Christmas Christmas Christmas

We had Christmas at the lake house at Lake Tapps, WA with the entire family. This was our biggest Brown family gathering EVER, because baby Chase was born while Kyle was on his mission, so Chase plus Kyle plus the rest of us = 15 people! Family time is precious. Christmas is HAPPY.

Christmas 2013 highlights:

1. My brother Kyle got back from his 2-year mission in Uruguay a few days before Christmas. Love him.
2. It was the first time all of my siblings and parents (my whole family) has been together for Christmas in 6 years!
3. Mom’s homemade everything, especially the butter pecan cookies.
4. Kyle is home!
5. Dani’s gourmet-ness.
6. Em’s yummy contributions to the snackables. My sisters make it look easy.
7. We all saw Kyle give his RM talk in church.
8. It was the first time that all of Mel’s siblings together at the same time watched her play a high school basketball game.
9. We had our first-ever family testimony meeting: powerful. Tears all around (all but 3 of us are weepers—ahem, Mom, Brad, and Jeff). Let’s just say my eyelids took a whole 24 hours to return to their normal, non-puffy state. Family love plus the gospel equals JOY. And a few gallons of salt water.
10. Kyle is home!
11. Family game time: Ticket to Ride via bluetooth on iPads and What’s Yours Like? were the favorites of the week. We love to play and bash and laugh.
12. HUGS!
13. KYLE!!

The Kyle:

I was enjoying Kyle’s presence so much that I neglected to get a picture with me and him together. But there he is. Returned from the southern land of Montevideo. Reunited with his family, a basketball, and an iPhone. I love my brother!

Was this really 20 years ago?

The basketball game:

Go Newport! Chase is a fan.

The Sunday:

The lake house is an hour from my parents’ ward and church was at 9am, so we had to get moving in the morning. We ended up driving the old Civic loaded with 3 boys. They were so funny and giggly the whole ride.

Welcome home to Kyle! All 5 Brown kids reunited.

Kyle and all 4 nephs, 1 niece.

The Sunday afternoon graham-gingerbread house extravaganza:

The kids mostly ate their decorations.

Picasa collages are limited. Pardon the bad cropping.

Most of us with our creations.

Impromptu sister beauty parlor:

I love my beautiful sisters and daughter. Em curled all of our hair one afternoon. I was pleased to have enough hair for her to curl. I narrowly escaped getting mascara’d up—poor Rose grabbed the hot curling iron and burned her little finger. She managed to pull out a grin for our curly sister picture anyways. As long as her finger was pressed onto my cold ice water bottle, she was calm.

ELF YOURSELF:

I did this craft at home last year, and it cracked me up. This year I brought pictures, paper, and accessories to the gathering so everyone could elf themselves for the Christmas tree. Mel made Dad into Santa and the wives elfed their husbands/kids. Jeff did make one in about 30 seconds (creepy cotton ball button-eyed cross), but I opted to make another more…whimsical elf for him later.

 

I made Jay into Legolas, aka, Jaygolas. Jeff got a sparkly beret, in keeping with his Francois image.

 

Graceful ice skater-Mom and Missionelf Kyle

 

Wrapped present Dani and Rudolph Brad. Ha! My Mom didn’t bring her Christmas tree decorations to the lake house, so the tree was in need of some love. It was much happier with our family of elves and Kyle’s Uruguay scarf hung on its boughs.

A brief interruption for the lowlights/bloopers of the week:

Travel--

The Broadbents got STUCK in the Salt Lake City airport ALL NIGHT due to a winter storm and maxed out crews. The airline kept loading them on to planes and then unloading them again throughout the night. They finally arrived in Seattle after 4am Friday morning. They were such troopers to come all the way to Washington from Missouri at Christmastime.

Especially this guy.

We didn’t get stuck anywhere, but Jeff did have to drive through the Snoqualmie Pass in the dark while it poured rain/slush. I took this picture of the GPS on the van because it seemed so silly to have a fancy map when there is really only one road between Yakima and Ellensburg. We actually needed the GPS once we got back into civilization on the other side of the mountains, but for the first half it was amusingly superfluous.

Bacon--

Mom baked us a pile of bacon in the oven one morning and forgot to take out one of the sheets. We all kept saying how STRONG that bacon was because the whole entire 6,000+ square feet of the house was drenched in bacony blah-smell for hours after breakfast. Mom suddenly recollected the last pan and we banished the bacon-crusted foil outside to the rainy porch. Bacon briquettes.

My cold—I brought a head cold with me and it very nearly stole my voice. It did cause me to use nearly an entire box of tissues during the 5 day visit. Jay and Rose caught it from me on Christmas, poor kids. But thankfully the Christmas magic pulled them through without too much discomfort.

Sleep--Rose did not take a single nap while we were there, AND the kids had at least 4 super-late nights. Poor little Rose was having a hard time keeping up with the older boys by the end. She turned weepy and snuggly. Once again, Christmas magic smoothed out the rough edges of the sleep-deprived children.

Ok, that’s all. Even though they did little to affect the festivities, I had to insert these lower points. I didn’t want them to be first or last, so I cushioned them in the middle of all the beautiful family felicity. Now, back to the good stuff!

Christmas Eve:

The stockings were hung on the bannister with care…and masking tape.

Our traditional turkey soup and cranberry muffin Christmas Eve dinner. Mom made something close to 42 cranberry muffins for this crowd—I brought my muffin tins to help it happen. Photo credit to Steve, 6 year old camera master.

Excitement has its many faces.

Grama Meri provided the glow sticks.

The stockings were stuffed and the presents piled up. Seriously, 15 people exchanging gifts sure makes a heap. A sparkly, festive heap, but still a heap nonetheless.

We read Luke 2 and talked and then went to bed.

Christmas Morning:

The kids woke up at 6am on Christmas and soon after, Rose paraded into our room singing Jingle Bells at the top of her lungs, over and over. That was kind of how I always thought I would like to be awoken as a MOM on Christmas morning, so I soaked in her singing. The boys joined her and we had quite the fiesta de Navidad in our room for a while there.

Waiting for Grampa Charley to turn on Jingle Bells so they can…

Stockings are my favorite part of Christmas, so I stuffed Jay’s and Rose’s full. I nailed it on picking out gifts for my kids this year—I have to say—because after each one was opened, I could tell that they would be satisfied if we stopped right there.

On to the presents! Our tradition is to go in turns from youngest to oldest. On your turn, you give a gift from yourself to someone else. I wish there was an easier, less-pronoun-ey way to describe that, but none occurs to me at the moment. When the presents are coordinating, like Mel’s gifts to her sobrinos, we often give ‘em all at once…

Well, our gift-giving one by one works great when there are 7-8 people, but with twice that number the kids got worn out before all the gifts had been given. My present plan for my kids was simple and modest, I thought. They each had: a book, a gift from each other, a “main gift” from us parents, and one other. There were two gifts for them to share as well. That seemed perfect to me! But around 10am, Jeff and I slid one of the “to share” packages out and stashed it away for Rose’s birthday (February).  The kids were so happy with the presents that they had already opened that they wanted to play instead of open the rest. By all means!

Princesses for Rose—she has only seen Beauty and the Beast and Tangled so far (we’ve read the other fairy tales plenty), but she loves asserting her femininity in the face of Jay’s Star Wars Ninja Turtles Super Hero HiiiiYA macho-ness, and princesses are effective.

Legos! Duplos! Fisher Price Little People from the 80’s! I found most of Rose’s gifts on eBay. There’s no school like the old school. I had that exact same yellow Little People house when I was little, and was completely stoked to find it on eBay a few months ago. It came with a giant bag of little people and accessories. Rose is stocked, and I love playing with her.

This girl means business. My sister Em made Rose her first tutu. It is frilly enough to fulfill Rose’s wildest dreams of GIRLY. The Fluff! The matching bow! Jay’s old shark PJ shirt! That lower lip! Our Rose.

As I mentioned a few months ago, Jeff and I got a treadmill back in October for our Christmas gift to each other. But how could either of us enter Christmas Day without a small something wrapped up to give each other? About a week and a half before Christmas, I had a splendid idea for Jeff’s gift. I hesitated for  a few days because I didn’t know if I could finish it in time for Christmas, but I eventually threw caution to the winds and jumped in face first. It stung and I nearly drowned, but at the end of 4 days it was done.

I got out my old journals and pulled up some old emails and typed up a 106 page Microsoft Word document, chronologically tracking our courtship and engagement from first date all the way to the temple. That’s 11 months of journal entries and emails. I copied and pasted the emails so I only ended up typing around 70 of the 106 pages, but I thought that was still rather a lot to do in 3.5 days. Carpal tunnel syndrome was imminent when I finally clicked “order book.” I expedited the book straight to the lake house and anxiously awaited its arrival. It came on December 23rd, in plenty of time. And it is awesome! Jeff and I are both so glad to have our beginnings, written in primary sources (any historian’s dream!) captured and bound between two covers. The book printed out to be 198 pages and it made me feel like a real author. My first novel WOULD be a romance, ha. That was one of my top two favorite gifts I gave this year.

My other fave was the book I made for my parents:

  

 

I think the phrase I’m looking for here is…nailed it!

I could barely contain my excitement while Dad was removing the wrapping paper. Thank you, Em for capturing their reaction.

Four years ago for my parents’ Christmas present I scanned all of our old family photos and put them on a CD. Off and on over the past two years, I’ve been working on a photo book of all our old pre-digital camera family scans: 1983-2005. I finished it this fall and printed it out, effectively reducing a 3-foot tall pile of old, sagging/broken photo albums into a single sleek, 328 page volume. Ideally I would’ve given each of my four siblings this same book, but 328 page photo books are a tad pricey, so I just got the one for my parents. It was hard to let it go, but 0h-so-WONDERFUL! It felt supreme to give my parents such a meaningful, appreciated present. That’s the best thing kids can give their parents anyways, right? Memories—happy ones.

My 6’1’’ Husband, a shorty.

 

Rose picked me out a pair of sunglasses—Jeff gave her free reign and let her choose them all on her own. They’re actually pretty comfy.

 

Love! kids! on! Christmas!

The Lake:

Lake Tapps is a reservoir that is drained down a few feet during the winter. Nobody boats on it in the wintertime, and it practically turned into a wildlife preserve. The lake house is on its own mini peninsula, so we had such delicious, idyllic views of glassy water dotted with ducks, geese, and even a family of four swans. It was a very tranquil atmosphere, even if the geese like to sneak onto the lawn and leave mounds of poop every few inches.

Christmas Eve--

A bald eagle lives somewhere near the lake house. He was just sitting there imperiously on this snag on Christmas Eve, right off shore. My camera was at full zoom to get him this close.

Then he took off and we watched him soar and flap majestically across the wide sky. Another morning, he swooped the house through the mist. He was only like 20 feet away from our windows! I love eagles, and not just because of Gandalf.

Sunset on Christmas Day--

Could those three ducks been any more artistically obliging? I think not.

Laaaa! Then sings my soul.

Snappies:

The Schapps (Dani’s parents) sent an artistic fruit sleigh. Who knew chocolate covered pineapple tastes so good?

Unk!

Yeah, these kids didn’t get nearly enough sleep. Par-tay in the cousin room!

Even though I know Brad and Dani love us, I can’t help but caption this one: “so…many…loud…kids!”

Starting him young.

Where was I for this one?

Every time I add a new picture to this post, I’m anxious that the blog program is going to inform me that there are too many pictures and refuse to let me go any further. It’s no small task to sift through 250 pictures and pick the blog-worthies out of the bunch.

The Family:

Christmas Day, 2013

Already my heart warms at the memories.

Christmas in motion

Hi! We’re back from our Big Brown Family Christmas Coolness and are slowly recovering from the sweets we ate, the sweetness of being together, and the general awesomeness that happens when 15 Brownfolk gather for 5 days of Christmas cheer.

Since we got home yesterday, I have been doing laundry, organizing, sifting through the picture-plethora, and easing back into the less-festive real life. Here are a few videos to fill the void till I compose and hoist the Christmas megapost online.

We’ve been listening to the CD from the Mo-Tab Christmas concert featuring David Archuletta all month. I didn’t think that Jay and Rose were getting anything out of it until Rose started singing along one day. Rose and I have the same favorite song from that CD—The Cat and Mouse Carol. It’s such a tender song, and David Archuletta’s voice is like butter. PS—I did park the van before taking this video.

 

It snowed for about an hour on the morning of December 20th, and naturally we had to go out and frolic in the white fluffiness. The snow was thin and powdery and didn’t even come close to covering the grass, so we stuck to the driveway and played for 15 or 20 minutes before coming in. The snow melted after lunch, just in time for us to leave for Christmas with my side of the family.

 

Just another moment of snow-playing. I like the way their snowsuits and coats swish when they run, and the way they stopped and soaked in the snowy sight for a moment before continuing their running.

 

This is how Rose woke her parents up on Christmas morning, around 6:30am. She was parading all over the place singing her version of Jingle Bells over and over at the top of her lungs.

 

Christmas morning! The Brown family tradition is that kids (grandkids nowadays) can’t dash for their stockings until Dad turns on Jingle Bells. So this was The Moment they had been prowling around waiting for since 6am.

 

Somehow I ended up with a little girly girl. We put a set of Magic Clip princesses in her stocking, and they were a big hit. These things are awesome because to change their dresses, all you have to do is squeeze the bottom of the gown and pull the doll out the top. Perfect for a 2 year old.

Bits and pieces

A few things from December so far, in chronological order:

Memorizing a classic.

The first wrapped present: early in December, I tested the waters by wrapping one gift (for Jay and Rose to share), to see if it would withstand the rigors of pre-Christmas excitement. It was still wrapped a week later, so I figured it was safe to wrap some more.

I believe I’ve mentioned this yearly Christmas disaster…

…but I failed to recount our yearly Christmas miracle: my 20+ year old noodle angel survived yet another topple. I slipped in at the end of a Relief Society homemaking activity back when I was 5 or 6 and made this girl. She’s a tough old noodle.

Brrrrr… for nearly 3 straight weeks, the high was in the teens-to-low twenties. Every few days, Jay and Rose bundled up and tried again to brave it. They usually only lasted about 10 minutes in the frigidity (sweet--that’s actually a word!). Thankfully this week it “warmed up” to the high-twenties-thirties. When I ran on Saturday, I was wondering why my lungs felt so good. A peep at the thermometer showed that it was TEN degrees warmer than it has been in the past 2 weeks. You know it’s been cold when 28 degrees feels warm.

Christmas goodies! I discovered this delicacy last year: peppermint bark popcorn. Normally I’m a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas in general, but this popcorn was a find (recipe source: ourbestbites.com).

Jay the pizza. One of the library books we check out periodically is called Pete’s a Pizza. It’s about a Dad playing with his son Pete and pretending to make him into a pizza. Jeff made a Jay-za (hmm that makes him sound like a rapper…)

and a Rose-za (Ro-za)

One night I got to snuggle with Tate while Steph, Layne, and Jasen went to the annual Christmas lighted farm implements parade. We skipped the parade this year because Jay and Rose had too many late nights in a row and they went to bed long before the parade even started that evening. Plus the temperature was in the single digit range. I held and snuggled with that cute little Tater tot for almost 3 hours straight. We watched one of my favorite Christmas chick flicks together: While You Were Sleeping. Tate was too polite to tell me what he really thought of it.

Rose and I were all ready to make Christmas cookies last week. I put the butter in the mixing bowl and went to turn on Christmas music, and when I turned back around, Rose had a stick of butter in her hand and was eating it like a banana. GAG. I cut the teeth marks off and used it anyways.

I’m no baker. This batch about did me in. HOURS of rolling and cutting and scraping wonky shapes off the counter and I ended up with some very mangled pathetic-looking results. Jay and Rose lost interest after the first pan came out of the oven, so I was left flying solo for the rest of the big batch. Maybe it was the missing tablespoon of butter that Rose ate. Maybe the Force was just NOT strong with me that day, but Yoda kept burning. On a pan full of different shapes, the Yodas would all be dark while the others were white. It looks like the Force was not with Yoda that day either.

Thankfully, we salvaged some ok-looking ones for our festive cookie tin.

Heh, I waited just long enough to show this sad Yoda to Jeff after he got home from work before putting him (Yoda, not Jeff) out of his misery.

Jay wanted to take a picture one afternoon, so I clicked my camera onto its “easy” setting for him.

Then Rose wanted a turn—she had her finger over the flash. I love the purpley-pink sky in the back windows—the setting sun usually reflects gorgeously across the whole sky here. Those windows face east, and this was taken at sunset! I love the giant, sweeping sky here.

I had to crop this one like crazy. Rose forgot to aim, so we were peeking up at the bottom of the picture. Still, I wish I could take a picture with 100% smile-age. Rose must have a gift.

Our ward went all out with the Christmas party this year: A night in Bethlehem. The gym was lined with tents, each providing a different part of the meal: pitas, fruit, cheese, olives, juice, etc. It was intense. We all had to dress up. Jeff cracked me up with his shepherd headdress. He looked like one of the Libyans from Back to the Future. And he drove our van to the church. Every time I looked over at him, I busted up laughing.

I have to say, I wouldn’t mind wearing a head-cover every now and then. They are dead handy for hiding that awful wintry STATIC-head! Or a bad hair day in general. (or a bad hair year, like it’s been for me with all this “growing it out” nonsense). We didn’t stay very long at the ward party because it started half an hour before Jay and Rose’s bedtime, and I can only stand to mess with their bed time so many times in a month (it takes far too long for them to return to “happy and normal” status after one late night). This month only has about 1 late bedtime left in my quota: which will it be—Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve?

Jay’s handwriting has plateaued: it hasn’t changed much in the last year. But it’s pretty awesome anyways.

Can you tell which wrapping paper is the kids’ favorite? The Santa’s moustache-beard paper wins! I wrapped all the rest of our gifts on Sunday: gifts for the cousins, grandparents, and Jay and Rose. Our puny bedraggled tree can hardly stand all that action.

More baking—peanut butter blossoms are another cookie that is not considered Christmasy in my family, but in the White family you can’t have Christmas without it. I really don’t like baking. But these are pretty tasty (and they’re way better with a Reese’s on top instead of a Hershey Kiss).

GUESS WHO GOT HOME FROM HIS MISSION YESTERDAY?

Kyle! My dear brother! He’s an RM now. Adios, Uruguay! I stole this picture from Mel’s Facebook post. He called us last night! Yay! He sounded exactly like he’s been speaking Spanish for the past 2 years. Fancy that! We can’t wait to spend Christmas with the WHOLE Brown family!!! (side note: I normally try to moderate my use of exclamation marks, but a brother RM-ing it up caused me to throw caution to the wind and insert exclamations all over the place). WEEEEE!!!!

And…

YES.

 

A merry Christmas we wish you.

[I know, creepy…but I couldn’t resist]

The SuperBed

This week, Jay proudly discovered that he is strong enough to move Rose's bed around their room. Rose's bed is actually a pop-up trundle bed on wheels that can fold down and roll under Jay's daybed (I slept on these now-rickety beds as a young'en, and my parents gave them to us when Rose was born and took over the crib). Jay pushed Rose's bed onto one wall and then onto the other wall before landing on his favorite spot: right next to his own bed. He excitedly came out to drag me by the hand and show me each bed configuration as the position was updated. 

Quick explanatory flashback (I'm feeling rather reminiscent of late): Back in college, my roommate and I liked to move our beds around every now and then just like Jay does. One arrangement we particularly liked was with both beds pushed side by side together. We called it the SuperBed. It was great for lounging and talking, and it looked so cozy and pleasingly out of place to have a king-size-looking bed in a dormitory. 

[if you can ignore the not-so-cute picture of Shaina in the foreground, you'll see our classic dormitory SuperBed in the background. Sadly this was the only image of it that I could find, so I sacrificed a little bit of my dignity to share it]
 

Nothing like a nice flashback to explain the present. Jay created his very own SuperBed! Last night was the first bedtime with the SuperBed in place, and I confess to being wary of the arrangement. I thought if Jay and Rose were that close together they would spend all night giggling and talking instead of sleeping (been there, done that). So I made sure that Jay was far over on his mattress and Rose was on her mattress when I tucked them in. An hour or so after the fell asleep, I went to peek at them. 

 

 

Is there anything that could possibly top this level of perfection? 

When I saw them like this, I felt pretty certain that they have never done anything wrong, ever. Sleeping children erase all past difficulties in a perfect picture of contentment. 

Tonight when they climbed into the SuperBed, I didn't even attempt to separate them. Jay asked me, "Mommy, will you take a picture of us?" 

SuperBed buddies. 

The legend lives on

About 12 years ago, my buddy Lauren and I were working on our Personal Progress. We decided to sew a modest skirt to perfect our Integrity. We slaved and over-taxed our limited sewing skills till the skirts were done, and then wore them to church. My skirt had little smiley-faced green peas and pea pods all over it. I sewed a ribbon with beads and sequins along the bottom hem, and it made a satisfying swishy clinky sound when I walked.

I wore this homemade beauty for 5 or 6 years before cycling it out of my wardrobe. Somehow it survived 20+ moves, and a few months ago it resurfaced as I was going through some old clothes. I tossed it into my box of fabric scraps and forgot about it.

Today felt like the perfect day for my annual sing-and-sew, so I turned on the full version of Handel’s Messiah and got out my sewing machine. I was not feeling in the mood to sew, but I was in the mood to listen to the Messiah straight through. So I got out a few little tidbits I’ve been meaning to sew and went to work with the music turned up. And he shall purify! Glory to God! All we like sheep. Even so in Christ, shall all be made alive! A-a-a-a-amen. Sigh, I love that music. Part way though the sing-sewing, I discovered a certain aging gem deep in my box of fabric scraps.

When I pulled out this ole beauty, I knew Rose would appreciate it. SO, I cinched up the elastic, deftly (if I may say so) added two straps on the top, and…

Rose has a new dress-up dress! She has been wearing the Halloween Rapunzel dress I pieced together out of an old purple shirt practically nonstop this week, so I thought she’d appreciate a little variety in her dress-up wardrobe. She loves the tinkly swish of the beads at the bottom, and she hasn’t taken it off since I made it.

The straps are made out of the hem of an old pair of shorts so I didn’t have to sew anything except the part where it attaches to the dress. It’s a little boxy and funky, but it swishes. Rose’s dress-up box may not have any tulle, tutus, or tiaras, but I think this sweet pea dress makes up for that!

When I was measuring how long to make the straps, I put the dress onto Rose without a shirt on, and Jay said “Rose isn’t very modest. I don’t like that dress.” When I helped Rose into a shirt (she insisted on a green shirt to match, ha ha), then Jay said “Rose is modest now! I like that dress!”

Little girls are so great.

The run that never ran

Lately, on days when I plan to run, this is roughly how the morning looks: get up, family scriptures and prayer, kiss Jeff goodbye, breakfast with Jay and Rose, dishes, brush teeth, personal scripture time, then RUN and shower. This morning routine has been working quite well for me ever since school started and it got cold enough to allow (even encourage) being outside after sunrise. I have been running 4 days per week this fall—sometimes 3, never 5. Some days I wait till Jeff gets home in the evening to run free. Some days I choose the treadmill over the stroller. It all depends on my mood and what works each day, but normally I’m a morning-runner so I can shower and be all ready for The Day.

My morning routine has worked so well for so many consecutive weeks that it was bound to be challenged sooner or later. Today was the day. First, a little more backstory:

This whole post will go down a lot easier if you can just accept this first fact: I love to run. I always have. I started running at age 11, one mile every day with my Dad. I never stopped (unless you count a bout of chronic fatigue and 4 pregnancies). I love everything that running does for me: the calming woosh of steady breathing, the rhythm of feet on pavement (or preferably but rarely, on a trail). Exercise! Endorphins! Going somewhere on my own two feet. Scenery. Waving at our two nicest mailmen. Alone time. Thinking time. Quiet time. These are all things I value and crave in a good run.

My running-values are a whole lot harder to achieve in the cold. I’m not talking regular/Tennessee style-cold, I’m talking 20 degrees and lower-cold. The kind where one set of underarmor with a hat and gloves is not enough. It has gotten bitter cold here in the Yakima Valley during the past 2 weeks. Shiver.

Treadmills are good for getting exercise. That’s about it, if you ask me. I experience NONE of my other run-joys when I’m on a treadmill. Hence my pet name: the dreadmill. That being said, I am glad we have it for  those days when the stroller, weather, or number of children (or a combo of all 3) aren’t conducive to a good outdoor run. But it saps me of willpower to climb onto that thing. I watch something Netflixy on the iPad while I run, and that helps a little. But I still laboriously count down the minutes till The End.

Even though I love running, that doesn’t mean it’s not hard to get out and just do it, like Yoda/Spencer W. Kimball/Nike (or whoever it was) said. It is hard to get out and go most days, especially when I have a Jay and a Rose (and a niece and a neph) around. There’s always a reason not to run. But I developed the habit long ago of determinedly running anyways (snow? ice? kids? heat? bring it). That determination serves me well 99.9% of the time. Today happened to be that one-tenth of a percent.

Ok, back to this morning. One glance at the thermometer told me I would gladly choose the treadmill over any version I could envision of bundling up myself and 2 kids against that kind of frost. But like I said, I always drag my feet when it comes to actually running on the treadmill. Plus I didn’t get quite enough sleep last night, so I was feeling lethargic. So, after the aforementioned morning routine, I slowly pulled on my running shorts (ok, I’ll admit to just one more treadmill perk- wearing just shorts and a sportsbra in the winter time, something I only do in the privacy of my own basement). I do know one thing: if I manage to change into my running clothes, I always run. There have only been a tiny handful of exceptions in my whole 16 years of running. So putting on the shorts was a big step.

Next I plodded over to the iPad. What to watch? I have not been in a watch-y mood lately for some reason (why doesn’t Netflix have any worthwhile Christmas movies?). I pondered for a little while but before I figured it out, Steph called and asked to bring Layne over an hour earlier than I expected. So I zipped my jacket over my scanty running costume and grudgingly welcomed the delay of Mr. Dreadmill.

I say grudgingly welcomed because I was somewhat conflicted about not running right away.  The sneaky part of me was saying “yay!” and the responsible part was saying “uh-oh.” The power of putting on the running clothes when I don’t feel like running only really works if you go run right away. The magic wears off fast. I doubted my ability to conjure the willpower to change out of my running clothes and then back into them later, so I wore them the whole 3 hours that Layne was over. I felt kind of naked. And 3 little kids with cold hands kept touching my exposed thighs. Burrr!

Like I do most times when I lose my center, I called my Mom. We had a record-long phone call. I’m not prepared to admit its length publicly. Guilty-but-awesome moment (man I seem to have rather a lot of opposing emotions today!). Somehow, my Mom and I can talk about the same subjects—BOOKS, kids, chores, family, church, our lack of technological prowess, and BOOKS every time we chat and it’s always a new conversation. I love it. And her.

It was almost noon before Layne went home. I was starting to get rumbly-lunchy-hungry, and I was still in my short shorts with nothing to watch while I played hamster on the treadmill. So I did something very out of character—I called my husband at work. It was his lunchtime or planning period or something so I knew I would not be wasting class time or making him say “I love you too” in front of 30 high schoolers (even though they howled with joy the time he kissed me goodbye at his classroom door when I visited him once). ANYWAYS, I called him and this is how I sounded, all the while painfully aware of my pathetic unnecessary moaning:

I’m having a dilemma. I was planning on running 3 hours ago but then Layne came over and she doesn’t like it when I ignore her and run on the treadmill for 30 minutes and I don’t like running to the sound of crying so I didn’t run. And I’m still in my running shorts and kids keep touching me with their cold hands and I’m getting COLD and I don’t want to run on the treadmill. I’m hungry! And cold! I don’t want to change my clothes because I need to shower first and I don’t want to shower before I run. But I hate the treadmill and there’s nothing worth watching while I run. And it’s too cold to run outside. I just know that the next time I’m pregnant and unable to move I’ll think back and ask myself why I ever put off running because it is so awesome and I love it so much. But the treadmill! Agggh!

Jeff patiently heard me out and then said “pick something and do it.” I love that man. I hung up, hemmed and almost hawed, and then suddenly hopped in the shower without running. That kind of behavior is reserved for Sundays alone, and here I was boldly showering without sweating first on a WEEKDAY! It was liberating (even though it felt a little like cheating).

As I was stepping out of the shower, I heard a muffled Jay-voice at the bathroom door saying “Mommy, Rose tipped over the Christmas tree. Christmas is very doomed now.”

I got all toasty-steamy warm, put on some fuzzy socks, righted the Christmas tree, and had lunch with Jay and Rose. BOOM.

Some days a run simply isn’t worth the agonizing.

Today there were 4

Today was such a good day. I lived it up with these 4 cuties. I love kids! And babies! I just had to share these cousin pictures. Rose, Tate, Jay, and Layne:

 

 

 

Those faces!