Jingle Bell Run

Yesterday after my morning workout and a few hours at home ticking things off the to-do list (Riker took a 3 hour nap (!), talk about getting to be productive!), our whole family trotted off to downtown Toms River for the afternoon to cheer on our favorite runners. Matt and his mom were running the annual Jingle Bell 5K, which is a really fun and festive winter run.

I didn't get a chance to eat lunch before we left the house and I didn't want to eat junk from the vendors, so quickly packed myself a half pita pocket with hummus, arugula, cucumbers and a soy "turkey" burger for the road. Great little on-the-go lunch.

After we saw the runners off, Riker and I took a walk around the decorated streets - Riker with some apple puffs and me with a cup of pumpkin spice decaf. I loved having a little winter walk looking at the lights just the two of us.

This was Matt's first run after breaking his leg over the summer, other than little jogs at PT, so he was planning to take it easy. He surprised us all when he came in under 27 minutes, sore leg and all! I was so proud.

They were serving a post-race dinner which we'd have liked to stay for, but Riker was getting antsy pants and needed to get home. Unfortunately our kitchen is still a mess from the current renovation (Matt's actually redoing the ceiling in our dining room, but the dust in the kitchen is incredible - a sandwich or bowl of cereal is about the only thing I can stand to make in there...but I'm being told only one more day, so fingers crossed!), so while I wanted to make a homemade curry for dinner, we were stuck ordering out.

We ordered from our favorite neighborhood spot, Tony's. Seafood pasta, eggplant and a garden salad were on the menu, eaten in the bar since it's currently the only dust-free zone downstairs. Oh well, gave us an excuse to watch football while we ate. :)

Time to start the work week. Hope you had a great weekend!