We had to take some pictures, because it was super decked out for Christmas.

Tuesday was my last day in Fort Worth and while I was missing my pug and my husband, I wasn't ready to leave! We went to Grapevine to get into the holiday spirit. Grapevine is the Christmas capital of Texas and they weren't messing around.

Obviously I had to send this selfie to Kyle.

We had a nice lunch followed by a wine tasting. The wine tasting came with a beautiful wine glass with the wineries logo on it. That became my mission to not shatter it on the rest of the trip home. Challenge accepted.

Our time in Grapevine went way too quickly and before I knew it, it was time to head to the airport. Until next time Dom! Thanks for your wonderful hospitality. I had a blast. Miss you and the girls already!

Dallas Fort Worth Trip Part 2

Saturday was a girls day. Dom and I went out for a shake out run, it was pretty brisk (especially for those of us who only packed shorts) so I cut it short to 2 miles plus strides.

We got cleaned up and made our way to Fort Worth with the kiddos for, you guessed it, more Tex Mex. We ended up stopping at a local running store. I love looking at other running stores to bring some ideas back to 605 with me.

 

After lunch it was time to relax. Dominique napped and I spent some quiet time reading. And taking this obnoxiously filtered photo for Kyle to which Dom exclaimed, "You look beautiful but that doesn't even look like you!" Leave it to her to be honest. LOLZ. But also, truth. :P

For dinner, the girls headed out for pizza at Pizza Snob. I ended up with a delicious baked potato pizza and a local bock. And the waitress thought Dom's kids were mine which was entertaining for everyone. These kids are so cool, they pack up a backpack of activities anytime they go out to eat so they can keep themselves entertained without screen time. Guess Who? was my favorite game as a kid!

 

After dinner it was time to lay out all of our race day stuff to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I was really going back and forth between a long sleeve and a tank for the race. I was super annoyed I forgot to pack thin throwaway gloves as my hands are always freezing. The forecast was for a windchill of 27 at the start, followed by sun in the last 30 ish minutes of the race. I ended up opting for long sleeves so my hands wouldn't freeze. This was the right decision for the first 8 miles, fyi.

Sunday morning was the race, and all the post race beers. After the race we grabbed Chipotle to bring home. I inhaled some, showered, and fell fast asleep for a few hours. And what do you know? When I woke up it was time to eat again! I love race days.

We went to Rodeo Goat for beers and burgers. The burger was amazing. The beer was delish and the fries were meh. I had big plans to whoop it up when we got back to the house, but Dom was TIRED, so she went to bed at 9 p.m. and I stayed up until 11:30 p.m. by myself because I got a really ill timed second wind. :P