… have been crazy busy! Sometimes I feel like there are not enough hours in the day – and when the holiday season comes around, sometimes I don’t feel like I have nearly enough time to get everything done.

But the last couple of days have been really fun.

On Saturday my family ran in a Santa Fun Run 5k in New Bedford. It was quite the scene as we got ready in our Santa suits:

Somehow everyone convinced me to pose for a final shot once we were all dressed:

I must say, running in a Santa suit was not really easy. I definitely did not have the beard the whole time – thank goodness. (No, I did not litter. I held the beard in my hand!) 🙂

After the race was over I was really happy to get a bottle of water – it was only the second race I had ever run without holding my own water bottle. (I have an abnormal addiction to water on a normal basis and it usually gets even worse when I’m running.) I was also super happy to see the Larabar tent set up at the end of the race! I grabbed a few mini Larabars and they had the best flavors! I really wish that Larabar would make their mini-bars in the great flavors… including the coconut bar!

After the race we walked around New Bedford and went to a great bar right on the water (and right across from the fast ferry to Martha’s Vineyard!) where we ordered some great beer and food. The bar was very busy because of the race, so we waited for a little bit to get a table.

My sister borrowed my Vancouver 2008 Olympic mittens, which she really loved:

We took some nice post race photos while we waited:

We ordered flights of beer – and had a lot of fun:

(here I am with my friend trying to remember what beer I had ordered in my flight…. it was all quite good!)

Mom and I split an order of fish tacos and they were really good. Eventually we got home from the race and worked on our Christmas tree. First, we had to straighten it for the second time in three days – it was a sister effort:

(the angle in this photograph is misleading – in a fun way – my sister and I are certainly not seven feet tall, thankfully.)

Apparently we did a good job straightening the tree this time around – once we decorated it, the tree still seemed to be straight:

On Sunday I took the day off from running even though I was supposed to run about six miles. Tsk tsk. I have no excuses. It was a beautiful day. I stayed home, watched football and continued to decorate for the holidays.

By the time Monday rolled around, I had no idea where my weekend had run off to. But I had a really nice holiday breakfast to look forward to at work. My boss brought in a wonderful cornbread cake and a blackberry compote:

She also brought us in some amazing (and wonderfully strong) coffee! It was a great break from work and I enjoyed having breakfast with my six departmental colleagues.

Monday I went for a two mile walk at lunch. After work I got to the gym where I ran 3.2 miles and then did 20 minutes of weights. I had dinner with my great friend Danielle at 102 Noodles on Ives Street in Providence. I really like this noodle house a lot – I highly recommend you try it out if you live in the Providence area!

Tuesday I set my alarm for 6:15 rather than my normal 5:30 and I felt a lot more well rested the entire day. For breakfast I had a whole wheat sandwich thin with a tablespoon of peanut butter:

Lunch was a funny hodgepodge of lots of different things. I just grabbed a few containers and bags of things this morning and put them into my lunch bag. Here is what I ended up with:

A laughing cow cheese wedge, carrots, hummus, crackers and a small chicken, vegetable and rice soup (which I bought at the caf). It was a pretty decent lunch especially since I packed it in under two minutes this morning as I was trying to get out the door 🙂

After work today we had our building holiday party. I had every intention on staying for a few minutes, having a small snack and then packing it in and heading out the door to the gym. But of course, I ended up having a great time with my friends, and I ended up staying for an hour and a half. I did not get to the gym today. Gah!! Good thing marathon training does not begin in earnest until January 3, 2012. (Which, of course, will be here before we all know it!)

I hope that YOUR week is going well so far. I will be back soon to report on the rest of the days this week! See you soon.