More of Advent

Our Advent activity countdown continued with the morning of St. Nicholas Day. 

Will was the first to wake up and made his way to the back door to look for his shoe filled with goodies. He was really excited to find it.

Michaela was the next one to wake up bright and early to find a full slipper.

Our sick girl didn't get up until after 10 a.m., but she was also happy to discover St. Nicholas had come in the middle of the night. Apparently, his donkey took their carrots, too. 

The next day, we went to go see Santa Claus arrive in Salem on top of the Hawthorne Hotel. When we got home, the little kids went to bed, and the rest of us decorated the tree. 

Every year, we pick a special ornament to represent our family for the year. We get one for the family tree and one for each of the kids to set aside for their family trees when they're older. This year was the year of Harry Potter in our home, so we got a stag for Harry's patronus. 

Avonlea Jane brought home her representation of a winter bear cave after learning about animals who are less active and animals who hibernate during the winter.

Our Saturday was a busy day. We spent the morning at a small St. Lucia festival in Rockport, where a gentleman gave each of the kids holiday crackers to open on the actual St. Lucia Day, which is one of the days on our Advent calendar. Then we all went to the Salem Athenaeum's holiday party and came home to get ready for our official Advent activity, celebrating the first night of Hanukkah. We read a few Hanukkah stories and listened to traditional music while making our dinner, which prominently featured olive oil in honor of the Hanukkah miracle. We had cabbage roasted in olive oil, fried fish (baked for Mommy), and potato latkes with applesauce or sour cream (sweet potato/arrowroot latkes for Mommy). Instead of getting a menorah, we simply lit one candle while saying the prayers in Hebrew.  After dinner, we sang some Hanukkah songs and busted out a dreidel and some gelt.   

Sunday morning's first activity was the Festivus 5k for autism, which I ran with my friends Erin, Jared, and Jessi. 

Getting ready for the start

Having fun by the Friendship while waiting for the end of the race

This time David was ready at the finish line. 

I was definitely happy to have shaved time off my race. The time still wasn't notable, but it was an improvement. I ran this 5k at 32:22, with a pace of  a 10:33 mile. In October, I ran at 35:06, with a pace of 11:28. Cutting off nearly a minute a mile was a happy accomplishment, especially as this was a much more difficult race course than the one in October. 

Erin and Jared crossing together.

I learned an important lesson about how I needed to heed the advice of less is more in terms of race clothing. Wearing fleece-lined running pants was a mistake; wearing a Santa hat was a bigger mistake. Shortly after the race, I stripped a bit to cool off. 

Happy to be done with our second 5k