Christmas is Finally Over

As this weekend draws to a close, we can finally say Christmas is over. Sam and I took down the tree and put away all the ornaments and Christmas stuff on Friday as part of our stay-at-home snow day activities, and then we spent the weekend down at Ryan's parent's house for the final installment of Christmas.

Yesterday morning when Sam and I woke up, the thermometer was reading -9. Brrr. This arctic air has been a bit nuts! Ryan didn't bring enough cold-weather clothes for an early morning run outside, so he hopped right on the treadmill when he came downstairs, as he had to get his run in before heading to NH to pick up his grandparents. I know the treadmill might have been a better idea in terms of the pace workout on my schedule, but I ended up running outside around 10:00 am, because well, 1), I had the luxury of waiting and by 10:00, the temps had climbed to a balmy 5 degrees!; 2) I had no inside work-out clothes which would have meant running on the treadmill in either tights and a longsleeve shirt or my underwear. Neither were very appealing!; and 3) I really dilike the treadmill and will be anything to avoid it :) So, I suited up in a lot of layers and headed out. Georgetown got two feet of snow out of this storm (the jackpot, as the Weather Center called it), so the roads were pretty nasty, even though it was 18 hours after the storm ended. I couldn't manage the 7:30 pace I had in mind, but did manage 8:45s for the 5-mile loop, and on crappy, sloppy roads in single degree temps, that has to count, right?! ;) I'm saying yes! Ha.

Around lunchtime, Ryan's sister, brother-in-law and little 4 month old nephew arrived from NJ, so the whole family was there. It was really nice to see everyone, but I have admit that I'm glad we're home and we can put the holidays to bed. Things got stretched out this year with a lot of different celebrations over the past few weeks, all of which were great fun, but it's been a bit exhausting.

Still, we had a great time hanging out with everyone. And of course, Sam loves little Gavin, and is a great big cousin, very helpful and wanting Gavin to be happy.

Cute cousins :-)

Today, temps were much more reasonable, and since Ryan and I waited to head to the other Brad after Meg, Chris and Gavin took off, we didn't start running until 10:30 or so. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and a lot of other people had the same idea! Honestly, I was surprised by the traffic the trails had seen. Wow. Impressive! And there were a lot of people out enjoying the morning too. We headed off, snowshoes in hand, to run along the pavement to the start of the GAC Fat Ass course, our go-to loop :-) Conditions were great and the trails were in pretty good shape and moderately packed for the majority of the way. 6 miles is the longest snowshoe run of the season, and it definitely felt like it in a few spots, but it really was lovely out and fun to be out on my snowshoes with Ryan. The funny thing is that In fact, we were so happy with how it went that when we got home, we had a quick lunch, and then packed Irene, Dana and Sam up in the car with their snowshoes and went back for more! 

Of course, the second snowshoe of the day was done at a bit more mellow pace than the first, but it was great to be out in the woods on the snow with everyone! Lots of fun!!

Sam leading the way

Sam with Grammie and Grampie

Silliness on the trails

Tromping through the deep snow

Group portrait out on the trails ;-)