This past week has been pretty amazing. Since I moved into my place, I haven’t had the kids for an extended period of time (more than a weekend) and this was a great opportunity for us to really get a chance to nest a bit more than we have been able to. I’m not in survival mode quite as often so the things that I’m gathering for the house are more things that make it feel like home rather than just things to make it through the week.

I picked the kids up on Friday night after work and we made our way home, my dad came over for dinner and we had a chance to make some plans for the long weekend. Saturday was going to be a chance for us to sleep in and chill a bit, Sunday we had a Friendsgiving to go to and Monday we were planning our own Thanksgiving at home. I expected to have to take the kids back on Tuesday but things went back and forth on that and my ex ended up picking the kids up on Wednesday morning from the packet pickup for the Turkey Trot.

Saturday we did end up taking it pretty easy. I got up and worked out, convinced the kids to let me sneak out for a run and got in a solid 10k. We spent the rest of the day lounging around the house, nothing too exciting. A trip to the grocery store for the Friendsgiving, our personal Thanksgiving and some sundries and a quick run through the hardware store to get some new picture hanging materials and that was our outside trip for the day. Sam really wanted me to call in and pickup groceries but it was fun to get them into the store and pick out some things they wanted rather than me just putting it all together online. We bought some apples to make an apple galette that we’d seen and had a chance to make the crust when we got home.

Sunday I got out and ran again and ended up running with the Sunday crew that runs from the square. I wasn’t planning to run as much with them as I did but I caught them as they were headed out on a loop and decided to get about 10k with them as well. We spent the rest of the day together at home and in the evening headed to the Friendsgiving party. Sophie was starting to get sick and Sam was coughing quite a bit but they put on a brave face and ended up having a great time at the party. In the past, I would have gone to an event like this with the kids, it was nice to have them be around some of the running crew for the holidays.

Monday was a cooking day since we had people over and it was really fun to have people come together and share a holiday meal at our new place. I remember years ago when I started making the full spread for Thanksgiving when my dad and brother came over to our apartment in Tyler. It was supposed to be both of us cooking but my ex got sick and spent the day and evening in bed. I made everything from scratch and since then we always did a second meal on Friday that I cooked for the most part, this was a return to that cycle, on Monday instead since we had to tag the bibs for the Turkey Trot. We had around 6 people come through and eat and work while the kids were hacking and coughing, we got the bibs tagged in a couple hours and things were ready for Thursday.

Every year for the past 6, the running club has put on some kind of Turkey Trot, official or not, that has become a part of the community in a big way. I spent Tuesday evening putting packets together and then all day Wednesday at packet pickup with some of my favorite people. It’s funny how the same people in our club work on the Turkey Trot and the same crew works packet pickup and race day registration. We’ve got things down to a science and it’s fun to click with people in that way.

I’ll do a Turkey Trot post here soon, needless to say what once my kids got picked up it was a rough couple of days but I survived and I’m out working a race right now and tomorrow as well. The weather is finally setting down and it looks to be a beautiful weekend.