Oh My! It's Almost Christmas!

Sooooo. It's been over a month since I posted last. I have been slacking. I apologize to all of our loyal blog followers that have lost any hope of me ever adding more pictures or giving a fresh update on our lives. I'm really not sure where the time has gone, but I'll try to remember...
Let's see. I think we left off in November, before the holiday season even began. Well, to kick things off, my friend Lindsey and I had been training since September for a half-marathon, which was on the 22nd. It was amazing! It took the whole week after for it to sink in that I had actually run 13.1 miles. I had such a great crowd there to support and cheer me on, which made it that much more fun. I'm pretty sure I was the only one there with a tailgate party in my honor -- our friend Donovan had a heated tent set up and a grill on the back of his truck which produced some amazing hamburgers. The Keigley's were also in town from SC, so they braved the cold (it only got up to 42 degrees!) with all of the kids to come and watch me run. I'm not sure if Tori and Jon came for me or the burgers (Just kidding!!!) and Ryan and Gabe were sure impressed that Mommy ran so far.
After that crazy morning, we had our annual leaf-raking party. I'll post a few pictures of it, but you have to actually see our yard and the massive quantities of leaves our trees produce before you can appreciate why we need to invite people over to help us rake and blow leaves all day. Luckily we have some steadfast friends who keep coming back year after year to join in the fun. Maybe it's the chili I promise everyone afterward that makes it not so bad...?
Next came Thanksgiving, which was great! We went up to Ryan's grandparent's house in Front Royal. There was plenty of hunting, plenty of food, lots of great family time (Ryan's parents and brothers were there, his aunts, uncle and cousins, George's cousins...) a smattering of shopping, some running (Aunt Theresa and I had to run off some of our pie) and I got in some practice speaking Spanish. A friend from Spain has been in NYC for a couple of months, so he came down for the weekend. All in all, we had a lot of fun and got in some relaxation to boot.
Time has flown by since then, and I was pretty shocked the other day to see that it was already December 10th. What happened? Now Christmas is less than two weeks away and we have every day until then booked up! My bro Mike got to hang out with us a couple of days this week. Tori and I are going to do some shopping tonight in Roanoke. I need to make some cookies today for a cookie exchange party tomorrow, we have to clear out our little room in the basement so that Jon can move in after Christmas, and Ryan and I are leaving Sunday to spend a couple of days in New York City with Jaime (our friend from Spain). I've never been there before, and I really can't wait to go, especially right before Christmas. Gabe is going to stay with George and Tori, and will end up being there for the whole week, because Ryan's check-up's at NIH are on Thursday and Friday of next week and we'll just head straight there after NY. It is going to be tough to be without Gabe for that long!
I am about to jump out of my skin waiting for Christmas to get here this year! I know it will here and over with way too fast, but my family will be arriving Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and I am so excited to see everyone and have all of them here at our house. It will be crowded and crazy, but I can't wait! OK, that is going to be all for now, and I'll put up some picture albums as well. Ideally, I'll get around to posting before Christmas, but just in case, I'll wish everyone a Merry Christmas right now! Until later...