It's All Happening At The Zoo

So much to blog...so little time. I've thought of several blogs over the past few weeks: Mom's First Postpartum 10K (run in the beautiful Thanksgiving Day sunshine - you can see a picture of me at http://www.brightroom.com/go.asp?17152543, the full report of the Boston Trip, and now Ellie's First Visit with Santa Claus. Well, here's a brief blurb, starting with Thanksgiving Day. It was a gorgeous morning. I got up at 6:30 to meet Sarah and Sydney (cousin) and head downtown. We arrived at the football stadium and collected our t-shirts and stretched. We somehow ended up in the walker's section, so it took us a full 15 minutes to work our way through the crowds to the starting line after the start of the race, and then another three-quarters of a mile to really get through the foot traffic to a good running place. After that, I found that Sarah and Syd's fears were realized - I, the recently postpartum woman, was running at a faster pace than them. They gave me permission to meet them at the finish line, and I took off. Six miles through Northern Kentucky and downtown Cincinnati. I took a short walking break at mile 3.5 for Gu and water, and otherwise plugged along, albeit slowly, to the finish. It was so great to run again - without a jogging stroller, not on a sidewalk next to traffic, out of my neighborhood. I finished at a definitely leisurely 72 minutes (but take into account the first extraordinary slow 1.5 miles or so). Happy Thanksgiving.

Boston. Wow, we had a good time. The Ann and Jamin abode on Preble is such a happy place and the food, as always, is incredible. Jamin cooked the most amazing lamb I have ever eaten, and a cranberry walnut tart that I have been eyeing in Fine Cooking magazine for months. I finally decided that it was beyond my abilities and quit looking at the picture. Of course, Jamin pulled it off spectacularly and effortlessly. It was as good as I had imagined. The little kiddies doted on Ellie, and she enjoyed the whole experience. I'll post more cute pictures on flickr.

At The Zoo. The Cincinnati Zoo puts on a Festival of Lights each Christmas - the whole zoo decked out spectacularly. KMK has their annual all firm party there each year, so Rob and I headed down to the zoo last week for dinner and lights. After fighting traffic that made us a bit grumpy - both on the road and in the zoo - we finally found the KMK dinner room and sat down to enjoy the company. Lo and behold, Santa arrived and a huge line of children formed to sit on his lap and request Christmas stuff. Santa was giving away Target gift cards to all children under 12, so of course I got right in line. Ellie pulled on his beard and smiled. I told Santa she wanted an exersaucer for Christmas. After dinner, we wandered through a few animal homes and generally enjoyed the balmy evening. Yay for Arizona winter weather - the way Christmas was meant to be. A perfect evening at the zoo.