So excited for Christmas!

I can't wait! We fly home on Saturday and are going to spend a day or so in Philly at Tom's parents before heading up to the LBG to see my fam. Christmas Eve is always fun....we go to my Uncle Dan's (same uncle that hosted the rehearsal dinner) and hang out there for a while after church....usually my brother does or says something stupid to entertain us....ahhhh, some things never change :) And Christmas day the EAGLES are on! I don't want to jinx them but they've been lookin' pretty good! I was so psyched when they beat the giants because the first time we played the giants Tom and I went to this sports bar down here and if you recall the game at all....the eagles were winning going into the 4th and then blew it and the giants came back in OT and won. Anyways there were these completely obnoxious giants fans at the bar...and when we were leaving they were like "good game" to us (they weren't saying it to be nice, they were saying it because they won and were trying to rub it in). Anyways on Sunday when the Eagles kicked some giants butt I was sooooo happy :) I don't know where those giants fans were, but I know they were watching and hopefully thinking of what jerks they were being several months earlier :) ANYWAYS, CHRISTMAS! I can't wait! Here's a pic of downtown Bham....all lit up for the holidays :)

I did it!

I ran 20 miles! It was so hard but I did it! We ran up some killer hills too. Ugh, I HATE hills! Disney only has one tiny hill and it's actually an on-ramp to the interstate. I guess it's a good thing though because the Mercedes Half in February is going to have a few hills. And my fundraising is finished! I've raised $3,215 total! Thank you SO MUCH for donating to such a worthy cause! I'm so excited! Less than 3 weeks! Disney does this really cool thing where they put a chip in your racing number that can be tracked when you cross certain points in the race. If you'd like to track me and get updates on my time at various points in the race or just get an update when I finish the race, follow the instructions below to sign up via email or text messaging on your cell phone.

Go to http://www.disneyworldmarathon.com
Click on "2007 Walt Disney World Marathon"
On the right, under "Event Info" click "Live results"
Click "Track a runner today!"
Then just enter your info online
Don't forget my new last name is "Bodenstine" when entering my name!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We got our tree!!!! Yay! I love it. There's a few pics below! My big 20 miler is this weekend! I'm so nervous. I know I can do it, because I did 17, so what's 3 more, right?! Ha.....we'll see! I'm trying to surround myself with any motivation I can think of because I'm running a little low in that department right now. We've got a lot going on this weekend too! But hopefully it will keep my mind off of being nervous about the 20 miler (think positive, think positive, think positive). Anyways I can't really think of much else that is going on right now. Running has consumed my mind, body, and soul, and will keep it for the next 26 days so I apologize if I'm a little spacey or not updating as much!

Our TREE!!!!!!!

Tom decorating our tree

Tom and I in front of the Poinsettia tree at the Botanical Gardens

One month to go!

My marathon is officially ONE MONTH FROM TODAY (the 7th!!) Ahhhhhh!!!! I'm glad it's only a month away because I'm kind of getting bored with running but I'm also very scared because I don't know if I'm prepared for it! I'm sure I am....I did 17 miles a couple weeks ago and in a week and a half I'm going to do 20!!! That'll be my longest before the marathon. And everyone says if you can do 20, you can easily do 26.2. And I feel like if I can do 17, I can do 20....so we'll see!

Last night I ran with a girl from work and with a group of people that meets every wednesday at the Trak Shak (a local running store). We did 5 miles through a residential area in one of the suburbs. It was good because there was a huge group of us, but it was dark and it started to HAIL during our run!!! But that only lasted like 60 seconds. Everyone always says "If you don't like the weather in Birmingham, wait 5 minutes!" We are learning that is very true!

I'll leave you with a pic of Santa Chin. I was bored the other night and found this hat in one of my boxes of Christmas Decorations :) (It must of been during half-time of the Eagles game ;)

Third Annual Holiday Weekend!

Well, technically it's the fourth. A few years ago some of my good friends from college started coming down to Philly to visit the first weekend in December. We made it an annual event, and would go out in Philly, exchange Secret Santa gifts, eat a lot and drink a lot :) When I told everyone I was moving to Alabama they said we were going to do holiday weekend in Birmingham this year....so we did! Brie, Margaret, Carrie (all bridesmaids) and Carrie's husband John were all able to come down. Carrie and John flew in Friday morning and Brie and Mags arrived Friday night. We had such a GREAT weekend! It was so nice to see everyone and Tom and I are so grateful to them for taking the time and money to come visit us! We explored some of Birmingham's finest attractions and of course, ate and drank a lot :) Pics will be up soon!

Ok, so after Brie and Margaret flew out on Sunday, we had a few hours before John and Carrie's flight left. John LOVES to explore and check out new things and loves to cram 18,000 things into their vacations :) So he picked up a "2006 Birmingham Activity Guide" and we went exploring :) Actually, we just went to this one place, which was an old mansion from the 1800's that was supposed to be all decorated for Christmas (I forget who lived there....I think the cousin to the guy that shot Abe Lincoln???). Anyways, so we went and it was kinda decorated for the times, not anything too spectacular to put us in the Christmas mood. They did have yummy hot cider and snacks at the end though :) Ok, POINT OF THE STORY, so John and Carrie say they initiated our Christmas season and we have to do something "Christmas-y" every weekeend between now and Christmas. Which is fine with me because I LOVE doing Christmas-y things. Sunday night at the mall, you could bring your dog or cat and get it's picture taken with Santa. Tom and I thought about bringing the chins for like a millisecond but then decided against it. ;) This weekend we are going to get our Christmas Tree on Saturday! I can't wait!! Decorating our tree will be our Christmas-y thing we do this weekend :) Here are a few pics from Holiday Weekend :)

Everyone at dinner in the Lakeview District

The girls at the Rare Martini

Sunset at the Vulcan

Gorillapod holding John's cam to take our "artistic pic"