Tangent Thursday (holidays)

It's officially been 1 week since I've been at work and I am loving this time off! Quite a bit has happened in the last week

• On Sunday I said goodbye to an old trusty friend- 2002 Camry I got 2 weeks after moving to Nashville in 2010. When I got her she had 165,000 miles, and in the almost 3 years together I managed to hand her off at 211,200 miles. We ventured to a lot of states together in my half marathon quest, but it was time for someone newer...

Meet her replacement, 2010 Camry (23,000 miles)- I named her Sparkle as an inside joke to a few of my friends (Merry Christmas to me) 

It just so happens that right around the corner from the dealership is the local running store here in Dayton, so naturally I had to add some flair within 5 minutes of driving her off the lot. (Yes, I am one of "those" people who feel naked without 13.1 sticker. If there was a "racing the states" sticker, I would totally have that too) 

Personally, I'm a butt girl, so wanted you all to get a good look at her caboose- ain't she cute?!?

• My dad turns 60 on Dec 30 and mom turns 60 Jan 6, so the 3 of us kids have been putting our heads together to get them something really nice. I originally wanted to get them an Alaskan Cruise- neither have been to Alaska so I thought it would be an exciting new opportunity--- after mulling it over it made more sense to give them what they REALLY want, time with all of us. We announced on Sunday to them that we're taking a family vacation to Outer Banks June and here is the place we rented for a week (we haven't taken a family vacation since I was in college- Eric was still married, Andy was single, and obviously there were zero grandkids, so this should be a whole new experience)

Needless to say they were beyond surprised and touched that we planned it out for them. 

• I've watched a ridiculous amount of movies in my lazy stupor- The Vow, Ted, Beastly, Ruby Sparks, In Time, Must Love Dogs- top 2 faves that I highly recommend:

Completely inappropriate, yet highly entertaining. I even cried a little at the end. If you are offended by profanity, do not watch this movie

• Every Christmas Eve we decorate sugar cookies--- there is always an unspoken competition of the prettiest and ugliest cookies (no prizes) Andy couldn't make it down this year since Courtney is due shortly with their 2nd child so that made it easier for me to snag both the ugliest and prettiest title!!!

There is a cookie under there, I promise

Was surprised dad chose my mitten as prettiest... i attribute it to the sparkles 

• Santa was good to me this year- Running-wise I only asked for compression gear which both brothers pulled through. Eric remembered seeing a Post HERE about me testing out 110% compression sleeves and got me a pair for after my long runs! Whats so awesome is that he had to go through all my blog posts (this one was from April) to see what they were called. Guess it pays to blog about things you like ;) Andy got me the hot pink marathon socks I had been eyeing from Procompression for quite some time! 

The big gift was both myself and mom got Nexus 10 tablets!! My dad is anti-apple everything so an Ipad is out of question, but it turns out after all the reviews I've been reading, its far superior to an Ipad anyway, so win win :)  I started downloading all the free books for Kindle- turns out to buy a book, its actually cheaper to go to the store??? (I don't get that) 

• Mom got Just Dance 4 for a family gift---- there is no putting this lightly, but I am amazingly awful at this. Tracie, Eric, my mom, and Kory all murdered me. I've danced at least 20 times on it and I can honestly say I've only won 3 or 4 times- how does this happen??
• I got to hang out with my best friend Brandon from highschool who I haven't seen in 3 or 4 years---- its great when you can immediately pick up where you left off without skipping a beat. Now that he's back in states for good, I'm hoping we'll get to keep in touch more regular when I visit home or he comes to TN to visit his sister

• In Columbus today- since Andy and SIL couldn't come to us, we came to them-- presents, drinking, eating, and playing games will surely ensue the rest of the evening till I pick up Mark from airport at 1:30am- lets hope his flight doesn't get delayed any further. 

How were your holidays?

Did Santa treat you well??