I know I’m two days late – that’s how busy I’ve been!

I apologize in advance – I did some experimenting with my Dad’s cool new camera, so some pictures posted LARGE even though I didn’t want them to be!  

Thanksgiving Morning we got up and did The Nakon Foundation’s Turkey Dash!

The race is a 5k for the a local foundation that supports breast cancer.  When I woke up, my neck was still hurting, but it was definitely an improvement from the day before.   Here’s me and my boys before we left for the race:

I’m really happy with how the race went – I ran my fastest mile to date!  It was about 35 degrees outside at the start of the race, and the cold was really hurting my lungs, so I wasn’t sure how I was doing.   When I hit mile marker 1 – and heard the timer say 9:40, I was absolutely stoked.  I know it’s not the fastest time in the world, but it’s a personal best for me, so I’m really happy.

Shortly after mile marker 2, my iPod died.  Totally, completely, permanently DIED.  I know I shouldn’t have let it affect me, but I started walking for about 2 minutes while I tried to screw around with it.    I hit the 3 mile marker and saw my handsome husband there, rooting me on!  I ended up crossing the finish line at 32:28, which overall, I was very happy with. With the combination of cold and neck pain, I really wasn’t sure how well I would do.  I average a 12 minute mile, so anything below 34 minutes I was going to be happy with!   Here’s me finishing the race – I’m behind the lady in white – she got in my way right as my Dad was snapping the picture:

Here’s the whole gang after the race:

Such a great way to start the day!   We will definitely be doing it again next year!  We went home and showered, and then headed over to my mom’s.  I brought 4 items to contribute to to the family’s Thanksgiving (AND STAYED BELOW GOAL FOR THE CHALLENGE TOO!).  I brought a veggie tray, a salad, cherry angelfood cupcakes, and pomegrante bark:

Here’s the whole appetizer spread:

I started out the afternoon with a small glass of merlot, but ended up drinking a whole lot of diet coke before dinner since that glass of wine made me tired.

Here’s my dinner plate:

I had some green beans, salad, a little bit of corn, and a little bit of turkey.  When I finished my plate, I decided to splurge on some mashed taters!

After dinner, the wine started flowing, I kept making “spritzers” so that I wasn’t drinking too much.  I would pour a half glass of chardonnay, and a half glass of Fresca.  Everyone else loved the idea as well – here’s me and my aunt – mid-Fresca-hand-off!  

It’s become a Thanksgiving tradition, that Mike and I have all the cousins over to our house for “after hours drinking”.   Needless to say – there was way too much alcohol consumed over the evening, and then with all my siblings and cousins home on break, we basically repeated the same thing last night too!

Which explains why I have been out of commission.  I can’t “party” like that anymore, so two straight days of food, family, lack of sleep, and a lot of booze has totally caught up to me!   That’s it for now, I’ll do a grocery challenge recap really soon!   Hope you all had an absolutely wonderful holiday!