Hey guys! Since 12 Days Of Christmas is going on, I haven’t had much opportunity for a normal post! I wanted to catch you all up on some things and eats!

First, here’s a Turkey Trot photo! The biggest reason I chose to do a Turkey Trot 10k specifically was to increase my ability to eat. I think that may have been counterproductive-I am incapable of taking a race easy and pushed more than I was planning, which ended up kind of killing my appetite. Not that I still didn’t stuff myself! But I swear I must be getting old-I feel like it takes less and less each year to fill me up. Bye bye teenage metabolism…

I had a healthy dinner of cheesecake on Thanksgiving before being dragged out “Black Friday” shopping. I put that in quotes because it wasn’t even Friday so you really can’t even call it that. I of course went with the blessing of my parents-to be honest I didn’t want to buy anything but it was a chance to hang out with some friends form high school who I basically haven’t seen in 2 years. It was crazy-at the mall we ran into SO many people from high school! That was fun! But after being awake at 5:30 for the turkey trot, shopping at 1am was the last thing I wanted to do. And my feet were demolished-they’ve been bothering my lately in eh arches, and standing around a lot on the day of a race was not good. 

Here’s Friday breakfast-ambrosia and an english muffin.

A lot of time yesterday was spent prepping things for 12 Days of Christmas, including tons of baking. 

Then, it was time to get a tree! Whole Foods has a ton of beautiful, full, healthy trees, for a very good price. They were probably half of what we’d pay at a lot. 

Here’s the winner!

We could tell how fresh it was quite easily-we’ve never had a tree anywhere near this heavy before (meaning it’s full of water). My dad can normally manage the tree on his own, but this time I had to help him carry it and load it onto the car-putting those Crossfit skills to work! Push press to the top of the car? 

I also bought some dorm decorations-a mini tree that came with lights, plus this cute little poinsettia! We can’t have poinsettias at home since they’re poisonous to cats (and my cats like to eat flowers), but there are no cats in my dorm!

This means we’re going to have 3 plants in our tiny dorm room, so it’s basically going to be a forest. 

In the evening, I had the pleasure of going to a class at my old Crossfit! It was great. So, so great. I miss that gym so much. I can’t even explain what is so different, but they are so much more my Crossfit family. 

The strength portion was bench presses. I haven’t bench pressed in a good 2 years. And even then I’ve only done it like 2x. Needless to say my bench press was pretty weak. I’m not great at arm strength things in general-my legs much stronger than my arms. 

The WOD was 400m run-12 deadlifts and box jumps-400m run-10 deadlifts and box jumps-400m run-5 deadlifts and box jumps. It was a good and fun one! There’s no question my box jumps have improved-this height seemed a bit scary for a WOD before I left but it was no big deal this time! Maybe what I don’t like about my school Crossfit is that not a lot of the WODs involve lifting really heavy. Who knows. I actually stayed a little late to help them build a giant structure to hang 15 foot ropes from-which was an interesting process to say the least!

Then, it was dinnertime!

My grandma is the best-she made a ton of butternut squash soup just for me! It is absoutely amazing topped with creme fresh and cranberry orange relish. So. Good.

Plus some other leftovers!

Then, one of my best friends came over to help me bake the Healthy Polka Dot cookies. We had a blast. I totally winged the recipe (I guess you guys probably don’t want me to tell you I had no idea what I was doing and said YOLO multiple times when adding ingredients), but it came out PERFECT. Exactly what I was hoping and more.

Selfie with a dirty blender.

Confession-we weren’t really sure what the texture would be like-we thought it might turn out more like cake, so here’s a shot from the outtake reel:

I mean, they did make perfectly fine mini cupcakes, but I preferred the cookie form!

Then, we went and saw Catching Fire! I’m not sure how I rallied myself for a 10:30pm movie, but the movie was really good!

I actually went to the midnight premier of the first Hunger Games! I read the books a while ago, and the 2nd and 3rd book kind of blurred together in my mind, so I wasn’t exactly expecting the ending, but I really liked it! Although cliffhangers? Not cool. (At least I considered this a cliffhanger.)

Well, now we’re all caught up! I have a track workout and weights planned for today-I’m not the Jingle Barbells workout-and then dinner with another friend later! Hope you all are doing well!

Best movie you’ve seen lately?