Thanksgiving Day in Pictures, part 1-THE ROAD RACE

In our state there is a HUUUGGGE (really, no lie) road race that occurs every year on the morning of Thanksgiving Day. It is a five mile race through the center of one of our towns. 15,000 people register, a couple thousand more run without registering, and thousands come to watch. There are many serious runners there that come from around the world and then there are the less serious runners who come from within the US or our area of New England. And lastly there are...the weirdos. The people who come to run (or walk...stroll...) a 5 mile race in absolutely ludicrous costumes. There were Christmas trees, Turkic, santas, gorillas, super heroes, food items, and far far far too many men in hula skirts/loin clothes/bras/speedoes/you name it, and lots and lots of spandex. It is quite the spread of people.

It has been a long time since my family has attended the road race, but this year we thought it would be nice to get out butts out into the cold and participate in one of the biggest events our (kind of boring)state has. My dad's law office happens to be on one of the streets the race occurs on so we went there, took all the fancy chairs out of his conference room, and hauled them across the street onto the median where we sat to watch the race. Simenesh was very excited to go and support a famous Ethiopian runner (and I wish I could spell her name)- she even climbed up into a tree and waved a flag- and the rest of us were excited to just have fun watching people make their way down the main streets of the town wearing all sorts of funnery. I was mostly along for the great photography opportunity! And my, I had fun. I will put some of the pictures here, but for the full effect go and check out my flickr page!

 my family (minus mom and baby) plus grandfather and some random dude is a furry hat?

 I tried so hard to capture the vast amount of homosapiens packed onto that street. Thousands upon thousands. Truly amazing for a small CT town.

 I liked these girls. They ran in a line, in RAINBOW ORDER.

 Ever see the discovery channel show Cash Cab? It is one of my favorites! These 3 made a "cash cab" and did the whole race with it on their shoulders. Points to them.

 Vintage Pucky the Whaler

 I adore big, drooly dogs.

 Mardi Gras anyone?

 A wrestler/luchador?

 Chilean coal miners. They got me really excited. I yelled in Spanish a lot and cried out Viva la Chile. I love Chileans. Though these guys weren't legit they get major creativity points.

 These guys were in the lead (there was one crazy African man out way in front of them. I'd assume he won.)

 The less pro runners.

 They odd guys cracked me up. As the were running they were calling to their friend "LaLa" who had fallen behind. "COME ON LALA!!" And the crazy yellow teletubby ran like the wind and caught up!

 Bananas

 There were so many waldos. The first one made me really happy. The ones that followed just made me feel like I was being lied to.

 Yes, that is what you think it is. A Tree. WITH LEGS COMING OUT OF IT! This guy (?) did the whole race like this. Craziness!

 Thanksgiving dinner on foot.

 This man is road race legend. "Safety Man". He shows up every year and acts like he is in charge of directing the runners safely to the finish line.

 I hate egg nog, but this kid gets points for making such a detailed carton!

 Um...firstly, it is thing 1 and thing 2, not 4 and 2 and if there are really 4 of you what happened to 1 and 3?

 Sadly there were a lot of this guys...

 Miners! They did nothing but walk, yell things in "Spanish" in a horrid gringo way, and drink beer. Ugh. But their costumes were amazing!

Spidey put on a bit of weight and the holidays haven't even really begun!?


See, lots of fun, right? Even more fun up on my flickr! More pictures to come of family, food, and whatnot! Stay tuned!


***check out my previous post on continuing in a spirit of thankfulness. I would still love for some of you guys to join in with me!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING/Project 25-TwentyFive-25

First off, HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!
What are your plans for the day? My family will be watching a bit of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, going to watch an actual road race (tradition in our state) that will be passing by my Dad's office building, and then heading out to my grandparent's farm for time with aunts, uncles and many, many cousins.

Now, I have to be honest and say that thanksgiving IS NOT  my favorite holiday. I don't like it very much at all (*gasp!) but I do have good reasons. Heres why:

• I have a problem with people picking one day of the year to be thankful for what they have. That is just...so American! I believe that if we are thankful for the lives we have been given, the people we love, and the blessings God gives us that we should live like it 365. Not just one Thursday in November...I mean, it is a nice idea and I understand how it started but it has become very distorted. I feel like it should be a lifestyle and not a calendar holiday...
• It seems to me that the whole idea of thankfulness has almost been lost in the commercialization of the holiday. You are SUPPOSED to be thankful for what you have, but it ends up being a holiday of greed for more. Think about it! What comes to mind when I say "Thanksgiving." For most Americans food is the first thing in their brains. A close second would be the day that comes after- Black Friday. As of when does being truly thankful for what God has provided involve gluttony and excessive shopping?
• Reason three is a personal one. I am a vegetarian, so I don't eat the turkey and I just don't like cooked vegetables very much...I basically eat BREAD on thanksgiving, so it is a weird experience. But that reason doesn't really count, so just ignore it.

All in all, thanksgiving is a good day and we should be thankful for another year of life. We should be thankful for the freedom that we have in this nation. We should be thankful for the people around us and we should celebrate the love that we have for them. We should honor God by thanking him for his never-ending love and provision. I just wish we would do it more often...


All that being said I would like to introduce to you my latest idea.  

"PROJECT 25-TWENTYFIVE-25"

What the heckito am I talking about? Well, as I was thinking about thankfulness and how I should do more of it on other days of the year I came up with little idea of how I could put it into practice. I realized there are a lot of people in my life who I am super grateful for. I am surrounded by awesome people who love me for who I am and encourage me into who God wants me to be. Those people mean so much to me and I don't know what I would do without them. But I also realized, while I am extremely inwardly appreciative of them, I very rarely thank them for what they do in my life. Ooooops. So I decided I would send some handwritten thank you notes. Twenty five of them, in between Thanksgiving (the 25th of November) and Christmas (the 26th of December) (see it all makes sense now!) Sounds like a lot, and maybe thank you notes are a little bit lame, but it is a good start. I want to honor those people who mean so much to me and a thank you note is a simple way to show some of my gratitude. Plus, who doesn't like REAL mail!?

Here is how I'll do it.

First, I formed a list of 25 people who need some thanking. But I cannot show you this list, as if you are on it that would be a surprise ruin-er. This post kind of ruins it too but...erase it from your memory if you think you might be someone I am thankful for. Ya'll know who you are...

Then I printed up a bunch these:

I am going to cut them out and include them in with the thank you card, just to give a bit of explanation to the recipient. 

I took some thin cardboard (my came from the inside of a package of tights, but you could use like a cereal box or something) and traced out a stencil. Then I carefully cut out the letters (HARD STUFF! Rounded edges are no fun!) with a box cutter knife (because one lives in my desk... but you could use something more tame such as an exacto knife).

With put the stencil onto a blank note card (or you could make your own with paper. Be as facy as you want. I was going for "a simple thank you" look) and held it in place with a ...bobby pin (yup. I keep box cutters on my desk, but I could find no paper clips...). I took a sharpie and simply colored in the letters (spray paint crayons, pencils, markers, or just about anything else would be other options).

SUPER simple. Again, feel free to be more elaborate. I decided to let the card be plain and then have elaborate, heartfelt words inside.

That is all there is to it, friends. I am going to make a bunch of these and send 'em out. ANY ONE WANT TO JOIN ME? Any other particular ways you like to express thanks? I would love to hear about it!

Have a wonderful thanksgiving and don't forget to keep living in thanks the other days of the year!

On murder mysteries and other such tomfoolery...

Saturday night I participated in a youth group event known as "Clue Night." It is a yearly event with our group where the leaders dress up as characters-suspects! (originally all characters from the board game clue, but over the years we have kind of turned into our own strange mix of characters. And we like it.)- and are questioned by all the youth about whether or not they committed the murder. Who was murdered? Well...obviously 1 or more inflatable alligators! Like, what else would you murder!?

 I am not going to try and bother explaining this absolutely ridiculous event/game night to you, as it is really one of those "you have to be there"- type experiences, but I am going to post the pictures. They are genuinely amusing, I promise, and you know how I am about costumes. I think any time I get to dress up is a great time!

 

The dead owners of LeGator Mansion (which normally looks a lot like a church). Named...I forgot. They were twins. One was Alliwishous (or however that is spelled...).

Now, brace yourself for a vast amount of High School Senior/College-aged people in BIZARRE (and I mean BIZARRE) costumes. And if you are wondering how it makes sense to have all these people employed at a mansion, IT DOESN'T. We have no reason other than we think it is more fun that dressing as Colonel Mustard...

 First off (sorry, I cannot remember everyone's names) we have a Librarian (Kaeleen), 2 ditsy girls with false high-pitched voices and fake giggles (Hannah and Elissa), and a chick in combat attire (Sarah Louise).

Then we have a ever-silent mime (Oliver) and his sister/ my best friend.

 The wonderful, beautiful, crazy, Emikel SWEENELLA TODD (yes, as in Sweeney. She is a real life cosmetology student, so why wouldn't she want to play a demon barber?!). Would you LOOK at those false, synthetic-fiber dusters she has afixed to her eyes! Amazing!

 Yup. She crazy. But I love her (and for the record, she is drinking mountain dew code red out of a plastic party glass. It is a mansion after all...).

 We decided that her look would be more complete with black lips. And it was!

Yup. She is hawt like wasabi! Even as a demonic barber (ps: she was the murderess. She planned the killing of those 2 alligators and hired 2 real, live twin boys in the youth group to do it! Wicked, wicked girl!)

 Next we have the evil clown, a la The Dark Knight,  Mr. Puce (Tony). If he doesn't give you nightmares, nothing will. Creepiest thing I've ever experienced. Ugh, I hate clowns.

 The butler with very moussed hair, Jeeves (Nathan)

The lovely (and totally ditsy) Ms. Pink (Elissa)

 Several peculiar gentleman, including Jeeves- previously stated as the butler (and Nathan), Mr. Green- blind private eye (James), Sgt. Pepper- Beatles fan and ukulele player (Hedge), Monsieur Le Blanc- crazy french chef (Caleb), and Lawrence Oliver- failed actor (Matt).

Camilla Camouflage and Mr Green (in leprechaun pants...)

Sweenella the demon barberess/Emikel, Ms.Shofranka Kinga Bela Scarlet the mysterious gypsy/me, and Camilla Camoflauge, expert at yelling at people/Sarah Louise. I love these girls.

*******************************************

Overall, a fun night. 2 flat alligators, many youth/detectives, a bunch of weirdos as suspects, lots of soda and munchies, good times, and at the end one murderess (...deflation causing person...) caught!