Catch up and CHRISTMAS!

Doing a bit of catch up.  Family has been here so we have been busy visiting and cooking and cleaning.  We had a winter storm dump about 7 or so inches of snow on us saturday.  Luckily the fam got here friday night late before all of the ice and snow hit.  It was bad enough that I didn't go to work monday at all.  I even did 5 miles on the treadmill.  I was suppose to do a long run on sunday with my BRF but as I was out doing my 5 on saturday, I just had this feeling that this storm was going to get nasty.  I ended up doing 6, stopped by the house and pottied and fueled quickly and headed back out for another 4.  Took stella for the first 6 and deuce for the second 4.  Deuce is a ton slower than stella and tends to spook at things so he keeps me on my toes but we got it done.  No pics as my phone has been shutting down when I want to get it out and take pics when I run.  And I shattered the screen yet again.  Not sure I will be taking it on my runs for fear of it really screwing up.  This time, i really did a good job on it.  Think chunks of glass coming out.  Fixing it will just have to wait.  It is still functional at least.  I did see the coolest thing though.  Thousands of snow geese landing in a field where we were running. Looked like a goose tornado.  It was amazing and I was praying the whole time they didn't poop on stella and I.

A treadmill selfie.  This was a horrible pace but I am terrified of falling on the treadmill.  Not sure why.  I have the key attached to me so if I fall, it stops instantly but still am scared.  This was my five mile run.  Netflix saved my life and covered the display.   I did do a 10 minute pace run last night and while I was pretty scared the whole time and probably super tense, I did it.  I found the best way to not want to punch my eyes out is to watch a movie on netflix.  The problem is I think everyone and their brother was on netflix last night so I couldn't finish the breakfast club.  It made the run feel like torture.  

Had my first puking migraine in a long time.  Won't go into details but I think it was related to a)being stuck in the house for three days and b)running on the treadmill and being super tight in my neck/shoulder area.  I hope and pray it is a mild winter and I am not stuck on the treadmill all winter.  That was no fun and I missed out on a whole night with the fam because I was stuck upstairs praying to the porcelain gods.  

Had to work christmas eve but that was okay.  Both of my wonderful student workers were in town so they helped with the work we had to do and we had a nice long lunch.  I am really blessed to have such great kiddos in my lab.  Since christmas is in the middle of the week, we really don't get time off per se.  I took monday off because of the snow and might get friday off because of our sample flow.  We also have new years in the middle of next week so going to be a wonky week next week too.   We had christmas dinner on christmas eve which was a nice change of pace.  That way we could just enjoy christmas day and not have to worry about cooking and hurrying to feed everyone.   Andrew fell asleep super early so we em, helped santa get everything set up early.

Andrew still doesn't know exactly what is going on with the whole christmas thing, although he sort of has figured out what presents were.  I hadn't wrapped anything or set anything out early to avoid any problems with trying to explain to a one year old why he had to wait, but his daycare gave him his wrapped present early.  Which meant he had a wrapped present to freak out about from friday till today.  Plus when the fam got here, all the wrapped presents they brought from all sides of the fam were under the tree.  He started pointing to them and started asking if he could unwrap them on a hourly basis.  Yet today, when he could finally unwrap them, he pretty much didn't want anything to do with them LOL! The year before, he was terrified when we unwrapped presents and would cry every time we would unwrap something.

Santa brought him a rocking horse that whinnies and makes other noises and a race track that has cars that you shake and they go.  He was scared of the horse for quite a while but finally warmed up to it and rode it albeit briefly.  The race track is pretty kid safe and pretty neat.  I have to admit, I played with it quite a bit this afternoon.

 I call this one, toddler melt down.  He woke up super early and then was a bit overwhelmed with the present opening.  He was stuck in the middle of the track and got a little pissed.

This was the mickey mouse chair that his granddaddy gordon got him.  It was a big hit.  He still can't figure out how to back up and sit down in it so we have seen some pretty spectacular mounts and dismounts.

The slinky was a big hit from santa.  Too bad our steps are too steep for it to work.  Will have to take it to the park and see how it works on slides and such.  

AND we found a train very similar to the one he loves so much at the discovery center.  The only issue is that the coupling is made differently so the trains don't stay together and that makes him a little mad.  Andrew got tons of cars, hot wheels and trains.  He will have enough presents to last him a while.  We have put some up so that we can bring things out like they are new and have divided toys between things that will live downstairs versus upstairs.  

And yes, the thomas obsession has begun:)