Ugly sweater anyone?

The holiday season brings out the best in me. I love the baking frenzy that ensues in order to spread around some homemade holiday love. I am also one of those people that actually likes Christmas music. My personal fav is I want a Hippopotomus for Christmas. This song is just so funny and the little girl singing it sounds so desperate to have Santa bring her a hippo down the chimney. I also love a good, ugly sweater. You heard me correctly- a GOOD UGLY sweater.

A little background on the ugly sweater thing. Years ago, I was introduced to this at a party honoring the ugly sweater. The point is to show up to the party with a hideous sweater- holiday themed or not. I found  my first ugly sweater at a Thrift store. I had to be a little sensitive to those around me in case I was actually picking up something that other people thought was good looking. The sweater was white with snowflakes on it. Granted it was ugly but not hideous.

Fast forward to the Holidays 2010. At work, we decided to have an ugly sweater contest. I knew I wanted to make mine so I would have one for years to come and not have to worry about finding one at the Thrift store again. I had some stiff competition and the jury is out on who will win the title at work, but one of my co-workers has a beauty of an ugly sweater. Her sweater was bought at a retail establishment ( who shall remain nameless)  in the ladies section- this sweater had the 12 days of Christmas embellished on it and it was gorgeous. I wish I had taken a picture of it to post here. Anyhow, I made mine and Voila! Here it is:

Now, disregard the purple rain boots and shorts even though this adds to the beauty of my outfit. Greg found me little sweater ornaments to sew onto my sweater. Awesome, right? And I also sewed on glitter ornaments- snowflakes and reindeer. I am so proud of my sweater. I cannot wait to wear it next year!

Is this ugly or just unique? An woman at work complimented me and said it was the cutest sweater she had seen. I didn't have the heart to tell her it was supposed t be the ugliest sweater she had ever seen. To each his own!

Baby it's cold outside

Tis the season for hot soups and chilis and breads. I love my crock pot. There are so many delicious things you can make while you are out running errands, at work or just hanging around the house. Our crock pot has been the holder of pulled pork. The recipe I got from my mom is pretty simple- pork shoulder ( which apparently is a fancy name for the pig's butt) on a bed of onions adn cloves of garlic and a can of Coke. When all is said and done, you add a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce and Voila! you have a delicious meal.

Our red crock has also been full of Mac n' Cheese-  recipe courtesy of Paula Deen. B-U-T-T-E-R and
C-H-E-E-S-E do not have a minor role in this dish, but those of you who know Ms. Deen know that low cal is not her forte. A host of other things have come from our culinary crock- hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps, wonton soup and of course our favorite- homemade chili.

This chili is some of the best chili we have ever had. We are fortunate enough to have a friend named Todd who likes chili as much as we do. He was kind enough to fork over the recipe a few years back when we were on the hunt for a to-die-for chili recipe. We struck gold when Todd gave us that recipe. It has become one of our staples when using the crock-pot. Served up with homemade corn bread ( I am still on the hunt for the perfect recipe) it fills us up and leaves us with big smiles. And sometimes a little tummy ache from eating too much!

In a way, the crock pot is our way of bringing calm times to the house. It has brought friends together and even given Greg and I the opportunity to spend a few more minutes together when our days have been so hectic. So this holiday season, I am giving one of my many thanks to the Crock Pot. You have made my life so much easier and my life is much more delicious because of you. May your pot always be full and never bring disappointment in years to come!

Running into the holiday

On the first Sunday in December, Sacramento plays host to thousands of runners who come to run the California International Marathon. Living in East Sac allows us to be a spectator in such an amazing feat of endurance, mental stamina and physical fitness. In years past, my husband, Greg has run the marathon. In fact he has run it several times. When I ask him about how difficult it is to sustain a steady pace of pounding on the pavement for 26.2 miles he says that the finish is worth all the pain you may be feeling. When we see all those runners pass by our house, it makes me want to run the whole thing. For that moment, it gives me this overwhelming feeling of a goal that would be so amazing to achieve.

I hate running. Let me just put that out there. I love exercise but I hate running. Which is why I decided to put together a relay team and run the CIM as a relay. Bizarre, right? I decided a few months ago that I wanted to achieve a running goal. Running the whole marathon would be too much, too soon. So I settled on gathering some girlfriends and convincing them to run it with me! All of us were not runners. In fact, all of us are usually cyclists. This would be a true test of our wills!

Team Banana Stompers

 December 5th was yesterday. The day of reckoning. The day where I would either  triumph or choke. I had been having some running injury issues the last 2 weeks of training. Shin splints are fairly common for those runners who increase their mileage at a fast rate. My portion of the marathon would be 7 miles. So, I was definitely trying to get my mileage up there in order to not crash and burn on the day of the race. Fast forward to race day- I was still having leg problems. My shin splints had subsided but my left calf muscle felt like someone had socked it. This was not what I wanted for race day!

Stretching it out

Mentally, I had prepared myself to do my best and no matter what happened that I would finish my leg of the relay even if I had to walk the whole way. Little did I know that the other gals were feeling the same way- except maybe for my friend Jen! She had finished a half marathon recently enough so 5.6 miles was nothing! All of our race day jitters seemed to go away because we rocked it out! My leg was 7 miles and I ran the whole way! I never stopped because I knew that if I did, I would want to just quit. I ran my fastest miles at this race and that was a feat I could be proud of!

The things I have to say are this:
- Thank you to the little boy and little girl who were giving out high fives on my last mile to go- You gave me that push I needed
- Running is mostly mental and of course with a little bit of physical fitness thrown in- if you think you can do it, you can!
- Music is key to running long distances- I had my Lady Gaga and Ting-Tings pumping in my ears and boy was it motivating
- Big shout out to my girl friends, Jennifer Marie, Whitney and Amanda who took on this goal of mine with smiles and amazing run-power! Without you I would have given up
- Even bigger shout out to my hubby Greg who was our chauffeur to the exchange points. You are an amazing man and I am so grateful for your support. And it was great to see you when I hit the wall ( there was a physical wall you ran through on the leg of the relay!) I needed that extra boost!

We did it!!

Since this month is full of traditions, this was one I wanted to write about since it is a Sacramento tradition. We have already talked about doing it next year, but maybe switching the relay mileage around! Our team name was Banana Stompers and we sure as heck did that! Our finish time was 4:19
(4 hours and 19 minutes) and in the women's open relay category we placed 77th out of 226 teams. Way to rock it!

Finishers medal trimming the tree!