NEW TRADITIONS

Yesterday was our first Thanksgiving in the new house. Today is the first day we have internet. Things are not exactly panning out here as expected. We've run into a few bumps in the road (phone/internet problems, plumbing issues etc) but we're doing our best.

Usually Thanksgiving for us means that we and our entire group of friends gather together bright and early and do the Run To Feed the Hungry race down in Sacramento. This is the largest 5K/10K race on Thanksgiving in the country (or so they say) with well over 20,000 people participating.  It is generally a mad house with runners, strollers, dogs and families.

In years past we used to have our crew gather at our condo and then we'd all make the 1.5 mile walk to the start line. This year various parts of our crew opted out of participating for some reason or another but the REI family joined us complete with new baby and all.

Vans and I had to coordinate a little differently this year since our morning now consisted of a 25 minute drive down the hill for this race. We parked at our old condo and just like old times we ran the 1.5 miles to the start line looking for the REI family.

There we are! Found the Peanut's BFF

Our mini crew this year

The race, as always is a mad house. It isn't the race you want to "PR" in or "win" because there is just no way of getting past the mobs and mobs of walking groups, strollers and dogs on leashes. This is the one "race" every year that most non-runners in the area participate in solely for the purpose of allowing themselves to eat a little more turkey later in the day.

Generally I run the 10K and the crew walks the 5K and we finish almost in the same amount of time (not many walkers walk the 10K). However, this year I opted to walk with my family since our numbers were small and because I have not been running in almost a month. Just the 1.5 mile run to the start had me sweating!

The course was different this year than years past. They had us going through the Fab 40s which is an area of mansions in east Sacramento. Visually that was great, logistically the entire race seemed to stop at mile 1.5 when we made the turn. In all, it took us over an hour to WALK 3.1 miles.

The girls

Father and Daughter

The Peanut was funny and kept asking to 'run' the race. She is so much like me that it is funny. She apparently does not like 'walking' a race either.

After the race we high-tailed it to our old condo (another 1.5 mile speed walk) and filled our car with miscellaneous boxes that still remained in the garage. By the time we made it back home, it was 12:30 in the afternoon and I still had a ton of food to prep and cook and a dining room table to construct (we recently purchased a new table which has been sitting in a box in our garage for a month).

While I was busy prepping and cooking, Vans took the Peanut to a nearby park for some fun.

A duck pond!

The Peanut loved it

There is no way in hell I am taking her here myself

She had fun and they also went to a play ground. She needed to use up a little energy. Unfortunately she's coming down with a really bad chest cold today. Poor Peanut.

Otherwise our Thanksgiving was nice. My aunt came out for dinner and arrived with 2 side dishes which is always a bonus. She also arrived early enough to help us assemble the dining room table. I had spent all day on Wednesday assembling 6 dining room chairs and all that was left was the table.

Well, after the 3 of us lugged the dining top into the living room along with all the additional pieces, we realized that after an hour of piecing together the darn thing, that the table itself was BUSTED! The wood broke clear down the middle under the table and the whole table drooped. I don't think it is returnable at this point (we ordered it a awhile ago) but I plan to call and find out. Otherwise, anyone know of a good handyman who can help fix out table?

Dinner was nice regardless. We ate in the kitchen and watched football and the Peanut and my aunt played all around the house. Although we missed the company of my inlaws and brother-inlaw, it was still a nice evening. I look forward to making more traditions as we go. I even got out our Christmas decorations (well, they were in one of the boxes we brought home) and put some up. The Peanut got super excited.

Vans got excited when he figured out how to make our exterior lights work!

Lights!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you had a wonderful day.