Thanksgiving

A Sluggish Week

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 7 Comments

I am TIRED. It was a WEEK. We have sick kids (two with coughs/colds, one who is getting over an ear infection and one who had a stomach bug), which means less-than-stellar sleep. Sunday night, I ended up with just over three hours of sleep (and this was right after a few days in a row of GM waking up at 3 a.m. and not going back to sleep) thanks to sick kiddos, and that set me up as very very sleepy all week long. I went to bed at 8:30 Thursday night, which is earlier than usual for me, and still could barely get out of bed when my alarm went off Friday morning at 4:30! Needless to say, I’m ready for a few days off and holiday break.

Knowing that, this week wasn’t my best.  I was NOT feeling my runs this week. I was slow, late getting outside so didn’t have as much time (again, couldn’t get out of bed), and I didn’t put in my daily DR exercises (because I didn’t get out of bed on time). But on the bright side – the weather was great all week and I even got in a run every day (including after said 3.5 hr of sleep night) Hoping that next few weeks are better!

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Kicking off the Holiday Season

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 8 Comments

And so it begins – the holiday season! I love this time of year and can’t now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, I can’t wait until celebrating Christmas. This year, for the first time in five years, I was able to travel back east to spend Thanksgiving with my family. The last time we were with my family for Thanksgiving it was before LM was born, and I can’t put into words how great it was to be able to spend the time with my family again.

As part of the trip, I was even able to do a Turkey Trot in Connecticut! It was great to still fit in one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving, and I’m thankful for my family for not only driving 20ish hours total for the trip, but also waking up early on Thanksgiving and letting me get in a race. Other than that, there wasn’t that much time for fitness during my time (see: 20-hours in the car with three kids), but I was glad to be able to fit it in.

Here’s how the week looked:

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Weekly Run Down: 2nd Annual Turkey Trot

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 7 Comments

Was Thanksgiving really 3 days ago? It feels like only yesterday that I was counting down the days to see my family and celebrate the beginning of the season. My parents came into town for a few days, and it was great to see them and enjoy some turkey and quality time together. 

Speaking of turkey, this year also marked the second annual family turkey trot — instead of doing the large downtown race (which I do enjoy), me and my brothers- and sisters-in-law did our own run around our neighborhood. It’s a fun tradition, and works out perfectly since we all live so close to one another. My oldest brother-in-law and his son started out by running from their house. Then they picked up my sister-in-law and her daughter at her house (about .75 mi away), then they picked up my other brother-in-law and his dog at their house (about another .5 mi away), and then they picked me, B and my younger brother-in-law at our house. Then we ran a little ways around dropped everyone else off at their houses. It was the perfect start to my Thanksgiving morning!

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Thanksgiving Miles

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 3 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving week! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This year was a different celebration and much smaller, but it was still nice to be with family and B cooked up all of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes, plus more. We feasted on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, butternut squash – and B made them all! I contributed with two pies, including my first pumpkin pie.

But we did more than just feast, we did our own Turkey trot, and we were able to take a few long walks with my parents, so I got in a few more miles this week than last. Here’s how the week looked:

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A Thanksgiving Weekend in CLE

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 1 Comment

Can you believe we’re already in December? Thanksgiving came and went last week and we’re finally getting into the holiday season. That means it’s been nonstop Christmas music playing here!

Here’s a look at what our long weekend entailed:

Wednesday, work let out around 3 p.m. so I picked up LM early and we headed to the library to run around for a bit. She has some molars coming in, so we didn’t get in much playing.

FW was in for a treat – he got picked up early by B’s brother, who was taking him to the movies. FW got to see Frozen 2 with his cousins, aunt and uncle. It was his first movie theater experience, and I think he loved it.

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Still Feeling Thankful

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

I had SUCH A GOOD Thanksgiving. Do you ever just feel full of love, family and thankfulness that it warms you up? That’s how I’ve been feeling lately and felt especially this past week, as I got to spend Thanksgiving with my family for the first time in a few years. It was so great to see my aunts and uncles and cousins, and also to bring FW along – he hadn’t seen my family in nearly a year!

I’m not gonna lie – an 8+ hour car trip (well, one that’s supposed to be 8.5 hours … but turns into 10+) with a toddler isn’t easy. Or fun. But it was definitely worth it! Here are some highlights from the holiday weekend:

We started off the trip with a quick stop for breakfast. Bagels for the car ride! Even FW enjoyed an apple cinnamon bagel to-go.

Thursday morning started off with a Turkey Trot. We ran the Stratford (CT) Turkey Trot this year, which was a 5k. We did it with FW so we started out in the back behind the other strollers (and behind the walkers … ugh!), but still had a good time. 

We hit up quite a few playgrounds. There were a few in Connecticut and some in New York for FW to try. 

He was pretty happy on the two-person swing 🙂

We of course enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with our family! 

And got in the rare family photo. This picture was actually snapped approximately 20 seconds before FW vomited all over. No, he didn’t even eat any of the Thanksgiving food! So who knows what it was .. too much excitement?

FW loved hanging out with Grandpa. 

And Nonna!

FW also loved hanging out with my cousin, Max. Max and him had some quality time at another playground.

When back in Albany, FW got to play some piano, too. Even with my mom 🙂

I love the holiday season, and am super pumped that it is finally here. Less than one month until Christmas and I can see my family again!

Questions for you:

  • Did you travel this Thanksgiving?
  • Did you do a turkey trot?

 

I’m linking up with the weekly wraps!

WIAW: A [Semi] Day Off and Thanksgiving Leftovers!

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 6 Comments

As I mentioned, B and I were supposed to go back to New York and celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, but sadly our plans fell through. Since we had already planned to take a day off, we decided to keep the day off and just do a little work among enjoying a relaxing day together. Confession: I still put in 4.5hours of work – BUT – it was still great to be in my PJs all day, go out to breakfast and take a walk in the afternoon.

Because I was off, we had a great day of food. So here are some of those eats for today’s  What I Ate Wednesday! For breakfast B and I went out to the West Side Market diner and split two meals – sadly I only got a photo of the french toast. Whoops. But we split the french toast AND the hash. Both were great!

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Lunch was Thanksgiving leftovers! A little bit of turkey, some stuffing, veggies and cauliflower. Yum.

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My snack? Some of these Famous Amos cookies. I got them after our Thanksgiving Day 5 Miler (along with a banana of course) and opened up the package in the afternoon. They weren’t that bad!

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Dinner was spaghetti squash marinara. It included squash, some chicken sausage, spinach, sautéed onions, eggplant and of course tons of homemade pasta sauce and parmesan. Oh, and wine!

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I was totally going to have some Halo Top for dessert, but I got too tired and ended up going to bed around 9 p.m. Boring, I know! Especially since I picked up all these flavors this weekend!

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Some questions for you:

  • Do you have any go-to easy meals? Spaghetti squash marinara is one of mine!
  • Did you have Thanksgiving leftovers? I was so glad to have some for lunch!

10 Thanksgiving Things

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

I had a LONG weekend (took part of Wednesday off) and I can’t believe that it’s over. Unfortunately our plans to go back east and spend Thanksgiving with my family fell through, but we were able to spend the holiday in Cleveland with B’s family. Which meant we got to do quite a few things on our days off. Here were 10 of those things …

1. Running the Cleveland Turkey Trot. It’s a 5 mile race and was my first real race after FW was born that I had signed up for. I tried to keep up with B’s siblings for most of the run (B watched FW during the race and cheered us on) – but since I’m still getting back into shape and they’re mid-marathon training, it wasn’t an easy feat! In any case, I finished pretty strong and better than I expected – I had an 8:40/mile average page.

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2. Getting dressed up and celebrating the holiday with B’s family. Any excuse to put FW in a cardigan and bowtie 🙂

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3. Cooking! B and I brought cauliflower to the big meal. We roasted a few whole heads with a dijon dressing and then also made a cauliflower, date and pignoli nut dish.

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4. Cuddling with great grandma. This was FW of course 🙂

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5. Working out. I got in 4 runs and some kettle bells on my days off.20161126_093814

6. Bundling up for a walk downtown. It was chilly for the first few days – but at least it made for perfect ice skating weather! (not for me – but for those people in the picture)

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7. Shopping! We did some shopping for Christmas gifts and bought a few books and teething supplies for FW. (Side note – teething is THE WORST.) img_20161126_115128

8. Walking. FW, B and I went for a walk when it was sunny and in the upper 40s one day. It felt great to see the sun and not be super bundled up!

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9. Bowling. B’s family’s post-Thanksgiving tradition is bowling and then a big Italian dinner. I did pretty well for me (82!) but as you can see, it wasn’t enough to get in the finals – check out all the high scorers in my lane!

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10. Lots of eating. I mean – it was Thanksgiving, after all. B and I had some good meals even outside of our Thanksgiving Day meal. Including some great Chinese takeout from our favorite place (Wonton Gourmet)and then feasting on all of the new Halo Top flavors. Seriously – I almost squealed (okay, I did squeal) when I saw all these flavors at Whole Foods!img_20161125_192017 20161127_162724

And now, it’s back to reality for a few days at least. I have a busy week ahead of me at work so hopefully it will fly by.

Some questions for you:

  • Have you tried the new Halo Top flavors?
  • Did you run a Turkey Trot?

Per usual, I’m linking up with Erin, Katie and the weekly wraps.

Feelin Thankful

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 6 Comments

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. It was filled with everyone one wants during Thanksgiving – food, fun, family. While I didn’t get to go back to New York to spend time with my family (I’ll be back for Christmas in a few weeks!), I did get to spend time with B, his family, extended family, and even got in some early holiday spirit-filled activities!

Thursday morning started early with the Cleveland Turkey Trot 5 miler. B, me and all his siblings did the race! It was a ton of fun to run with the whole family. I didn’t run it fast enough to race it, but did beat my last Cleveland Turkey Trot time, which was awesome.

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Then it was time for turkey. Well, first we had to make our contribution – we were assigned a vegetable side dish and we brought some roasted cauliflower with pignoli nuts and dates. It was SO good – I’d definitely make the recipe again.

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We spent Thanksgiving with B’s family and his mom’s side and hung out with them until late in the evening and I nearly fell asleep on the couch from food coma. So yes, a successful Thanksgiving dinner 🙂

pre-food coma

pre-food coma

Friday morning started early –  B’s family has had a tradition of going to the West Side Market the Friday morning after Thanksgiving for brats for breakfast. The tradition started I believe with B’s mom’s cousin, who sadly just passed away. So, in his honor, we met at 8:30 a.m. for brats at the Market. It was in the 50s, so B and I walked over.

walking over to the market. 50+ degrees and nearly December=awesome.

walking over to the market. 50+ degrees and nearly December=awesome.

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We got in a little shopping while we were there and then headed over for some tea and coffee in Hingetown before walking home.

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Every year, B and I organize our local alumni’s Adopt a Family program and always adopt a family and buy holiday gifts for them. We typically wait until mid-December to buy gifts, but since we were around (and it was still early), headed to Target to take advantage of the Black Friday sales AND finish our Adopt a Family buying. We got to Target around noon and for some reason it wasn’t even crowded!

Friday night, B and I decided to use a gift card we’d had for a little while and go on a dinner date. Yes, I was still craving some carbs even after Thanksgiving and got pesto pasta with potatoes. Carbalicious 🙂

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Saturday, I started the morning with a short treadmill run and then we began by celebrating Small Business Saturday and checked out the market that was going on downtown at the 5th Street Arcades. I got a few Christmas gifts before picking up a smoothie for lunch at Restore (more small business support!). ‘

Arcade all decked out with holiday lights

Arcade all decked out with holiday lights

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Then it was time for Carney Bowling. Every Saturday after Thanksgiving, B’s dad’s side gets together for an early holiday celebration/party, bowls and has dinner. I did the BEST I can remember ever bowling this ear – I somehow got in the 90s! (and I beat B in one game…which never happens. He typically scores a lot higher)

My first game - bottom left!

My first game – bottom left!

My niece Sofia and I taking selfies at bowling. She took this :)

My niece Sofia and I taking selfies at bowling. She took this 🙂

After dinner, we made it back downtown just to catch the tail end of Winterfest and the downtown tree lighting. It was a great way to finally kick off the holiday season and get in the holiday spirit. Christmas tunes, a winter beer garden, a ginormous Christmas tree, Santa and another holiday market. I love this time of year!

fireworks!

fireworks!

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Sunday morning, I got in an easy treadmill run and then B and I decided to take a walk in the Metroparks. It was another seasonably warm day, so it was great to get in some steps and take in nature before the cold sits in.

even the ducks were out!

even the ducks were out!

Sunday afternoon, we kicked off the holiday season the way we do every year – we decorated our apartment, made pepperoni bread (and ate it. a lot of it) and watched Love Actually. Love Actually is still one of my favorite holiday movies and even though I’ve seen it at least 10+ times, I still love it and still tear up at parts.

getting the holiday decorations out

getting the holiday decorations out

B making the bread

B making the bread

finished product.

finished product.

All in all, it was a great, relaxing, fun-filled long weekend. I can’t believe December is nearly here – but I’m so ready for the holidays and seeing my family!

Some questions for you:

What are you most looking forward to this holiday season? Seeing my family! It’s been too long. 

What’s your favorite holiday song?

Favorite holiday movie?  I love Love Actually and Muppet Christmas Carol. And about a gazillion other movies. I’m such a sap for holiday movies!

Linking up today with Erin for my weekend snapshot post, Katie for MIMM and the weekly wraps.