Christmas Eve Festivities

Some of our Christmas Eve traditions.... 7:00 Christmas Eve church service.... Followed by making and decorating our Christmas sugar cookies....

Vegas... and half marathon!

Brady and I at dinner before we went to go see Cirque Du Soleil's Mystere.Me and Brady kickin it at ESPN zone all day saturday... placed a few bets on some games... won one and lost one, so we came out even.
At the sports expo the day before the marathon.... Just messin around!

Yeah... umm... I wish I could finish 13.2 miles in 2:03. Maybe next time.

Its Vegas baby... Even though this is just a backdrop at the expo... There were quite a few runners who dressed up as Elvis! Very cool!

A total of 30,000 participants in the Rock n Roll Las Vegas marathon and half marathon. They shut down the entire strip... Las Vegas Blvd. We ran from Mandalay Bay up by the airport around and back towards the strip, all the way down the strip, past the Stratosphere into old downtown Las Vegas... a couple miles in there before we turned around and ran all the way back to Mandalay. I started off the first 5 km at a 9 min mile pace.... Then the next five at a 9:08 min mile pace... slowly but surely getting slower... than at the ten mile mark I was at a 9:29 min mile pace, and I finished up with a 9:43 min mile pace. I finished in 2 hours, 7 seconds... not to shabby for a first timer....

After the race you get a free MGD light beer!!!! Cheers to making it through without stopping!!! Tracy here is enjoying some with me :)

Brenda, Tracy, and myself exhausted after the race!!!

We did it! We rock! And this is just the start of doing this annually :)

Overall it was a great experience... my hip started hurting around mile 9... but seeing Mandalay Bay in the distance was just enough to make it through! My goal was to make it without stopping or walking, and my time goal was 2:20. I crushed my time goal by getting 2:07 and made my goal by running the whole time! It was awesome! Thanks to Tracy for making sure I did it, and thanks to Brady for coming along and supporting me in the cold desert Vegas weather!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

This year we have two trees... our Spartan one that is down stairs, and a nice colorful one that is upstairs... They are still only the six feet tall ones, but they look perfect in our place!

Was able to decorate the whole house today! Was really excited that I was finally able to put up the new Michigan State decorations that was bought last year in Michigan!!!! Yeah for Christmas!

Action Shots of Football and Basketball games!

A little #2 bball action!!! MSU preseason ranked no. 2... Should be a fun season!

In Action!

Shooting free throws!

MSU is good at basketball here are the banners to prove it!

Football in action.

Kirk Cousins is the man (but not so much in this game....)

A beautiful day for football!!!! Who knew it was end of November in the state of Michigan where this game was being played?!?!

Trip to Michigan.. last home football game of the season

Me and Brady at the basketball game!

Dana, Chayla, and myself at Bdubbs capping off the evening

Oh my MSU friends!!! I miss you all ssssssssoooooo much... Dana and John, Chayla and Darreal, Lauren and Sean.... and me and Brady.... Maui Invite next year... yah?

They boys!!! I love how all of us ladies were such good friends that were built during years of MSU gymnastics... but while we were becoming friends so were our significan others!!! I love that they are all such good friends!!!!

Chayla, Dana, and I

Sad, that we lost our last home game of the season..... (everyone except Darreal... Ohio State beat Michigan so he was happy)

And then a normal pic of all of us.

Picture before the game while we were still happy :)

Tailgating before the game with Chayla!

Christina flew out for the game too!!! It was a blast! I love seeing her, we don't get to see each other very often, but this year I have seen her I think five or six times!!!! She needs to make her way out to California this year.... hint hint

Lauren, me, and Chayla tailgating at Lauren's tailgate!

Darreal and Brady catching up after two and a half years. (We haven't seen Chayla and Darreal since our wedding... Darreal was an usher and Chayla was a bridesmaid) So good to see them!

Nothing like a picture facing the sun

The guys, drinking beer and talking ball!

Was overall a great weekend... love seeing everybody (also got to see my family for Aunt Joyce's birthday...) Boy did Brady and I pack about as much as possible into a short thirty six hour weekend.... Tailgating and football game... home for Aunt Joyce's birthday party, back out for some post football tradition at Bdubbs with friends... home at 1 am... next day, stop by Jenison to see my former coaches Kathie and Katie.... then to the basketball game at noon.... Done by two, off to the airport straight from the game!!! Had a great time!!! And wouldn't have done it any other way!