Jingle Jog and Advent Day 3

Today we celebrated the third day of December with a luxurious bath mitt and two yummy smelling bars of special soap. I can't wait to try them out this weekend!

They fit in perfectly with the December Mission on flylady.net of pampering. Woohoo!

Tonight was also the Jingle Jog on campus. My friend E from work did this last year, and invited me to go with her this year. It's a 5k run (well, we walked it) around campus at night, with Christmas music and lights. The best part is that the students all dress up in costumes to run it. There were some super costumes, like the three magi, angels, lots of santas, and my personal favorite, a santa on the top half, with a reindeer suit that hung down from around his waist so it looked like the santa was riding it! So creative.

E and I had a great time...

And ended up with adorable T-shirts.

This was my first race EVER! I'm very proud that we did it, especially given that its is pretty cold outside. We even had a snow flurry today. I'm looking forward to more events in the spring, where I hope to be able to RUN a 5k outside.

When the N-boy picked me up from Jingle Jog and we got home, he managed to get ahold of my camera. He tends to take lots of self portraits when he has unrestricted access to the camera;

this is my favorite picture from tonight.

Yay for December!

Today's post marks the first of what will (hopefully) be 25 posts for the advent season! Something new I did this year was participate in an advent swap through the Christmas message board I belong to (Our Home for the Holidays). I've done a few other swaps before, but have always limited myself to the cards only swaps. This one was my first with actual gifts.

I've been a member of this Christmas board for a few years, and always enjoyed reading the posts from people participating in this particular swap. And today is only the first day of the swap, but I understand why they love it so much! First, I've had a GREAT time getting to know my swap partner. It's been so much fun to build a friendship with someone from another part of the country, especially someone who loves Christmas as much as I do. We've all been working on this swap for months now (maybe as far back as August???), and I hope that our friendship continues after this Christmas season.

The basic idea of this particular swap is that you send some kind of advent calendar (being as creative as you'd like) and then one present to open for each day between December 1 and 24th. You could choose which price range you wanted to be in, which made it a good option for those of us who are watching our pennies a bit.

So without further ado... here's the first gift I opened today!

They're two beautifully embroidered linen napkins! I can't wait to use them on our holiday table. AND my partner wrapped all of my gifts with Christmas fabric (she knows I love to sew), so I can make something with the wrapping paper! Even the N-boy was excited, and insisted on watching me open the package. Each package also has a cute little ornament that I can hang on the mini tree she sent me for the calendar!

And now for a few Thanksgiving pictures. Thanksgiving this year was also my sister-in-law-in-law (Brother in law's wife) 29th Birthday, so we celebrated with cake!

The N-boy made it from scratch, and put on all 29 candles!!!

In addition to the cake, the N-boy and I enjoyed some pie. Yay for the Holiday Season!