First off, with me working odd schedules and rarely is it guaranteed that I will get all/most of the Christmas time off from work, we have to make at least some adjustments to our family get together's. Plus, once you add my job schedule on top of the restraints of our brothers and sisters travel plans and their holiday plans with their respective families, just getting together for a day anywhere near the holiday seems like a blessing. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to be able to take off both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day from work, so Sarah and I were able to schedule our family gatherings, pretty close to our traditional schedules from growing up. We had to make one small adjustment in our holiday schedule however, and that being our Christmas celebration with Sarah's immediate family, which we were able to get everyone together on December, 21st. My sister-in-law gladly opened her house for the family for a full day of eating hors d'oeuvres for lunch leading up to a spectacular feast for dinner. For the past two years now we have been doing a beer exchange, which is a newer tradition I admittedly stole from my dad's side of the family which they have been doing for 3 or 4 years now. We have 5 guys on Sarah's side of the family, which is just the right size for a small beer exchange. It's rather simple, really, pick out your favorite beer (must be a specialty beer - no Coors, Miller, Budweiser, etc) and bring enough beer to share for everyone else participating. Then, everyone gets one can/bottle of the beer you brought, and presto! You have a fine selection of beer to sample! This Christmas was also the first attempt at an ugly sweater & 'stache bash with the family. This lead to some pretty classic pictures to say the least! Other then the guys doing our beer exchange, the day is literally for all the kids in the family, which seems to be growing exponentially by the year. Sarah's parents now have 4 grandkids (technically 5 as of today), 3 granddogs, and 7 kids/kids-in-laws, and still room for more to love - trust me :)
The kids spent the night opening presents from just about everyone there and it was a blast to just watch their faces light up as they open each gift thinking it's the greatest thing in the world until they open the next gift. After spending the day at Lisa's house, we headed home for the night and went back the next day to catch the Packer game and finish off some of the massive amounts of left overs from our feast the day prior. That Sunday was also our league championship weekend for our 12-team PPR fantasy football league, that is taken pretty seriously between family and close friends. In the championship game was my brother-in-law, Jake, who seems to be in the championship game just about every year and then ME! Who literally has never been in the playoffs since starting this league 6 years ago! The stars must have lined up perfectly for me this year, because I ended up laying a beat down on Jake and claiming my first ever Fox Valley Fantasy League Super Bowl Championship. Not only does this come with a nice little financial pay-out, but also bragging rights for the entire year...which I plan on using more than the money!
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| Finally, a League Championship! |
After our Christmas celebration with Sarah's family, we had a short two day break before Christmas Eve. Now is when the family traditions kick in. This is the also the first year in my 3 years at Winnebago County, that I have had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, so needless to say, I was more then excited to see my aunts and uncles and spend the holidays with my family, as opposed to my coworkers. Christmas Eve always starts with Christmas Eve mass at the Church both Sarah and I attended as kids and got married at. We have been going to this mass together with both of our families pretty much since we started dating...way back in high school! After mass we head over to my mom's side of the family for a dinner and gift exchange at my Grandma's house (the one who sells trees). It has been about 10 years now since my Grandpa passed, so to commemorate this, one of my uncles brought a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon to share - my Grampa's favorite beer. We all shared a drink in his honor. The night continued and we shared stories of spending time at the cottage in the summer and random memories together, had dinner, and did our annual gift exchange/gift stealing game.
As midnight approached, Sarah and I bundled the girls up and headed home to get them into bed for the night so Santa could come. But first, we had to put out cookies and milk for him. Earlier, before leaving for church the girls and I put out Reindeer treats in our front lawn that Maya's teacher gave to her. It consisted of oats and glitter (oats for the reindeer to snack on and glitter so they can see our house from the sky). After we had everything set perfect for Santa with their letters and cookies, the girls quietly laid in bed dreaming of Santa bringing their perfect gift.
Christmas day morning came and the girls both woke up with excitement in their eyes, while I woke up to about 3-5 inches of fresh snow to shovel. I poured a hot cup of coffee in my thermos and headed out to clear our driveway while the girls patiently waited for me to come back in to open all their gifts from Santa. We spent the morning as a family and it was relaxing and really enjoyable to just spend this time with the 4 of us together as opposed to all the hectic (yet enjoyable) time with our extended families.
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| Merry Christmas to me! |
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| Running shoes for Delaney too! |
After opening all the gifts from Santa and exchanging gifts between Sarah and I, we packed up for a long day and headed over to my parents house for a brunch and gift exchange. We spent the morning with my parents, my brother and his girlfriend and me and the girls. But, after brunch, the gift exchange, and a little time to play with some of the new gifts, we were packed up and heading over to my dad's brother's house for the Kohl Christmas luncheon. This was the birthplace of the now annual Kohl Family Beer Exchange. This year, we had 14 people participate, and believe it or not, we didn't have a single duplicate! It was so nice for me to get over to my dad's side of the family and see many family members that I literally haven't seen in over a year and some even longer! We are lucky enough to see many of my mom's side of the family throughout the summer months at the cottage and at other gatherings, but rarely do I get to see some of my dad's family. Plus he comes from a family of 12 brothers and sisters...yup, that's a big family and just that much more difficult to get the family together.
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| Now that's a beer exchange! |
Right around dinner time, we left for our last family Christmas, this time, it was Sarah's mom's family. I have been lucky enough to be able to attend this gathering most years due to my work schedule and it always being an evening dinner get together.
By then end of the night, Sarah and I were left thinking, "Wow, its already over, Christmas has come and gone." I went back to work the next night for just a couple nights, before I had another long weekend. Christmas may have been done, nut we still had our annual "Tree Hopping" to get though, and not to mention New Years Eve. "Tree Hopping," is another tradition started on my mom's side of the family rooted in their love of Christmas and the Christmas Tree. It's rather simple actually, you just go from house to house and see their Christmas Tree, hence, "Tree Hopping." For New Years Eve we spent the first part of the night at Sarah's uncle's house who has an annual New Years Eve party. As the night wore on, we left to see my parents who were at my mom's cousin's house - yea, we're all pretty close to just about all of our extended families. We watched the ball drop in Time Square and then cheers-ed to the Central Time Zone New Year and headed home shortly after to bring the girls home to get them to bed - as they were exhausted, as I'm sure you could imagine.
As far as my training, it has been going far less then stellar - to say the least. I have been developing a moderate dull pain in my lower right shin for the past couple weeks. It all culminated on the weekend after New Years. I had a 10 mile run scheduled on that Saturday which I started feeling the pain about 1-2 miles in and after about 5 I debated stopping it all together but sucked it up and grinded out the last half of my run. The next day, I planned on running 6 miles, which I started on a treadmill with hopes of a softer ride. That wasn't the case at all, I ended up having the worst pain at that location since it started and I literally just could not continue running, it was so severe. I stopped the run about 2.5 miles in and called it a day. I decided to rest it for a week and see if it got better, then I saw a local running store (Fleet Feet Sports Fox Valley) had a free injury screening and it fell on my off day so I nabbed up the last time slot. I went in and the PT thought it was a possible stress fracture and encouraged me to get a professional opinion. I did just that on Friday afternoon and saw an Orthopedic Sports Medicine Doctor. He diagnosed me with a "Stress Reaction," which is the lowest grade stress fracture you can have. In fact, from what I understand, it isn't even really a fracture, just the beginning stages of one. Long story, short, he recommended 3-4 weeks rest of no activities that cause me pain (basically running). So, it has now been a little over 1 week since I last ran and have been filling my time with swimming, biking, and mimicking running the best I can on an elliptical. I have been going nuts to say the least. I had huge plans for my running in 2014, including a sub 3 hour marathon this May at the Green Bay Marathon and my first ultra marathon with the Fall 50 miler in October. I am still not ruling out the 50 miler, but am taking my sub 3 hour marathon goal off the table for now until I start running again in a couple more weeks and then will re-evaluate my goals for the Green Bay Marathon.
In hopes to increase my longjevity in the sport of endurance running, I ordered a pair of Hoka One One running shoes (which I recently learned is properly pronounced Ho-ka O-nay O-nay - NOT Hoka 1-1). Hokas are a newer shoe brand and one of the first max cushioned shoes on the market. They are geared more toward ultra runners or runners who are looking for a highly cushioned, softer ride in their shoes. I do not plan to wear these shoes all the time, as I do not want to become reliant on the impact absorbing properties of the shoes. I run my short to medium length runs in Newton Gravity's and then use the Hoka's on my long runs 16+ range, to lessen the beating my body takes on those longer runs. I will also race all races from a half marathon and shorter in Newton MV2's this year. I also plan on wearing these shoes for my higher intensity workouts, such as mile repeats, tempo runs, and high speed track workouts.
I also made a couple changes to my 2014 plans. First, I will not be racing at the Winnebago County Triathlon in July, but will be racing at the USA Triathlon Sprint Distance Age Group National Championships in early August, in Milwaukee, WI. My primary goal of this race is to qualify for Team USA. Based on last years qualifying times, I will need to put together a great race to make cut off times, but believe that this is a challenging, but definitely, realistic goal. As far as my personal goals, I am maintaining my "Run the Year Goal," of running 2,014 miles in 2014, although, with my severe cut in running mileage this early in the year, I highly doubt this is obtainable, but who knows. As I said my my Looking Forward post, I mentioned doing the Whole30 cleanse/30-day diet. Again, I am still planning on doing this after this upcoming weekend, in which Sarah and I are surprising the girls with a trip down to Chicago to visit the Shedd Aquarium - but will write a post about the logistics of how and why I am choosing to do this diet. Lastly, I have added one more additional goal for 2014 outside of my racing goals, and that is to make a shift to using more "All Natural" products around the house and on my body. This can be accomplished either through making my own personal products or just purchasing all natural products. My goal this year is to change to at least 5 all natural products from the traditional chemical filled products. Some examples of products I plan on changing to include, tooth past, deodorant, soap, shampoo, and lotion. We'll see how that goes and how they compare to the popular "unnatural" products.
There...I think I am all caught up to date now....so until next time - Be fast, be strong, & carry on!
Cheers!
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