Racing in the New Year

My sister and her family came up for the week of Christmas through New Year's, and they stayed at our house for the last half of it. We decided to use our creativity and awesome skilz to make some "gingerbread" "houses", that is, "graham cracker" "structures."

Your first thought might be "an iron with a radio antennae" and your second thought might be "a bobsled with a stick of dynamite on top" but it would be your third thought that is correct: it's a boat with a smoke stack, of course!

This next one is recognizable only because it has chocolate rocks on it, but the truth is, I got bored halfway through and didn't put any rocks on the back half.
I figured they'd be put to better use in my mouth. If not for the rocks, you might be left to wonder why the doghouse has a round base, or who, exactly, would put fat, unaerodynamic wings on a hot air balloon basket. Yes, we are talented.

Sarah and I had gone shopping together on Black Friday, and we managed to snag some matching pajamies for the girls for $5 each. This was the first time we got to see them together in them. Annalee was inclined to hug Paisley, while Paisley was incline to run away. Sometimes it's reversed. Why is it kids never want to hug at the same time?
At least Aunt Sarah is always good for a hug.

New Year's Eve we sent Calvin and Paisley to Grandma and Grandpa's house and then put Annalee to bed. Sarah, Bob, Nathan, Steven, and I then played games and ate lots of junk food. At 11:30 we agreed to help Sarah start a new tradition she was excited about, called Racing in the New Year. Basically, at 11:30 you all run a 5K and try to finish before midnight. That means you have to run a little faster than a 10 minute mile. Since it was unbelievably cold and icy outside, we decided to run it on my treadmill together. Bob and Steven, the only sane ones, sat out while Nathan, Sarah and I each tried to run our share of the 5K. There are no pictures of this event, for which I am very grateful, and you should be too. It was a sad, sad scene, as Nathan and I alternated running as fast as we could (me: 6 mph, nathan: 10 mph) for as long as we could, and then fell down coughing and gasping and sick. We were really regretting the junk food we'd eaten. Sarah, of course, did great, and had that healthy glow of perspiration in the enjoyment of physical exertion. Nathan and I had more of a sickly glow of gross sweat and impending barf in the suffering of sadistic torture.

But . . . . [panting] . . . . we . . . . [wheezing] . . . . . . made . . . . [gasping] . . . . it! [fainting]