In the holiday spirit

The Christmas season is officially here! And in spirit of the season (and since I'm on my second glass of wine for a Tuesday night) I decided to skip the training (which is going quite well) and do a holiday-related post.

Over Thanksgiving, we made the 9 hour trek up to WI, the Land of Beer and Cheese (and the best holiday cocktail ever, the Brandy Old Fashioned. That could be another post in itself!) My parents own a Christmas tree farm, so we picked out a 6-footer and hauled it back to KC. This is me with my oldest niece and nephew with me by our tree.
Keegan is "helping" cut it down.

This kid is such a sweetheart. I love that when you get him laughing, he laughs so hard he practically hyperventilates and chokes. His laughter is absolutaly contagious.

Portland, John's cat, also got a brand new holiday sweater! He just loves it, can't you tell from the picture?? My cat does not wear holiday sweaters. That's just humiliating.

Our neighbor Mark has an Air Stream out back he sometimes uses while he's gutting his house. After a few micro brews we brought back from WI, I decided it looked like it needed a little holiday spirit. With the help of some elves, I took the liberty to decorate it for him. There is a light bulb out, so I'll have to pick up a new strand for him, but I think it looks quite festive!

Our house got a lit wreath, also brought back from WI. We haven't bought lights for the house yet, but keep meaning too. I did put a nice Christmas bow on the flamingo.

And finally, the tree. Decorated and lit, you can barely tell it's not straight! I put the Rat Pack Christmas CD on, made myself a Brandy Old Fashioned, and put up decorations. Tonight, it's a bottle of wine and I'm baking Christmas cookies. Next week, several of us local runners are getting together for a running tour of the Christmas lights. I'm just a ball of Christmas spirit (or spirits, apparently)!
(If you're interested in the Christmas lights running tour, let me know and I'll give you the details!)