2014 Holiday To Do List

In case you're new here...I have a terrible memory. I am a list queen but as soon as something is marked off the list it is gone forever. Not too big a deal you would think, except when it comes to family time. 

Every holiday I keep a list in my head (my first mistake) of all the things I would like to do. Then the holiday comes and goes and I've done a couple things but I have no record of having done those things so I bemoan by existence saying I'm a terrible mom for not doing things with my kids, I'm always home, I never get to do nuthin' and so on. This is a big reason why I'm on Facebook and Instagram all the time. I can look back on the photos and and say "Look! I did it! And I did an awesome job! Look how awesome I am!" :) 

Which brings us to this post. Here is my list of things I want to accomplish this holiday season!

-First and foremost, I want to have a clean and fresh home. We're working on getting the clutter out (thank GOD!) and I have a bunch of stuff I want to sell on Craigslist, donate, and just plain throw away. Barry is finally getting the idea that less is more...and he is going away on a feature the first three weeks of December which means I'll be able to get more stuff out of the house! :D

-I want to spend time with both sides of the family but I also want to have an intentional Christmas at our house. I don't want to be lazy because we will be spending time away from our house on Christmas Day. I won't be making a thanksgiving dinner this year because we will be out all day, I don't want this to happen with Christmas as well.  I want to make a great Christmas meal with table settings and everything. No more skating by just because we don't have company. We are worth linen napkins! ;)

-I want to decorate the house in a timely fashion. Two years ago we decided that the Strickland Christmas season officially starts the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We spend Friday doing a general cleanup around the house and then Saturday morning we go pick out a Christmas tree! 

-I want to send out Christmas cards out the first week of December. 

-I want all presents bought by the second week of December. I forsee a lot of amazon purchases this year. 

-My mom and I always go crazy with the cookie making. I think since this year will be the first year in their new house this will be the First Annual Clark House Cookie Fest! We usually only do chocolate chip cookies and fudge but with Pinterest being the best thing ever and my baking skills getting better and better we will try some new recipes this year!

-I want to start some Christmas traditions with the boys:

Watch Christmas movies

Make Christmas Eve Boxes

Take them to go see Christmas Lights

Make an activity based Advent Calendar

Santa Pictures!!!!

Read Christmas books - I'm going to buy three classic Christmas books and then place a scrapbook sticker envelope thing on the back cover of each book. Every year we will get a pic of us reading the book to the boys and place it in the envelope. Every year we will open the envelope and squeal over how tiny the boys were the year before :)

These are just some of the things I would like to do this year. I'm sure I'll come back and edit and add to this list as Pinterest explodes with all things Christmas. 

*** Edit ***

Ideas for next year:

-Definitely sending out photo holiday cards instead of regular cards!

-I want to make a small gift for the neighbors that distribute our monthly civic club newsletter. Something with a mason jar of course. ;)

What are some of your holiday traditions?

Pennsylvania Trip: The Driving

Last week my mom decided to invite me along for an impromptu trip to see her father, my grandfather, up in Pennsylvania. Traveling with three babies is no joke but we made do. By the end of the trip my mom and I were completely spent but we did have fun!

We made a LOT of pit stops. In all it took us three days to get there and three days to get back. 

Bear Bear discovered puddles and it was the cutest thing EVER!!! I didn't even mind the sopping wet shoes. :)

And William discovered air conditioners. At every hotel he crawled from the mirrors to the ACs and back again. He would turn his face away from the air flow and then slowly turn it back and act all suprised when it blasted him in the face. The giggles were endless. :)

There were some moments of silence and we savored those brief times when all the babies fell asleep at the same time. 

This was at Elmwood Park in Roanoak Virginia. It was a twenty minute detour that frustrated me to no end. We were desperately trying to find a park so the boys could run around and play. They'd been in the car seats for hours and were starting to get restless (read they were screaming for release). I finally found this park and when we realized it had no playground we thought we were doomed. But bear bear LOVED running up and down the stairs. He couldn't get enough!!

And there was a water feature so bear bear had many puddles to splash around in! 

Little Nathaniel absolutely blossomed on this trip. I have rarely seen him give so many smiles in such a short amount of time. It was such a sweet thing to see, he's so serious all the time. 

Every night we made it into the hotel just around the time the boys start having screaming fits. This meant I didn't get to bottle washing until very very late at night. It's was kind of soothing to be able to have some peace and quiet after putting the boys down for sleep. I just put my headphones in and got it done. 

It wasn't until we were back in Virginia on the ride home that we realized we hadn't gotten any pictures of the boys with the fall leaves. But luckily at the Tennessee Virginia border we found this gorgeous tree that was losing its leaves and it made for a very picturesque location. The boys loooooved rustling around in the leaves. 

Mom and Mark bought a DVD Player for watching the movies in the car. It. Was. Awesome!! It had two screens and the wire connecting them was just barely long enough so that I could have one screen facing Barry, who is facing forward and the other screen facing the twins, who are facing the back of the vehicle. It was a great investment and made a huge difference to the boys. 

This was a rough trip simply because I was on the timetable to get back to Houston for an event. But I did get to see that the boys do really well on trips. I am now comfortable with the idea of making a trip to Austin or Dallas with the boys and we have a great friend who is willing to watch our girls (dogs) for us. I envision many trips in our future!!!

I'll be posting about our time in Pennsylvania soon!

-Ri

Gritty Goddess - 5K Mud Run

It's been wild over here for the last two months. You should expect to see a bunch of posts coming soon - aaallllll outta order. :)

A couple weekends ago I had the opportunity to run the Gritty Goddess again and it was a blast! The number one thing I learned this time around was to go ahead and bite the bullet and just sign up for the second wave of the race. I ended up waiting in a HUGE line at one obstacle. Other than that it was a great race and I can't wait for the Rennaissance Run in May! 

The starting line is always rough, people are staring their heart rate monitors and everyone is always trying to get through the starting line first. Or they're talking about how excited they are. :)

As with most fun mud runs (not the spartan/military/tough mudder style races) none of the obstacles are particularly difficult. This race was women only and was a great segue into mud races for those who have never done one. 

There's usually a fair amount of climbing so a little bit of arm strength goes a long way. As I said in my other post about training for mud runs, really all you have to do is add some bicep curls and some push-ups to your regular running regiment. 

The biggest tip I can share for getting through mud runs is to really try to think outside the box. For instance, with this obstacle many girls tried to put all their body weight on their feet and they kept slipping because they couldn't quite maintain their balance but if you used your arms to hold your weight then you had plenty of time to put your feet in the right slots.

It's a mud run. You're gonna get dirty. :) You caaaaan go around any obstacle you want, but it's worth it to just go all in. 

The obstacles you're going to get most hung up on are obstacles that have to deal with any sort of heights above 5 feet. People get scared when they reach the top and then they freak out and have trouble getting down on the other side and you end up having to wait for them. This is another reason why you want to go ahead and get the first or second wave. 

This was actually the hardest obstacle they had there and the one with the longest line. The ridges were pretty tiny and sometimes it didn't matter how agile you were, if you had the wrong shoes on you weren't going to make it up there so many people had to try it a couple times to get up top. 

Like I said. People get stuck on high obstacles. 

Another tip, wear a bandana and make sure anything that can get caught is tucked away. Many girls got their ponytails (and hair decorations) caught. The buckle on the should strap of my bra got caught and I spent a few minutes (literally) trying to detach myself. 

This race was held on marshland. This stretch of mud STANK. Not all the mud was stinky but this pit was pretty serious.

The walls are usually the toughest obstacle to get over. I find that going to th edge is helpful. If you get the first couple of waves the mud on the ledges won't be as bad so that will help too. 

Finally! The finish line!

I had a great time! I've learned a couple things and I can't wait to implement them in the next race!

If you have any questions, ask away! These races are so much fun and they have such a great community feeling to them. At these races you get the full gauntlet of people and personalities; there are althletes and couch potatoes, the fearful and the fearless, the serious and the silly. Don't let anything keep you away from doing something so fun! 

-ri