New Christmas Presents and recipe!

So I have been so excited to try out all of my new workout clothes and gear.  My brother gave me this awesome New Balance towel that is supposed to cool you off after your workout and is pretty much the coolest thing ever. It’s been pretty chili after my runs so I will have to save it for gym time.  I still haven’t used my Garmin since Christmas because it has been too cold and snowy outside, but I ‘m hoping I can again soon.  Because of the weather (snow in December?  What?!) I have had to use the treadmill at the gym. Lame. I know, I hate the treadmill too.  I just like to be running somewhere. Towards something.  I get antsy.  And Claustrophobic.  But I was excited to wear my new outfit.

My other brother gave me this sweet under armour zip up which is literally the best material ever! It’s so soft and is supposed to keep you nice and warm outside.  I wore it to the gym because I just couldn’t wait.  The pants are from his girlfriend and they are also under armour and in my fave color!  She already knows me pretty well. I know, I’m super lucky.  I told you I got awesome Christmas presents this year.  However, my new stuff did not help improve my bevel.  I’ll work on it,

I also got this zip up Champions jacket from Target and I have literally been living in it!  24/7. It is the most comfortable thing ever.  And it’s super cute! You wouldn’t be able to tell from this terrible photo but it is. Trust me,

Sorry about the Horrible Instagram Photo

After a quick 7 miles at the gym and walking back home in the freezing cold, I thought about how I could put one of my new baking Christmas presents from J to use.   I thought back (to the best holiday ever) and remembered how much he liked these pumpkin cookies.  So I did what I could with what I had.

I mixed half of the yellow cake mix with 3/4 of the can of pumpkin and 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips and a Tbs of Cinnamon.  Poured evenly into this cute little Christmas mini bread loaf kind of pan and baked at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

The imprints on the pan didn’t work out so well, so I will have to find something else to bake in there.  Maybe more of a bready type substance.

Anyway, these are perfect right out of the oven when they are still warm and gooey.  Literally such an easy things to make.  Waiting for J to get home from his get to get the official taste test.

I may or may not have gone to target today and used a gift card from Christmas slash bought the whole store slash why are their groceries so much cheaper than anywhere else?  I got some pretty sweet deals on Christmas chocolate stuff, everything was 50 percent off! 

Minty.

I also may have picked up some monster trail mix.  The peanut butter chips are key.  So is the fact that the trail mix is mostly just chocolate and candy and nothing too nutritious.

It’s okay, I took two dance classes today.  I also had a lunch date in the city with my Hubmiester.  We ate salad.

Byeee.

Christmas at the Lake

It’s been awhile and I thought that Christmas would be a good place to recap.  This year was a pretty good Christmas.

Me and J spent the weekend having our own Christmas just the two of us before getting together with the family.  We celebrated on Sunday morning by opening our stockings in bed with coffee then the rest of our gifts after breakfast.

I’m not going to lie I really got the best present in the entire world.  Like literally.  The best.

Mostly all J got from me was clothes.  I know, so romantic. He tried to fool me by getting me a ton of little presents so I would think I wasn’t getting much, but it didn’t work because I loved everything! One of my favorites was a giraffe usb flash drive.  So cute.  But the best one of all was…..can you guess?…

How did you know?  I have seriously been wanting a Garmin 305 for ages and J got me the upgrade, a 410!  I know I haven’t been good enough to deserve it but for some reason J still loves me!  I couldn’t wait to take it for it’s first spin but since we were up at the Lake that night I didn’t get a chance for a run right away.  It had to be a walk.  I was a little bratty disappointed about it but so excited to use it! I even used my nike+ app to try and compare the two.  They were actually pretty off.  I’m not sure if it is because of the satellites and the gps in the mountains/trees.  But I took it for a 6.75 mile run on Christmas in the snow and it was wonderful!  They both lined up a little more that time.  I still have a lot to learn about it and syncing and all that but definitely the best present ever!

I spent a lot of the Sunday day baking and getting ready to have family Christmas up at the lake.  I haven’t really ever baked for Christmas before (without my mom) so it was stressful fun to do it this year.  I mostly made a lot of candy because that is the least time consuming and what I like best (obviously).  My favorite is the peanut brittle!

There was so much that I wanted to make and didn’t get a chance to!  Maybe next year.  We drove Sunday night so that we were there for Christmas Eve.  We had a “relaxing” day and then went to mass that night.  On Christmas I went for my run and then the rest of the family arrived that afternoon. We opened our gifts with some wine and cheese before we ate dinner.

I definitely got all of the best gifts this year.  So much running/gym gear it makes a girl wanna work out more.  Or just hang out on the couch eating chocolate in all my comfy workout clothes.

Honestly though, the best part of Christmas was just hanging out with everyone, telling that’s what she said jokes, being funny, drinking wine, playing Uno and hanging out by the best fire ever woodstove.  Big shout out to my mom and dad for letting us hang out with them at their awesome lake house, and to my mom for making such amazing food for us to eat!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Byeee.

Thoughts For Today…

I love waking up next to my husband.

I can’t believe it’s December and I am still running outside.  And on a beautiful sunny day in the 60’s!  I never thought I would even make it into November!  Just wait until you see me running in the snow.

Thankful that I get to run by a beautiful river whenever I want to! My favorite part of this run!

 

Sometimes I say things I don’t really mean out of exaggeration. (I think there should be two a’s in that word just to exaaggerate.)

People should smile at each other more, it would make everyone happier.

I love seeing people out walking their dogs.

I am glad that I can eat real food again instead of crackers all day, although my saltine diet was making me skinny, or maybe that was the flu.

So lucky I am hearing one of my favorite Christmas tunes resonating through the apartment (sung by my most wonderful Hubbkin)…

I love Christmastime.