I’ve already told you how my Thanksgiving holiday weekend started with a recap of the Ashburn Farm 5K. Now it’s time to tell you all about the rest of the weekend!
After the race and the post-race breakfast, we chilled for a little while and then got ready to host Julie’s family for Thanksgiving dinner. I think my Thanksgiving china is pretty cool; and maybe the fake fall leaves are a little tacky, but they make me happy…
I enjoyed my carbs immensely, but as you can see, I also had a huge delicious salad. The big ugly blob of food on the front of my plate is the most amazing macaroni and cheese I’ve ever eaten (you can also see it in the top left of the photo in the casserole dish where it looks a lot better). Daniel asked for mac and cheese as a side dish this year (didn’t the pilgrims eat mac and cheese?), so I searched online for the perfect recipe. As soon as I saw this recipe for Gouda Bacon Macaroni and Cheese, I knew that I need look no further! I mean seriously, how can anything not be delicious with smoked Gouda and bacon in it?
On Friday I vegged…
Saturday morning I got up early to join the Cruisers for our weekly long group run. It was neither long, nor a group… Jerome and I met, and since he only had time to run six miles before heading off to teach yoga, I decided that was plenty for me considering that I’d run ten miles on Thanksgiving morning.
Jerome caught me trying to put my mittens back on top of my gloves after a pit stop. And yes, I need a pit stop during a six mile run. This porta-potty calls my name…
Bundled up with mittens I couldn’t tell what I was doing with my camera. When I got home and uploaded my pictures, I had about eight pictures like this one of Jerome. I had turned my camera on for him to take a selfie of us, but didn’t realize I was snapping away!
Here’s proof that we ran together, and that it was cold (22 degrees)!
I had the forethought to bring hand-warmers with me to put between my gloves and mittens. It worked like a charm, but made me even more clumsy, thus the upside down pictures!
Two of my good friends stopped by for with lunch! Vel hadn’t given me my birthday present yet, so she brought it and lunch from California Tortilla. This salad was so good!
Saturday night I put up our Christmas tree. I’m so glad that we have a pre-lit tree and don’t have to string lights on it… Ha! Four strands of lights later, and it was ready to decorate.
One of my favorite things to do is watch college rivalry football while decorating the tree. It’s always the weekend after Thanksgiving, so it plays right into my decorating frenzy. After a much less than stellar season, my Hokies won Saturday evening against our in-state rival, bringing home the Commonwealth Cup for the tenth year straight! It was only our second win since my dad died, and just like after the Miami game, I didn’t know what to do. You see normally after a Virginia Tech football win I immediately called my dad (even if I was at the game), and he would pick up the phone shouting, How ’bout them Hokies!” I no longer have him to call, so I break down sobbing…
Sunday morning I ran with my BRF and then spent Sunday afternoon decorating the rest of our house for Christmas, and almost got finished. I’m not sharing pictures until I’m finished so you’ll just have to wait…
- Questions:
- How cold were you on your runs this weekend?
- Have you ever run with hand-warmers?
- Do you put up an artificial tree or real tree? ~ We always put up a real tree until the tree stand broke one time and leaked water all over the floor and even into the basement. Fortunately, it was into an unfinished basement room.
That mac & cheese looks so good! I’ll have to check out the recipe. YUM! I never thought I’d have an artificial tree, but we bought one a few years ago. It’s nice because we go to Atlanta every year to celebrate Christmas with our families. Now we can put the tree up early and enjoy it, and we don’t have to worry about it while we’re out of town. Plus, the girls absolutely LOVE having the tree up for the entire month of December. And I absolutely LOVE watching their delight!
Let me know what you think if you try the mac and cheese!
I have also found that taking pictures with gloves on while running is quite the challenge. I’ve nearly dropped my camera because of my gloves, so now I take my right glove off when I want to snap a picture.
We have a pre-lit tree, too, and it cuts down on so much of the hassle! Growing up we had an artificial tree that wasn’t pre-lit and after my dad finished getting the lights strung on the tree each year he had had enough of decorating. I’m so glad we beat UVA and brought home (kept) the Commonwealth Cup! Too bad Duke had already won and punched their ticket to the ACC championship game. I’m sorry that a Hokie win has become bittersweet for you 🙁 That’s going to be difficult for quite some time to come, I’m sure. You could always look up towards heaven and say it. I’m sure he’s smiling down at you with every Hokie win.
Yes, my plan is to shout to heaven after our Hokie wins, but so far that’s been too difficult. I’m sure it will get easier (it’s only been six weeks).
You had me at gouda and bacon. I don’t love having a fake tree, but I DO love having one that has the lights already strung on it! So much faster!
That’s gotta be tough not being able to call your Dad, and especially at this time of year. Like Meagan said, I’m sure he’s watching those games right alongside you! 😉
PS. I nominated you for a bloggy thing in my post today. 🙂
I know! What’s not to love about the taste of smoked Gouda and bacon?
And thank you, I’ll check it out!
It was certainly cold this weekend!! I’m looking forward to the slighter warmer temperatures this week. I’ll have to get more information from you about your Cruiser runs so I can start joining!
We go back and forth between real and fake trees. When we got our cat, we got a fake tree and then when we got our new puppy, we used it again!
Yes, let me know when you’d like to join the Cruisers for a run! Any chance you’re doing the Run With Santa 5K at Reston Town Center on Sunday?
I love the mac and cheese! That is my weakness for sure! It was a cold one this weekend unfortunately no runs at all this last weekend. It’s been mostly artificial but last year my hubby brought a Charlie Brown tree back from camp and we used that. It was really cute once the decorations went on it.
Since we have the artificial tree, I cut fresh greenery and bring it inside so I have that evergreen smell in our house!
I had amazing mac and cheese on Thanksgiving! It has 6 different cheeses in it and it was baked deliciousness! We never had mac n cheese on Thanksgiving growing up, but I think this is going to be a new tradition very soon!
You can bet we will be adding this mac and cheese dish to our Thanksgiving dinner tradition, too! 🙂
Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. Each of my kids asked on Friday if you had sent home some of the Mac and cheese with us – to funny. It was obviously a big hit with the Auroras!
Now to answer your questions…
My face was cold during the turkey trot;
I have never run with handwarmers;
We always do a real tree – we even used to make a day if it and cut our own down.
Thank you, Janet! The left-over mac and cheese didn’t last very long here… not with Daniel in the house! 🙂
I love, love, loved your Thanksgiving china and your table looked amazing. I ran 10 miles on Thanksgiving morning too, but only because it was 52 degrees and I thought I died and went to heaven. Sadly it didn’t last, 78 today and mid 80s by the weekend. And by the way, your pre lit tree and mine are twinsies! Those stupid lights never worked after the first year…
Thanks! BTW, I’m pretty jealous of your weather (the 52 degrees day, not the 80’s). It’s nice here today and tomorrow, but it’s supposed to be very cold by the weekend when I have another race! Ugh!
Why can’t they make tree lights that work?