christmas time

"If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actualy is all around." 
- prime minster, love actually (the film)

christmas comes and goes so fast and before i head back to work tomorrow,
i wanted to be sure to capture a few moments from our day.  it was a beautiful morning here...sunny,
cool and crisp outside.

the boys were up at the crack of dawn {yet again}. i keep wondering when the sleeping in will start but it hasn't yet. this year i took an idea i read about and implemented a new tradition.  i taped wrapping paper over our library door to keep the boys from coming out of the back part of the house before we were up which meant no peeking and it allowed c and i time to prepare the camera
on the tripod to catch video of the morning.

at 7am, we let them go and they ran through the wrapped door, making their way
to the tree in the living room to open his gifts. finn was thrilled to find a star wars lego
set he asked for, some new books and the #1 thing on this list, quantum, a space strategy
game had discovered months back and was dying to get.  

scout was happy santa brought him a new soccer net, keeper gloves, a star wars lego set
and two boxed sets of chapter books, one series he's already completed. *sigh*.  we truly can't keep enough books on hand for him which is why we are heading to the library this afternoon. grandma gerber sent him the book Scat and we are having a blast reading it before bed. finn, our tween, even comes and sits on the bed to listen....that's a testament to carl hiassen's writing.  he's absolutely amazing!

c and i exchanged small gifts, played quantum with the boys ALOT, and tried selecting tile for our master bathroom remodel. it's not easy....especially when our tastes are higher than our budget.
we'll get there....

jingle bell run just might be a new tradition

it's no secret i enjoy running, but once i hit the 40, my marathon and half marathon days ceased.
i tried to ignore the signs, but then i wised up and realized that if i want to remain active during
my silver haired years, i need to listen to my body and stop the long runs.


i can and will however do smaller runs, so when my girlfriend aspen and i learned of a run in
beautiful balboa park just before christmas, we thought it would be the perfect way to burn a
few calories we've accrued from drinking those seasonal starbucks drinks and spend time together
with our boys. she has two sons that are close in age to finn and scout, and all have known each
other since preschool.


we signed up early, i picked up all our bibs and met the gang at the park to run 3 miles.
we all wore green and with a crisp morning, we were all excited about the run.  though we
started together, the boys quickly raced ahead and said they'd meet us at the finish line.
we smiled and joked about the day days of pushing the boys in jogging strollers, and later
urging them along to keep up with us.  sometime, in the recent past, things flipped and we
are the ones having to keep up with them.


we had a wonderful morning, stopping to get a lite breakfast afterwards and talked about
making this a new holiday tradition.  the boys cheered at that idea so we plan on being
back out there next year.



mason (9), jackson (11), finn (12) and scout (9), aspen + angela