Gathered Together After a Turkey Trot

 

Wow.  It feels like forever since my last post.  I hope every one of you American readers had a marvelous Thanksgiving.  Ours was filled with family time, drizzly weather, and good food and wine.

 

Our cool, rainy Thursday morning began with six members of our family headed off to an annual turkey trot.  Two of our sons ran this 5K, two people volunteered as course marshals, and two were bystanders who cheered the runners on.  This was the first race ever for our ten year old who has boundless energy and can literally run circles around me any day.  Our older son hung near him through the race, and both crossed the finish line within seconds of each other with quite a bit of energy left.  They finished in the top half of the 234 runners, which wasn't bad for two amateurs who really don't train for these things, and the entry fees went to non-profit organizations.

 

When they all returned, cold and damp from the November rain, I had the turkey roasting in the oven and appetizers/light lunch on the table.

 

I cheated this year and picked up most of the appetizers from the deli and bakery sections of the supermarket.  The cherry cordial Hershey's Kisses were the favorite new item of the morning.

 

Our traditional Thanksgiving dinner was scheduled to be held at 3 PM, but as usual, we didn't sit down to eat until a bit later.

 

That was because we were waiting on these two casseroles to finish baking.  I always need to double the recipes, and the vegetable dishes always seem to need more time to set up than I predict.  The sweet potato casserole on the right is the one I make every year, along with millions of other Americans, I'm sure.  This year I made a corn casserole instead of green bean casserole, which pleased my children tremendously.  There were a lot of these recipes on Pinterest, but the one I used can be found here at www.stuckonsweet.com. The only change I made was doubling the recipe, and I had to nearly double the bake time.

 

My little ones were standing close by, salivating and very eager for the dinner bell to ring.

 

Hubby did the traditional turkey carving, with the assistance of his dad, while I performed all those last minute tasks with the help of my mother-in-law and teenage daughter.  

 

But in the end, it all came together seamlessly, and we gave thanks and began eating around 3:30.  It looked like we had enough food to feed us all for a week, but as it turned out, everything was gone within two days.

 

After dinner and kitchen cleanup, there were Christmas movies, games of Phase 10, pumpkin pie and dessert wine, and just more family time in general.

 

My day was complete after getting to hold this sweet baby boy in my arms while he slept peacefully amidst all the ruckus around him.

And for all these things, I am thankful.

Inspired to Do the Unthinkable

 

 Last weekend two of our children ran in a 5K to raise money for the athletic programs at our school.  Even though several of our kids have run track and cross-country, this is the first 5K race I've ever attended.  I've always hated running.  I spent years teaching aerobics classes and yoga classes, but I rarely ran to keep fit.  Hiking is much more my thing.  But as each birthday passes, and I get closer and closer to 50, there's been this nagging persistent thought in the back of my head that I should really give running a try.  I don't know if it's the possibility of tackling a new challenge or proving that's it's never too late to start something new or if it's because no other form of exercise is getting rid of these pesky extra inches around my middle, but I've been pondering training for a race.  Maybe it's crazy, but watching the race participants of all ages run these 3.1 miles last Saturday really inspired me to give this a try.

I watched, and I learned from this race.  Our daughter who has run track for the past two years does not train for distance.  Yet she and her friend crossed the finish line without having to stop and walk the most of it, and they both finished with smiles on their faces.  Her time wasn't great, but she definitely wasn't the last one to cross the finish line.  She persevered and had a great attitude, and she just looked like she was having fun.  She didn't even realize her time or how well she had done until they announced her name as third place winner in her age group.  Her friend came in second.  Neither one expected that to happen.

 

She wasn't even too tired and sweaty to fix her ponytail for a picture of them sporting their medals.  They wore them out to lunch as we tried a new Mexican restaurant that just opened.  Lesson learned: go into the race to have fun.

 

I also learned from our son who actually has been training as he runs the trails of our woods almost daily.  This, however, was his first race ever, and he totally overestimated his abilities.  When he started sprinting the first mile, my husband (a veteran runner himself) knew he was going to be in trouble.  I expected to see him long before we saw our daughter, and when he still didn't show up minutes later, I started worrying that something happened to him or he got lost.  After that first mile or two of going as fast as he could go, his body called it quits.  He finished, but it took a toll on his ego, and he was not a happy camper for a good part of the afternoon.  His mood lifted when he got to see the new Captain America movie with some friends later that night.  Note to self: do not give it your all at the beginning of a 5K. 

When I watched children in 2nd, 4th, and 5th grades that I sometimes teach in the classroom cross that finish line in the first 30 minutes, I was duly impressed.  I was more impressed by their positive attitudes, perseverance, and smiling faces at the end of the race than the winners who finished in 18-24 minutes.  I was in awe as I watched men in their sixties and seventies run past me.  I almost cried when our first-grade daughter's friend brought up the rear, but finished and ran the whole way.  The entire event inspired me in a way I never would have anticipated.  When I left the house that morning, grumpy and cold and just really wanting to stay home and drink another cup of coffee, I would have never guessed that later that same afternoon, I would put on my sneakers and yoga pants and go running through the woods.  My first run in over 20 years!

And it didn't hurt like I thought it would.  I had to intersperse running (jogging) and brisk walking for the 1.6 miles of my jaunt, but I didn't have to stop altogether.  I pushed myself to run a little further than I thought I could.  I thought of the possibility of running that same 5K next year with several of our children instead of just being the mom on the sidelines photographing it.  I realized I wasn't in as bad of shape as I had thought, but I also realized that jogging was going to bring my heart rate up higher than it ever goes when I'm just walking.  I was also humbled to learn that my running isn't much faster than my walking even though it feels much harder.  And I also came to the conclusion that I definitely cannot get away with running at my age without a sports bra and a better pair of running shoes.  So I am now venturing into uncharted territory for me and am doing something I never thought I would do: training for a race.  

Final lesson learned: Never tell people that you are NEVER going to do something---like running.  Just last week, I mistakenly told someone that to me, running is like being in purgatory.  Now I'm eating my words.

I'll be keeping you all posted.