Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!

I was fully expecting to get woken up early by the kids wanting to open presents. Surprisingly enough, they slept in!! They are usually up by 7 on the weekends, and they didn't come into our bedroom until almost 8 :) Noah had already been downstairs to evaluate the situation -- he informed us that Santa ate the cookies and fruit snacks, and the reindeer ate "most" of their food :) He also noticed the new gifts (wrapped in special Santa paper) that had arrived since the night before.
Here are the kids starting with some Santa gifts:
Later in the afternoon we were joined by Trav's parents, Chuck, Kim, Lola, Olive, and Kim's parents. We enjoyed a nice dinner together and then moved on to presents. The kids were all really good - I mean, as good as can be expected when they are surrounded by tons of new toys :)
Evelyn and I during some gift opening (football on in the background):

The family cuddling in for a picture (Noah being tickled so he would smile):

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning started at Gasworks Park in Seattle at 7AM. I met a few running friends for a run around Lake Union. This is usually a 6.2 mile pretty flat, scenic run -- not a problem. For some reason, it was the hardest run I have had in a while. The first couple miles were absolutely brutal, and the last 4 were pretty miserable, too -- but I was being my stubborn self -- and there was NO way that I was going to turn around and cut the run short (that would be the worst way to start my day!). So I stuck it out and I am thankful I did. Here is a post run pic:
Later that afternoon/evening we went to Mass. Here is a family pic before it started: Just the cuties:And here are the cuties being sheep in the Gospel nativity story - they don't look thrilled, but they were pretty proud of themselves. They were on the altar in front of the entire congregation :)After Mass, we went back home (Trav's parents joined us), enjoyed an easy dinner, and set out some treats for Santa and the reindeer before we went to bed. Santa's treats were two cookies, two bags of fruit snacks, and a bottle of water. The reindeer had apple slices :)

The Weekend before Christmas

We went to the annual Livers Family Christmas celebration on Saturday night. It is a party for Travis's mom's side of the family (she has three sisters - so it is them and their families). Here is a picture of all of the cousins together -- it is great that Evelyn and Noah have so many playmates!! Noah and three of his cousins were all born within 5 months of each other (Noah was April, Lucas right next to him was July, Ellie in the purple was June, and Lola at the bottom right was August).

The following morning I headed out to run the 12Ks of Christmas. This is a race I do every year. It was a cold and rainy/misty morning (seems to be the case every year!) - but that didn't stop thousands of runners from dressing up and running 7.45 miles together. I wore a red shirt, black capri tights, and red&white striped knee high socks with white fur at the top of them :)

My favorite part this year was the kids participating in their first race!!! Travis and the kids came around the end of my race (so they didn't have to wait in the rain) - and the kids race began shortly after I finished. It was a 1K loop -- and the kids loved it! They even got to finish by running under the official big finish line awning -- and were awarded with a finisher's ribbon. I am keeping their bib numbers and ribbon for the scrapbooks!! Proud day for this mommy :)After I showered and thawed out a little bit, we put together our gingerbread house. I was SO impressed with how patient and careful the kids were this year. I did the frosting -- and they did all of the candy decorations. All of the presents have been bought and wrapped, I am now keeping busy by doing some baking, and just enjoying the season :)

Tis the Season :)

I am officially in the holiday spirit :) The house is decorated, we took our annual cut-down-a-tree trip on Saturday, lights are up, etc. I am a happy, happy girl!! Here is a picture of the fam (minus me) after we found our perfect tree:
In running news: Sarah, a new friend Megan, and I went for a run together early Saturday morning. I am still battling a cold -- but I decided to tough it out and go anyway. (Per Runner's World advice - run with a cold/neck up symptoms, stay home with flu stuff) We met up and went 6+ miles around Lake Union. It was a cold morning low 30's - but we warmed up fast. I definitely had a few coughing fits -- but thankfully my running buddies didn't mind stopping for a minute here or there so I could catch a breath :) Here is Sarah and I after the run: