Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! May you have a day full of joy.

We spent our day baking, wrapping, cleaning and playing!

Now we just wait for Santa to come, just two more sleeps!

Cory is now off until the new year and I am excited for some quality family time.

I hope you are enjoying these days before the holidays and getting some sleep! I remember my mom telling me about how she and my dad would stay up all night on Christmas Eve getting everything done for us.

Hello! I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday week no matter what you celebrate.

We are gearing up for Christmas so things are busy! I promised myself back in August that I would post everyday for the rest of the year to really document this time in our lives, and so far other than a few technical issues when a post went up a little late I have met that goal.

This week some posts, like this one, might be short as I focus on my family and celebrating the season. But the plan is to be here every day.

So Merry 2020 to you and yours from these cuties.

It’s officially baking week! I have handful of favorite holiday treats that I make every year to share with family and friends.

I thought I would share a few incase you are looking for some fun easy recipes to try:

Grinch Cookies:

https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/cran-pistachio-cookies/e36c24c7-851f-4785-8a9e-13672ef9d97c

These are so easy, delicious and unique. We call them grinch cookies because of their green color.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Fudge

https://www.myfoodandfamily.com/recipe/057411/creamy-marshmallow-peanut-butter-fudge

This fudge is so good and again easy to make! We also make our chocolate fudge using this recipe by subbing chocolate chips in and adding chopped walnuts.

Cranberry Orange Cake

Cranberry Orange Cake

I am not a hug fan of pie and right after thanksgiving I like something different. This cake is SO good! It’s unique and a very good replacement for pie.

Monkey Bread

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/7110/quick-and-easy-monkey-bread/

These are our Christmas morning tradition. They have to sit overnight but are again easy and so good. Maybe not as pretty as cinnamon rolls but I think they taste better.

Peppermint Bark

https://www.dinneratthezoo.com/peppermint-bark-recipe/

I always make this peppermint bark for my family for their stockings.

Truffles

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/41236/easy-decadent-truffles/?internalSource=hub%20recipe&referringContentType=Search&clickId=cardslot%202

These are Cory’s favorites but I don’t always have time to make them so they are great valentines treats as well.

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What are some of your favorite treats?

The Marathon Project is happening today! I really can’t wait until there are major marathons to participate in and spectate again.

I didn’t get to watch the race live but will be tuning in tonight to NBCSN

I really hope the olympics can run safely in 2021!!!

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What sport are you most excited to see go back to normal?

Not much to report around here….I like to keep things short on the weekends because we all have too much to do, especially this time of year!

We started our day out with making cookies.

It’s always interesting when you have little helpers in the kitchen. We made THESE cookies. They are so easy which is nice when working with a two and four year olds.

The kids cuddled on the couch, I love seeing all of them together.

Time to say goodbye to this furniture we get our new couch set this weekend. Pretty excited so day goodbye to this couch, loveseat and coffee table!

We then met some friends at the park to play and go sledding. I think sledding is Cannon’s favorite winter activity by far.

Our friends made the cutest melting snowman cookies!

Emmy approved!

Cannon did too, please ignore my half done kitchen…..we are getting to it.

I went to get a few last Christmas gifts, Cannon and Emerald are now asking Santa for skate boards. I am not comfortable with them trying to ride a skateboard just yet so these scooters will have to do:

The wheels light up so hopefully that is close enough.

Also I found this mini charger that would make an excellent stocking stuffer!

How perfect to throw in your bag so you never run out of battery.

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Still no wrapping done. Guess it’s going to be a late Chrsitmas Ever for us.

How is your last weekend before Christmas going?

I read this article on willpower and found it really intetesting:

https://www.irunfar.com/2020/12/the-riddle-of-will.html

I have found that my success relies more on building habits than willpower on its own.

I can’t believe it’s just one week until Christmas. I was feeling so ahead, doing a bunch of shopping in November (online) but then work got a little crazy and I haven’t wrapped a single present.

We had Cannon’s last day of school for the semester, he got to wear PJs just like last year. Hopefully soon he will get to see the inside of his classroom again!

We had my parents come over so our puppies could have a playdate in the backyard. The kids enjoyed seeing their grandparents and playing the backyard.

It was Cannon’s half birthday so we had special hot coco to celebrate

Four years ago Cannon got to try his first solid food, he loved it!

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What are your thoughts on willpower?

Are you ready for Christmas?

If you are getting bored with your go to running workouts or just want something new and fun to do over winter break Active list a fun list of 12 workouts to try:

https://www.active.com/running/articles/the-12-workouts-of-christmas

We are navigating the last few days of school before a long break and trying to plan something fun to do. It’s a little harder with COVID and winter but I am itching to have some adventures.

Cannon doing online school.

Emmy gets her tablet during class time so Cannon and I can focus on his school.

We have been enjoying the snow in our backyard as well as meeting friends at the sledding hill.

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Now that school is wrapping up and Christmas is next week I have started to think about making all the Christmas treats. I plan to list them here when I get them all together but look at this super cute idea from @disney_at_home

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Trying any new workouts or treats this season?

I am finally getting back into a good morning routine up early and running. I need to add in some other components like spinning and strength training but it’s a work in progress.

I love this article from Trail Runner, it’s a plan with great resources about how to get back into it to have a breakthrough year in 2021.

https://trailrunnermag.com/training/a-12-week-training-plan-to-prepare-you-for-breakthroughs.html

Some of the resources listed are amazing:

Key resources:

4-Minute Wake-Up Legs warm-up routine (before all runs)

3-Minute Mountain Legs strength routine (when noted). Important: when “Mtn legs” is in bold, you can do the Speed Legs routine below if you need more strength work.

8-Minute Speed Legs strength routine (when noted)

Upper body strength recommendations (do every day)

[SOURCE]

With people starting to get a vaccine to Covid-19 today if feels like the second half of 2021 might actually be real. I feel motivated to really get to work on my goals now so that I am ready to get out there once we have our vaccine (yes we will be getting it) and the world has reopened. I feel so excited thinking of having a “normal” summer.

We had a pretty normal day with school time. I can’t believe Cannon only has one more day of school before winter break, he has a full three weeks off then goes back online until the end of January. If our Covid numbers look better at the end of January then he can go back in-person after that.

Writing letters to Santa:

This is our first year doing so and I will miss it so much when Cannon’s writing is different than this:

Cannon told me what to write for the letter and signed his own name.

We had one of our favorites, salmon and broccoli for dinner.We also had root vegetables with it.

Then at bed time Cannon and I dug into his dinosaur book.

He is really into dinosaurs right now. I can’t wait to take him to the dinosaur museum in Moab.

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Do you feel like the end is in sight now?

What are you looking forward to most when Covid isn’t such a concern anymore?

I have been enjoying the snowy runs lately, I think running in the snow might be my favorite. The fresh snow also left a nice backdrop for seeing Santa.

Our visit to Santa looked a little different from past years, but we made the best of it.

We found a place with a cute little set-up with an outdoor socially distant Santa for pictures.

They also gave out a doughnut decorating kit from a local bakery.

Cannon was pretty excited about it.

Emmy was into it too!

The only reason I have Snapchat on my phone is because they love it so much #tooold

We spent the afternoon at the sledding hill.

Cannon loves it, Emmy loves playing in the snow and going down the hill with Cannon. But also she refuses to wear her gloves then complains of her hands being too cold, being two is hard.

I then spent the evening getting our Christmas cards ready to send. A little late but better than never!

Do you send Christmas cards? I feel like most people don’t these days but I grew up with my mom doing it every year so it feels like a fun thing to do.