Post Christmas Post

Well the big day has come and gone.  All the presents have been opened, examined, and put away.  It is time to prepare for New Year's day and then 2013.  This might be my last posting for this year, unless I get motivated next Monday.  This posting also sets a new record for me with 50 posts, almost one/week. 

We had our first, significant snow fall - finally - last week catching just the edge of the blizzard that hit central Wisconsin.  While Madison had over 12 inches we came away with just 1-2, although we had a lot of rain.  That meant getting out to shovel the driveway so Jo could get out to work.  Wasn't enough snow to warrant firing up the snowblower so that thrill still remains.  With the snow came real winter weather with the temperatures dropping down into the twenties on average.  So out came all the warm winter clothes and coats.  Time to bundle up until April - maybe May.

Friday was the official start of our Christmas break.  Jo planned to take off the entire week so we are trying to be a little lazy and not do too much.  Friday night we popped some Papa Del's pizza in the oven and settled in to watch a movie afterwards with some nice toasty hot chocolate which felt good with the cold wind blowing outside.  Saturday after our morning run and lifting, Jo headed to brave the crowds in the mall to finish up her Christmas shopping while I did a little puttering around the house.  Later that night we headed to a neighborhood Christmas party.  Sunday morning was yoga and then we turned on our fireplace while reading the paper.  We caught the Packer's game in the afternoon before taking a nice long walk around the neighborhood to see everyone's Christmas decorations.

We continued to enjoy getting our runs over with in the morning on Monday, before walking down to a local bakery, a liquor, and a grocery store to pick up bread, prosecco (for New Year's), and cranberries (for Christmas dinner).  We also prepared our Christmas stuffing ahead of time to simplify the number of things we had to make on Christmas day.  We also decided to try making challah bread.  We found a recipe in one of our many cookbooks and, in my somewhat biases opinion, were very successful making both a great looking, but also, great tasting loaf.  My sister, Cheryl, came up in the evening and before picking her up, at the train station, we pulled out our ice skates (we both have pairs from high school that amazingly still fit, although the sharpness of the blades leave a lot to be desired) to do some ice skating at Red Arrow Park in downtown Milwaukee.  A video of Jo's skating prowess is below.



Christmas day we enjoyed connecting with various family members, many by video chat via Apple's cool Facetime technology, opening our presents, and chowing down on the traditional turkey dinner.  Unfortunately, Cheryl had to quickly head back home after only 24 hours with us due to her work schedule.   But we managed to catch either other up with all the family gossip.  Today we headed out for another chilly run since the wind had picked up and then went to a local running store to buy me some new running shoes.  We have both been running in the same make/model of shoe for over 25 years and we decided it was time to try out some of the latest technology.  So for the first time in a long, long time we will be running in something besides Saucony Shadow series shoes.  Let's hope my knees and ankles agree with the change!

Our best wishes to everyone for a wonderful and rewarding 2013!