my favorite christmas kickoff tradition.

What I am going to do when we move from Toledo and can't run Maumee's holiday hustle?! we may have to create our own wherever we go.

We were lucky enough to find some friends at the start of the race- sorry we missed you shelly!- and ended up snapping this picture (thanks, alison!). 

I planned on walking the route because apparently my stitches and cuts are the least stable between weeks 1 and 2 (due to the dissolving sutures and whatnot) but my pride got the best of me.  How am I supposed to go to a race and walk?!  I have been feeling fabulous and felt confident that everything would be fine. Plus- I ran half the race with a surgeon (thanks, kurt!). I was confident in his abilities to do something (call 911?!) if I collapsed and was bleeding out. In his defense- he did NOT encourage my running.  And apparently Kent wasn't too worried about my condition because he ran way ahead of me.  And in his defense- he needed to beat Santa Claus so that we could get a free movie ticket.  I ended up running the entire race and felt great.  I was a little sore the next day- but nothing extraordinary.

Here's a shot of what both kiddos looked like all night long. Zeb would NOT wipe the grimace off his face.  Even after the race, when we met up with his friends to watch the parade, he continued to grump.

I think he finally smiled a little when he saw all the lit up trains, racecars, and big trucks in the glow in the dark parade!

Check out his scowl as we waited for the parade to begin.  He informed us that he was "a little bit cross".

 The parade was fun and festive- albeit rather cold- and we had a good time.  One float in particular caught my attention and I had to include a picture.  It is a giant fire (major flames came out of his mouth) breathing dragon with a message.    The part you can't see says "papa's comin' boys".  It was a little bit strange to see in a small town parade- but a very creative dragon nonetheless