Feeling festive

Hello all.

So today, the saga with the tree reached a good conclusion! We took back the fake one and swapped it for a real one.

It is only a diddy one but it smells so good! Have not had a real tree since I was little. I do now have a rash from the needles though! This evening we decorated it;

Keeping it simple. Plus the poor little branches would not take the weight of some of the decorations!

I also decorated a christmas cake for my parents and one for Andy’s parents;

And to check that the recipe was still good I made some gingerbread cookies in preparation for making a gingerbread house next weekend;

Fun cookie cutter shapes- stars, heart and snowman.

They make the house smell so festive 🙂

For breakfast I enjoyed festive porridge- porridge with a handful of cranberries, a tbs pumpkin puree and some mixed spice.

Yum 🙂

I also posted the cards I had written the other day, and bought some wrapping paper so I am getting prepared.

One of my favourite things is to get home from work and put on the lights on the tree- it makes the evenings feel special.

In the shops today I heard A Winter’s Tale being played, and I love that song. When I was younger I was in a choir and we sang that one winter, it’s such a beautiful song. I also love Winter Wonderland for some upbeat singing. My favourite carol is Silent Night, which reminds me of my Grandad so makes me a little teary. So, fave festive song or carol?

Afternoon practise

Evening all

Today was the Christmas Fayre so my morning run was put back to later (also as the stockholm marathon starts at 2pm I need to start doing some long runs in the afternoon so I am used to it). The fayre was fun (lots of face painting, present wrapping, carol singing, mulled wine and mince pie eating (not by me though)) and after that I popped to the shops. To cut the story short, we are away for Christmas and so Andy has said we won’t bother putting up the tree or decorations which I wasn’t happy about. In the end we compromised by saying we would get a little tree, so I got one. Only the misunderstanding was that I was meant to get a real tree. Which I was tempted by but thought I was being so good at resisting. So tomorrow the saga will continue.

Anyway, I had lunch and then started making some stollen (currently addicted to it).

It takes ages as you have to soak the fruit, make the dough, leave it for ten mins, add butter and sugar, leave it again for a few hours, add in the fruit, leave it again, shape into loaves (add marzipan in), leave again….. It’s a day project that keeps on needing to be revisited.

After a lot of the prep, I went out on my run. This morning was quite bright, but as I got ready the rain started. Not too hard, so I thought it would be ok. After about 30 minutes the rain got very heavy, but I was not feeling cold so I carried on. But my glasses fogged up and the tissue in my hand was also wet so useless for clearing them. At the lakes there was a lot of slush about, and the lakes were still half frozen (randomly with a lot of seagulls sat on the ice). Then on my way back I was so mad because by this time the puddles were quite big, and the puddles on the roads were bigger too. As I was on the pavement right by the road a car actually swerved into the puddle to actually splash me with a wave of icy muddy water. My shoes were soaked through, the wet got through my capris and tights, and so the last 15/20 minutes of my run were spent freezing and soggy. I was not a happy bunny.

I was also starving when I got home. I normally now have porridge in the morning before a long run, but I tried 2 slices of toast with sunflower seed butter (peanut butter is a no-no before a run for me). I didn’t want anything too heavy, but I think I need a little more protein possibly. Anyway, I downed some chocolate milk and a normal clif bar, before peeling off my soggy cold clothes and warming up in the shower.

Then it was time for some tea;

Christmas tea 🙂 It was from Whitards last year (black tea with orange peel and festive spices) but I saw it in a pretty new tin this year too. I love my teapot 🙂

After my post a few weeks back on nutrition, my amazon order arrived so I spent a bit of time flicking through it;

Vegetarian Sports Nutrition . I look forward to reading it.

After dinner it was time for some stollen (still warm, mmmm);

Love those cranberries.

So I am pretty pleased with my first afternoon run, it went ok- my pace was pretty similar to my other runs of that length, and as I know that fuelling is the main issue it is something I can experiment with between now and May. Anyone taken part in an afternoon race/ race at a funny time? Any good tips?

Fayre fun?

Today was the turn of the plain porridge. Yesterday I tried the apple porridge (pictured), which was also delish (lots of pieces of dried apple, a few sultanas to add some more sweetness). I added a tbs of dried cranberries and some mixed spice to the plain porridge to amp it up a bit and it was gooooooood. Well, isn’t all porridge delicious 🙂

On my way home today I was closely inspecting the pavements (well, as closely as you can while driving along) to check for the level of ice. There was a mile which was clear, near home, so I piled on the layers (3 on top and bottom seem to be working although I do look like a michelin woman) , warmed up by doing step ups on the bottom stair, and carefully walked along my road over the smooth ice pavements (and road) to get to the clear stretch. I then managed just over 4 miles by going out and back twice, and then a out a little way and back at the end. Annoyingly, when I got to the first mile I looked at my Nike+ and noticed it had stopped on 2 mins, so I had to re-start it (no prob)- and then add on the time at the end.

Once home it was time for a warm shower, and vegetable and bean bake with a little bit of home-made wholemeal bread. Delish 🙂

It’s the christmas fayre tomorrow so I am looking forward to helping on a stall and seeing all the children getting super excited 🙂 We always have a chocolate tombola which is always so popular, and we also have a cute secret present room where children can go in, get a present for mum and/or dad, and wrap it, so the parents will actually get a surprise from the children come christmas- it is so sweet to see the things they choose. They also do fun christmas crafts like making paper chains. I used to love making paper chains- we used to buy the strips of gummed paper so they only needed to be dampened to stick.  So, fave stall or fave christmas activity?

Ice, ice baby

(Perfect porridge weather- I also tried out my new thermal socks and the chilblains cream- am hoping to prevent any more from coming)

Icy is what the roads are like now! The snow half melted, then froze overnight, then some more snow came, and that has also melted a little and frozen again. By the time I left for body pump this evening it was so slippery outside my house- not good.

Anyway, body pump was great– we had some more newbies (but they actually turned up on time!) and I really warmed up! I wish I could save the heat that I generate during a class, and disperse it during the day at work!

I wrote some cards today 🙂 starting to feel more organised. At work we have decided that instead of sending cards to all the staff, we are going to put some money into a charity pot- anyone else do stuff like this? Sending cards in the workplace is a minefield- do you send them to your year group, the people you work with every day, all the teaching staff, etc etc- plus you see these people every day so are bound to tell them your seasonal wishes!

Night and hooray it is nearly the weekend- anything exciting planned?

Lovely innocent

Hello!

Ages ago I signed up the the innocent smoothie email (if you are not signed up then I suggest you do)- and every now and then they do little random acts of kindness (got some mistletoe sent in the post once!). A while back there was a link to get free innocent veg pots for your office, so I signed up and promptly forgot all about it. Well, they arrived today!

They delivered ten for the school (when you signed up you had to say how many people worked in your office and I didn’t think they would send enough for all the staff- near on 80!)- 4 of these ones, 4 curry ones and 2 mushroom risottos! I had already made my lunch so I bagsied one to take home and enjoy another day. But it made a few people pretty happy at lunch- plus we got some money off voucher- love it 🙂

This morning I tried the cranberry and raspberry porridge;

It doesn’t show up too much in the picture but the berries were so pink and pretty. I thought it might be quite tart, as the only sugar is in the sweetened cranberries, but actually it was lovely, really thick and creamy, and a delicious flavour. I think it would be lovely with some mixed spice in it too.

After work I popped to the shops to pick up some bits, (including some more Christmas shopping- presents for all the parent helpers, kids etc) and in desperation went to Boots to see if they had anything for my poor toes. They actually sell chillblain cream, so I got some and I will be applying it as often as possible from now on! I also got some new thermal socks (20% off in Sainsburys) so I am having a mulit-pronged approach!  I also spent my Boots points (I am such a hoarder) on some Clinique Comfort on call cream. I get such dry skin in this weather, and I think the tub has lasted me 2 years, so as it was running right out I decided it was worthy of my points! I always like to get something worthwhile with them, I don’t like to spend the points on lots of little things, which is silly as it all adds up to the same in the end! Anyone the same with their loyalty points?

After all that it was time for something quick and warming (I suppose I could have had the veg pot but I had a load of veg in the fridge to use up)- a bean burger and some aubergine, courgette and beetroot with tomato quinoa. Yummy.