Merry Christmas Eve!

I’m really looking forward to the next two days with my sisters!  Due to work and Nick being back home for the Holidays, I really haven’t had a chance to spend much time with them.  I’m off the rest of this week through Monday and although I have a trip planned over the weekend, I’ll be perched at home with my wonderful sisters!  Let’s just jump right in and do a quick re-cap to get y’all back up to speed on my life.

MARATHON TRAINING
It’s going fairly well, but has a lot of room for improvement.  I was sick for a week & a half, so I finally got back to running this past weekend.  I only managed 6 miles on Saturday and they brutally painful.  My hips & joints were pretty sore after that.  I rested on Sunday, but then did another 4 miles yesterday with Nick.  If you’ve been here long enough then you know that Nick’s family is just naturally athletic.  Here I am, training for a marathon and here Nick is, out of shape & running a mile or two every couple of days and he still finishes his 4 miles before me.  I was able to keep up with his pace for the first 2.5 or so, but after that… I let him be and took it a little slower.  My muscles were pretty tight, so we stopped to stretch mid-way in our run.  I’ve been learning a lot about proper nutrition for my marathon training and I have some major improvements to make!  I’ll be writing out a full blown regimen for myself so that I stay on track these last 2 months before the marathon.  I want to be as prepared as possible and right now… what I’m doing… it’s not going to cut it for the remainder of my training.  Once I get a format finalized of keeping track of all the things  I need to be doing, I’ll share that with y’all!  I’m off to run 6 miles today and 4 tomorrow with a whopping 14 mile long run on Saturday, but considering the most I’ve managed to do up to this point is 8…. I don’t see 14 happening right now, but I’m going to do as much as I can!

SATURDAY

On Saturday, I went to a beautiful ballet with my family hosted by Ballet Magnificat.  We are so blessed to have a ballet company right here in Jackson, MS that is globally well known for it’s dance & performance.  It was a free event, but they were accepting donations.  It was a long 2.5 hour performance with a short 15 minute intermission, but it was so fun and really beautiful!  I didn’t get many good pics of the performance, we were high up and the lighting wasn’t great.  After the performance, we went and ate Mexican. These days, I’m always disappointed in myself when I have Mexican because I leave feeling overly stuffed and gross.  I either need to cut back on the chips & salsa, order something that won’t make me feel so gross, or stop eating Mexican out all together!  Probably the latter.

Saturday night, Nick and I had were able to attend an engagement party for a high school friend of mine.  Unfortunately, I didn’t snap a picture together, but I did get to see my very best friend who has been living in Colorado the past few years.  I’m so incredibly blessed by this friendship that words could never express how I feel about Patty!  We hung out during the party and then headed back to her husband’s parents after the party to chat even more.  I was great friends with Matt, her husband, in high school and then when he went off to West Point for school, we became the best of friends!  I have a very honest soul…. and I simply tell it like it is.  There have been so many times in my life where that has distanced me and a friend, I have regretted that honesty component of my personality because of the amazing friendships I’ve had in the past that no longer exist.  Oh how I wish I could go back and change what I said or held my tongue.  What’s beautiful though is when you find a friend who appreciates your honesty and loves you for that and returns the honesty to you.  Not in hateful ways, I can assure you… the things I’ve said to friends in the past were never to be hateful, they truly were meant out of love, but they weren’t necessarily received that way.  Patty has been brutally honest with me in the past and that is one of the reasons I love her so dearly because I need that in my life, I WANT that in my life.  And I’m so thankful that she allows me to be the same way with her, although I’m fairly certain I need the brutal honest opinion a lot more than she does haha – she is simply one of the best people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing!  I will say that despite the few friends I’ve lost in past years, I’ve gained just as many who truly appreciate this aspect of my personality and although Patty was the first friend that I felt truly understand this about me, she certainly wasn’t my last.

Ok, enough sappy about my BFF!

SUNDAY

Sunday was a full day of travel from Jackson, MS to Brownsville, TN.  I went and visited another one of those truly honest and beautiful friends of mine that I can be 100% myself with!  When I arrived, we spent the better part of the morning just catching up.  I loved hearing about her new job & adventures in Virginia and I gave her a quick run down of things here with work & Nick & my marathon training.  Her parents arrived back from the store and we made a few snacks to enjoy throughout the day while we chatted.

Lacy got a little jealous that I took a picture of the food before I asked to get a picture with her haha which is understandable!  So we attempted our first picture together, but forgot that we both have glasses now.  We attacked each other with our glasses a few times before snapping this beauty.

Our day was pretty relaxed, we went to Walmart for a few things and were going to attempt a craft project, but that didn’t end up working out because we didn’t have the right screws for something and then Lacy’s mom accidentally stuck the screw driver in her finger.  We gave up on that project for the moment.  We went through some of her mom’s cardigans and clothes – I left with 2 bags full of stuff.  I also landed myself 3 pairs of jeans.  I think I’m set for the rest of winter!  Another fun thing we did – my hair!  Lacy bought 2 new styling products the day before and she wanted to test out the curling on my hair.  She did a great job and my hair was all bouncy the rest of the day.  The look even lasted me through Monday which was perfect because I woke up too late to wash or do anything with my hair for work.

Our day ended on a few high notes – dinner which included corn on the cob, creamed cornbread, sauteed veggies, mashed potatoes, and black eyed peas.  We also began planning out our training for the start of 2015 with our beautiful Erin Condren Planners!

It was the most perfect day with the most perfect friend!  The rest of the week, I’ve been finishing up Christmas shopping and spending time with Nick.  Now I’m off to spend the day with my sisters.  Vanessa is wanting to try Vegan for the month of January so I’m about to introduce her to Vegucated!  If you’ve ever thought about going vegetarian or vegan, I highly recommend watching this fun documentary.  Hope y’all have a very Merry Christmas!

• Are you ready for Christmas?  Is your shopping done?  Or will you be out today shopping for last minute presents?
• What are your Christmas Eve traditions?