Days with the Dorans

I was actually quite proud of myself... The Sunday after Thanksgiving I did tons of decorating. The only thing left to do is the North Pole Village (I'll post all MY stuff when I get that done). My favorite decorations though are those I DON'T do. The kids have always done our family room tree while Jeff and I sit back on the couch and watch with the fire going, carols on the radio and adult beverages in our hands. I love watching the kids go through the ornaments and remembering when they got (or made) them. If they know an ornament belongs to a sib, they hand it to them to do the honors. The only thing we (adults) do with the tree are the lights (me) and Andrew's Angel (Jeff). I took a time-lapse video of them getting their decorating on that you can see HERE . Beautiful job, fab four!

On years we don't go to Saginaw for Thanksgiving, we go the next day. This year was fun because the Gillespie boys were there. The boys had fun playing together. And Al had fun finishing her book! Tyler hung out in the house watching football, but the rest of the boys got outside and played. The weather was great and I was happy they could get outside. The highlight (for me) was meeting this little guy! I still can't believe that Mary is a mom! Little Zeke is named after his dad so Jim decided he's going to call him EJ (since having the same name as your dad can get confusing...). I loved watching Jim and Trish with their Grandson! Great-Auntie Laura also got her baby fix. I loved holding and smelling EJ but I think I liked more just looking at him and getting him to smile. He was a sweetie but slept a TON and was only awake for a short time. It must be a growing day! Speaking of growing~ our bellies were growing too! We had a yummy dinner and dess...

So I have been running 3 to 3 1/2 miles every morning before work and loving it. My hip and knee sometimes hurt so my dad gave me some things to take and that has really helped! Today (the day after Thanksgiving coma-food) I decided to try and run double what I usually do. The goal was just to run and not stop and I did it!! Usually I run under 9 minute miles but the goal was slow and steady. My back hurt a bit after mile four but I powered through. My neighborhood is crazy hilly but I did it! I hate hills and I hate wind and I had both~ but I ran. My friend Jodie asked me if I wanted to do a Half Marathon.  My first reaction was, "I CAN'T DO THAT!!" but now I'm thinking... maybe I can...  Who Woulda Thunk?

After we FINALLY got home from the run, showered, and I made my sweet-potato-balls, we were finally on our way. Thankfully it was a Drapal year which meant we weren't far from home AND Marty was allowed to come! I was so tired! I was up at 4am (thinking about Blue) and then all the craziness in the D... I didn't have anything to eat so when I got to the Drapals I grabbed some cheese and wine and sat in the best seat in the house, sipped... and fell asleep! The cousins had fun. Z and TZ played a bit of football outside and they all made movies and things but I think no one had more fun than the pups! I love that Marty and Gordie get to join us too! I didn't really get any pictures but Danny did these cool time-lapsed videos... We had a great chill day and I think I took a record number of naps which clearly I needed! And I wasn't the only one... Even Papa got his cuddle in with the boys! Thanks for the wonderful food and fun!

 This marks the 9th year that Chrissy and I have done the Turkey Trot! I was really excited to do it because it's nice to catch up with my buddy and I've been running and Chrissy's been walking a lot more! My dad and Joe also ran too! We got downtown about an hour before our race and hung out for quite a while. I didn't quite know how to dress since at home I run in cold temps but I go out immediately from a warm house and run the whole time- here I was waiting in the cold for some time and knew we'd probably walk a lot of it. We joined 17,000 of our closest friends and had a good race. It's hard because it's so crowded! You don't always get to run since you need to get around so many people. At one point we were totally stopped and I figured someone got hurt but suddenly it opened up. Chrissy also needed to use the bathroom in the first mile and even with those two things we did less than 13 1/2 minute miles which was pretty good. I...

 I was incredibly shocked when on Wednesday I came down and was getting ready for school and looked in Blue's cage and he way lying on the bottom. I felt my heart sink and reached in and he was gone. I didn't know what to do. I remember saying that to Jeff over and over, "What do I do?" "What do I do?" When it finally sunk in what happened I cried. Why did this happen? What did I do? These pictures were taken just three days earlier. He seemed fine. I still can't stop thinking that I did something. His seed was completely gone (which is unlike him) though he had water. It wasn't that cold yet and I hadn't taken him to Room 119 since it got cooler (he had come with me every day when the weather was nice). I haven't told the kids of Room 119 because I just couldn't. They loved him so. When I got home, the Bigs came and gave me hugs and I just cried. I got a box for blue and put some blue shredded paper in it (the kind of pape...

This year Dance Masters was different than those in the past~ mostly because Al wasn't with her friends which meant I wasn't with MY friends. Since Al's classes fell (early) on Sunday, Jeff said he'd come with and keep me company. I was glad he drove since white stuff was falling from the sky (yuck!). Al opted not to do auditions since she would have been competing against all the older dancers. The cool thing is she won a scholarship last year so this was FREE for us! Whoop whooop! (Dance and FREE are not usually in the same sentence.) Al's good friends all had classes the day before (they dance with the Juniors while Al was with teens). She of course knows the girls she danced classes with but they're all soloists and pretty chummy. When we dropped Al off only one girl said hi to her and I thought- she's not going to like this as much as she usually does...  (Al loves to dance but she also loves her friendships). But I knew she'd be busy...