Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you had a wonderful long weekend with great food, family, and fellowship. 

Our first celebration of the holiday was at the kids' elementary school, where we went on Tuesday afternoon for the All-School Thanksgiving Sing. It was the first time either Will or I have made it and was really cute. 

On Tuesday, Annika was interested in learning how to play the piano and worked her way through the whole beginner book in one day! This is her the next morning, playing the final song in the book, which, fittingly, is a Christmas piece.

On Wednesday, we drove up to DeSoto to stay with Brenda and Larry during Thanksgiving break. Will's cousin Bonnie was in town as well - what a wonderful treat! The kids absolutely adored her and had a great time monopolizing her attention.

On Thanksgiving morning, our whole family signed up to do a Thanksgiving Day 5K (we all walked together). It was around 25 degrees and was much colder than it had been the last couple of days. Daniel was grumpy in the beginning but by the 2 mile mark was full of energy.

Bundled up! This was one of five Thanksgiving Day races in the KC area.

Looking out over the starting line. There were over 5,000 people registered and they had a staggered start with the walkers starting after the actual runners.

After the race, we headed on over to Dick and Peggy's house in Olathe, where Peggy had been hard at work cooking all kinds of delectable delights. This was one of three kinds of homemade pie - apple, pumpkin, and Smearcase.

What our kids spent much of Thanksgiving doing - Annika reading Harry Potter, book 5.

Daniel running around, full of energy.

Gramps carving the turkey! This was a brine turkey and was absolutely delicious.

The table!

Getting ready to eat, with our family, Grammy and Gramps, and Grandma Green. Thanks for the wonderful day, Dick and Peggy!

Annika has officially surpassed Grammy in height...the other grandparents have been warned.

That evening, we ventured back to Nonnie and Pa's house for an evening of board game playing, movie watching, and leftover eating. This is the game ImagineIf and is truly fun for all ages.

You can see that someone was pretty excited to watch Frozen again.

And was pretty excited the next morning about a breakfast of hot biscuits.

Thanks for the wonderful hospitality, Nonnie and Pa! And so wonderful to see you, Bonnie!

Friday and Saturday were absolutely gorgeous weather-wise. We took full advantage when we returned Friday afternoon of the 65-degree weather by playing all kinds of games in the driveway.

Family bike ride, including a stop at Bergman to play tennis on the blacktop. Heaven! I neglected to bring my phone, but we also went to the treelighting of the Tallest Christmas Tree in Kansas on Friday evening (down at the Blue Earth Plaza), and the weather was so warm that you didn't even need a coat.

Saturday morning, my friend Jenny and I went for a long walk, and then we hosted a lunch for anyone who wanted to come. Counting us, I think we had around 25 people, and the most delicious part was the monkey bread that my friend Jen made. I think I ate at least five servings. So much fun to see everyone - thank you all for coming!

Saturday afternoon, we decorated for Christmas, in keeping with our tradition of doing so over Thanksgiving weekend. Will worked on the outside lights, the kids decorated our pre-lit artificial tree, and I worked on our Christmas cards.

Outside lights at night - love our front window and how it works to see the Christmas tree through there.

Our friends had an extra ticket available to the KU-KSU football game on Saturday, and Will was thrilled to get to go to the Sunflower Showdown. Thank you, Andy and Jenny!

This morning was church morning, and what better time to take advantage of our new (inadvertent) matching sweater dresses than at church?! I ordered this dress online and Annika picked it out in the store when we went shopping last week, without having known about mine. AND Julie also ordered the exact same dress online, also unbeknownst to either of us - too bad it didn't fit her or we could have been triplets.

Will made an announcement at church about the upcoming Service of Decoration. For anyone who is bored, next Saturday morning at 9 a.m. they are getting ready for it. ;)

Annika acolyting!  I also got to fill in on bell choir, which I loved, and helped teach children's church and youth Sunday School today.

After church, we had lunch with our friends the Sutliff Sanderses, and then had Lily and Penny over to practice playing chess. There was chess playing, but even more playing Christmas songs on the piano and all singing together - so delightful. Then tonight, our friends Christine and Deanna invited us to Advent Night at their church, which was great fun. Here are all of the kids listening mesmerized to a story about the history of Santa Claus.

Lily and Annika in the photo booth, with their "naughty" and "nice" signs. Thanks so much, Christine!

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is December 1st and that the season of Advent and Advent Calendars are already upon us. We hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that your hearts are filled with peace as we approach the time of Christmas!

Stitch Fix - Yay or Nay?

Today is Thanksgiving, a day of giving thanks and thinking about the importance of all of the immaterial blessings in life. Well. It is somewhat inappropriate that this post is on Stitch Fix, a service that is completely frivolous and materialstic...and I love it. 

Stitch Fix is on online shopping service with a twist - you fill out an extensive online style guideline with your sizes, styles, and tastes. Then, a style guide assembles a surprise box of five items sent to you on a scheduled date. You pay a $20 styling fee that is applied to the cost of an item (so no fee if you buy an item). Any items that you don't want, you send back in a prepaid shopping bag within 3 days. If you keep all five items, you receive a 25% discount on the entire order. 

I had seen friends of mine who have used this and was intrigued - shopping is super stressful for me, and I am horrible at picking items out. The reported clothing prices had held me back - selecting "lowest available" prices still results in clothes priced comparable to non-clearance department store prices, which is more than I would normally pay, but decided to go for it recently. 

My order came yesterday and I drafted Will into being a photographer. This is on my phone so photos might be a weird size. 

Item 1 - short-sleeved layering tee. Will thought this looked like something you could get at Target. I thought it was super comfy and soft and loved it. Verdict: YAY.

Item 2 - layering scarf. You can write a note to your style guide requesting certain items, and I said I owned no scarves and would love to add one to my wardrobe. Each Stitch Fix order comes with a style guide that shows pictures and suggestions of how to wear an item, and they had a guideline for how to fold the scarf. I love the texture and how it pops out. Verdict: YAY. 

Item 3: Cardigan. This was again super soft and comfy, but very fitted. I loved how it felt and its slimming look. It might have been my favorite item. Verdict: YAY.  

Item 4: Demin jacket. This is another item that I wrote about in my note to my stylist, since it seems really versatile. The card showed the jacket being with buttoned up, but people I asked agreed it looked better open. I loved it! Verdict: YAY. 

Item 5 was a pair of jeans. These are "skinny jeans," which I don't currently own, and are tapered all the way through. They would be perfect with boots. Like everything else in the order, they were very soft and extremely comfortable. Verdict: YAY. 

So, from thinking that I would just try this service out and hoping I could find one item to cover the styling fee, I have decided to keep all five items (the 25% discount for all put me over the edge). I loved how fun and easy it was to try on clothes at home...but most of all, loved having someone much more stylish than I surprise me and pick out clothes.

So my question of Yay or Nay on Stitch Fix is a huge YAY. And to that, I say, Hurray! 

Route 66 Marathon

This weekend was the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa. Will and I had registered for this back in April and planned to each run the full marathon, while my awesome parents watched our kids for the weekend. However, Will's Achilles' tendon has been injured again (bummer!), so Will came along to spectate while I ran. It was an amazing weekend with a beautiful course, amazing volunteers and spectators, and weather that cooperated for the whole race. I can say that I definitely Got My Kicks on Route 66! Highly recommended.

We left town in Friday night and drove to my parents' house in Wichita. We all enjoyed breakfast out before Will and I headed to Tulsa. (Note - I am writing on my phone, so pics may be a weird size). 

Tulsa is about 3 hours away, and the first order of business was picking up our packets. I discovered that not only did I seed myself in a likely too-fast corral, I ordered a shirt that was too small. I was overly optimistic in April all around. 

Poor Will still picked up his packet and swag, which was kind of a weird experience. But hey, this included an actual Cowbell! 

We checked into our hotel next and laid out my race outfit, like Julie has taught me. The hotel was right by the start and we got a late checkout the next day at 3pm for booking in the race block. 

Food! Very important. Almost everything downtown was closed, so we were thrilled to find a Jimmy John's. 

Up next - driving the race course. Driving 26.2 miles through downtown and residential streets takes for.e.ver. 

University of Tulsa - this was around mile 20 or 21 on the course, and was already dark by the time we got there. 

We should have gone to carb load at dinner right away, but opted to waste time and watch HGTV. We discovered that close options were booked and drove to the suburbs instead where there were fewer swarms of hungry runners. 

This morning was the race morning! So convenient to be able to walk right out the door and to the race. I was in Corral C and the whole corral system (and the race) was incredibly well-organized. So excited! 

Panoramic view. There around 11,000 half and full marathoners, although I think only about 2,000 in the full. 

And we were off! The best part at the start was the giant confetti stream that everyone ran through. 

The half and full marathoners ran together for the first 12+ miles, so I had lots of company for the first part of the race. I ran/walked in 5 minute intervals, with adjustments for running down hills, and felt great. Much of the route was through beautiful residential areas - lots of rolling hills (who knew?!) and wonderful spectators. Will caught me at mile 10 and I felt great - a little under 2 hours at this point. 

It got much sparser once the half marathoners split off to finish. This was at the halfway point, at mile 13.1. I think I was at about 2:37 here. The route became more industrial but then went back to residential. 

Around mile 14 my legs started to hurt and I started to mentally fatigue and worry that I wasn't trained to run this far. I decided to power walk and run down the hills. This is a big reason I would like to do another, to train better and power through mental blocks. :) Speed walking is one of my favorite things and the miles rolled by with mainly walking with some running. 

I spotted Will at mile 24.5 and was thrilled to see him and was a little emotional about being done soon. ;) 

And the finish!!!! So very happy at this point. 

Official finish time was 5:37:55 and I was thrilled with it. I walked in Estes this summer 6:56 and had been hoping to break 6 hours, and was elated with my time. I felt great, probably too great, but what an incredible experience. And you can't beat spaghetti for post-race food. 

Bling! I was counted as a first time marathoner since I hadn't walked Estes when I entered, and had both a special bib and metal for this status. 

The Route 66 Marathon is a first-class marathon, and Tulsa is a great city. So filled with joy for this experience.