Grateful...

Spent the Christmas holiday with my family and extended family at Cory & Matt's. I ate and mostly drank like it was full-time job the entire time I was in the Midwest. A few of the themes that I notice about Midwest cooking; or maybe it was the holidays in the Midwest was the amount of casserole-type dishes that involve a cracker or cereal as an ingredient...and processed cheese. For example-my Mom's egg casserole has a Corn Flake/butter mixture on the top and it has ham, cheese and Wonder Bread in it. The broccoli casserole that we made consisted of: frozen broccoli, crushed up Ritz crackers, and chunks of Velveeta. Another good thing were the small circle pretzels with a melted Hershey's kiss with an M & M on top...

Matt's family is always so much fun...and I loved every minute of it. Cory really outdid herself with Christmas decorations, and it was fun to see the almost crazed Clark Griswald type excitement with her interior and exterior decorations. They have a really cute house, and hopefully next year there will be a little Jack or Emma Thompson to add to the joy of Christmas. Matt's Grandma and I bonded over our love of Patrick Dempsey and she taught me how to make real gravy-I want to be as smart and funny as Grandma Bley when I get older.

I think I may have gained about 10 pounds since the marathon...so I started a cleanse yesterday with lots of water, green tea and fiber...I also have not felt good for the past 2 weeks---so a cleanse is a good thing. I HAVE to start training for my 2 Spring half-marathons. I think my dreams of breaking 2 in Austin may be in a ditch...but I have the National Half-marathon at the end March to possibly kick some serious butt-although the course is not as fast....