Today and yesterday my sis and I have been baking our first batch of Christmas cookies.  Don’t they look awesome?!!

They are!

These puppies are made from scratch from our grandmother’s recipe.  And when I say scratch, I mean get out the flour,   butter,   sugar,   rolling pin and   a few secret ingredients, and spend an entire day making this magic. By the end of the day we are usually so tired of cookie dough and icing that we never want to see another cookie again!  (That usually doesn’t last long, though.)

Our cookie baking tradition goes back a few generations.  Our dad’s mom is the originator of the recipes as far as we know.  (Unfortunately I don’t know if they were passed down from her mom or not.) Grandma Esch would invite her daughters and daughters-in-law over for a day of baking each Christmas season.  My mom then passed the recipes along to her mom, my Nanny, and Nanny took over the tradition of baking with Jes and I each year.  For years these cookies went unbaked once we grew up and left home.  Three years ago when Jes moved to Nashville we decided to institute “sister baking day” the first Thursday of December.  I can’t wait for the day Jes has kids and we pass the tradition on to them!

There is just something so precious about the memories created from holiday traditions.  I think the beauty of family traditions is in relishing the memories of traditions past, adapting some traditions to a new day, new family and new circumstances and creating new traditions along the way.

I’ll never recapture the exact tradition of baking with Nanny when I was a little girl, but the tradition of baking with my sister each year now is just as special.

What is one of your favorite holiday traditions?

I feel it.

You know that oh-no-here-come-the-holidays-I’m-going-to-gain-10 pounds-because-I-can’t-avoid-all-the-good-food-and-treats feeling.

Yep.  I felt it this morning while I was running because, well… I run for treats.  That’s my motto.  My selfish obsession with “thin” coupled with my love of food is enough to keep me motivated to workout a few hours every week.

It’s cold weather season, so what does that mean?  Comfort food.

I love comfort food.  A good pot roast with carrots, potatoes and gravy cooked in the crock pot so that I don’t even feel like I really cooked – yeah, that’s nearly heaven.

It’s also time for the holidays.  That means comfort food combined with lots of treats.  Seriously, does it get any better?

So yep, I’ll be lacing up the running shoes and hitting the pavement pretty frequently.  If you happen to see me just yell out “keep running for treats!”  It’s all the motivation I need.

What’s your favorite holiday treat?

It’s been a LONG time since I did a Friday Fun post.  Here’s what’s happening:

• Going to breakfast with my husband to work on our plans for the England/Ireland trip (thanks for all your input!)
• Working on my content for The NINES Conference.  Have you registered yet?  It’s FREE!!
• Stupidly tried one of the Baywatch workouts on Exercise TV.  Baywatch – no further explanation needed!  Did you catch the word “stupid”?
• Continuing to read Fearless by Max Lucado – review coming Sept 8th
• Dinner with my wonderful sis tonight!  I feel like I never see her these days with her new job.
• Doing some homework on moving my blog to be self-hosted and doing a redesign.  We’ll see how that goes
• Will work in some tennis, both playing and watching the Western & Southern Masters

How’s your weekend shaping up?

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted Friday Fun, so here’s the latest:

• My husband left the house WAYYYYY early this morning for work, so Mick (my dog) assumed it was time to get up… but instead I laid in bed and finished the novel that I’ve been reading,  I love the feeling of finishing a good book!
• Ran 7 miles in Edwin Warner park with Ash today.  I’m having trouble getting my groove this year in training.
• I could smell the sun today… really I could.
• The squirrels were especially frisky today in the park.  They kept startling me during the run.  I think they have spring fever (me too!)
• Grapefruit – my treat of choice after completing my run.  I LOVE grapefruit!
• Talked to my dad.  First time in a few weeks that we actually got to talk instead of exchanging voicemails.
• Working on a talk for a seminar at NRB this Sunday.  I’ll be part of a panel discussion with Matthew Paul Turner, Joe Sindorf and Michael Buckingham.  Looking forward to working with these guys.
• Going to meet my friend Jan for tea this afternoon
• Bought the new album from The Fray.  Anybody else have it yet? Whatcha think?
• Get to hang out with some friends tonight – yay!

It’s a good day!