Yesterday morning I thought I’d work on getting the tree up. It’s not one of my favorite things at first, but after it’s up and all sparkly I am always happy I did it.

tree

no gifts to wrap yet and put under the tree so we’re just using Duncan’s toy boxes for now

I can never just accept that no matter how much I move my furniture around, it’s always best to just leave it where it was and make the tree fit somehow. So after spending 2 hours moving furniture and getting nowhere, I started to get cranky and all Scrooge! So I dropped everything and headed out for a run.

Nothing says Scrooge more than too much pink

Nothing says Scrooge more than too much pink

I don’t think I planned on going farther than 4 miles, but I didn’t feel like waiting to cross at a traffic light so I tweaked the route a bit and next thing you know it ended up being 6.2….a 10K which I’ve decided to call the Sweat Out the Scrooge 10k. I’m sure there are a lot of people who would register for this if I made it an official event…Let’s be real….how many of you get frustrated by the holidays season in some way? Well, the run really worked because I came back feeling much more eager and happy to get back to putting up the tree. And after a few trips to and from the attic and a little prosecco the job was done!

a furry Sally's little helper to the left and bubbly Sally's little helper to the right

a furry “Sally’s little helper” to the left and bubbly “Sally’s little helper” to the right

I have to say I am sort of embarrased that I don’t have a single running or marathon related ornament on the tree. So I just ordered a couple—this one….

Marathon ornament

Marathon ornament

and this one

Happy Runner Girl

Happy Runner Girl (it’ll say Sally instead of Carol)

There are a couple of really beautiful ones on etsy but i’m hoping someone will get me one from there as a gift. 🙂 Hint Hint!

Runladylike had a post about how to use your marathon finisher’s medals as ornaments. I thought that was such a great idea that I tried it today. Success! Now my tree is blingy too.

medalsornaments

This morning I took the dog for another romp in the woods.

photo 2

I am SO achy everywhere from all the climbing into the attic and furniture pushing so I decided just a casual walk would be enough today. We had a lot of rain recently and the little stream that we have been just jumping over was too big to do today but I saw this makeshift tree limb bridge and that’s how I got across.

photo 3

I’m now writing out holiday cards and deciding if I should go do some shopping. Probably not a good idea =)

You remember when I showed you the outside of my non-decorated home in this post? Well, I just gave it a little holiday face-lift!

photo 4

I’ve had 2 really low key weekends in a row but next weekend I FINALLY have some exciting stuff happening. I’ll be running the Ted Corbitt 15k with my running peeps on Saturday. I have run this one before. It’s usually really cold! Here’s a funny finisher’s pic of me and my friend Running on Butter after completing it in 2010. Yes those are bagels! HAHA!

Finisher's Medal Bagels

Finisher’s Medal Bagels

And Sunday I’m going to a holiday party.  I say this every year, I can’t believe how fast the year has gone by. If only we could hit the slow motion button some days. I hope you’re having a nice weekend that’s filled with holiday fun and nothing to make you go all Scrooge like me.

Question: What’s the one thing you don’t really like about the holidays? What would you do differently? I don’t like the whole crazy/frenzied feel that this time of year brings. I’d love to take it down a notch and maybe make some more low key events with friends…like perhaps a new year’s pajama party. 

 

Hi there.

I am happy today. Want to know why?

1. I ran
2. I FINALLY set up social media functionality for this blog. See…. —–>
3. I took a nice walk with the doodle in a meadow/wetlands area
4. I was off from work today

I have a routine with the dog that whenever I leave the house I have him lay down on his dog bed and I give him a cookie. Before I left for my run this morning he had a moment of confusion and got the stairs mixed up with the dog bed. But then when he saw that I was standing on his dog bed he got all posessive and came to “claim it”. Good dog!

prerunritual
I headed out the door for a new 5 mile route thanks to Day 5 of the 25 days of fitness challenge that Monica over at RunEatRepeat is hosting. (Today’s fitness task was to try a new workout or take a new running route). It ended up being WAY MORE UPHILL than my usual route. But I embraced it! Hills get you higher right? Well elevation-ally speaking anyway.

watch125
I noticed a whole boatload of holiday decorations as I ran through the neighborhood. Some things I’m just not sure about…..so let’s discuss:

First there was the square snowman. Is this supposed to be a snowman made of ice cubes? Then wouldn’t it be an iceman? Or is it a Marshmallow man?

iceman

Frosty the ice man

Then there is what I call the Yard Sale. How many lawn adornments is ok. I think this is probably borderline.

yardsale

Yard Sale decorating

Cartoon Characters: Do we think that characters like Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Snoopy, Mickey and Minnie are stealing Santa’s thunder?

characters

And is this Santa a little creepy?

creepy santa

creepy santa

Does Hanukkah Harry Exist? Or is this just a Jewish Polar Bear?  And Does that mean there might be Jewish Penguins out there too? (I just noticed the santa clad dachsund to the left. weird!)

hanukkahharry

Mr & Mrs. Santa Ducks? These homeowners have to be duck enthusiasts. Either that or they’ve quacked up!

ducksAnd then the yard sale house had some duck-age happening too (it looks like left over from previous holidays)

moreducksSpeaking of previous holidays, I think it’s safe for the scarecrows to come down now.

scarecrowBut who am I to judge. This is the extent of my holiday decorations

sally-nodecorateI better stick to running.

Considering it’s December here in NY it was rather warm today, so I took the doodle for a nice walk.

mtloretto

Question: Discuss what you think of the boatload of holiday decorations I covered here. Do we like ducks? Are we cool with having Santa share his spotlight with Disney and Sesame Street characters? What’s more pleasing to you, the yard sale look or a single wreath with some white lights and a single bow? I’m a less is more girl.