Full, fun day

I actually made it back out for a run this morning...it was a horrible run by my standards, but a run none the less. It's been a w-h-i-l-e since my last run, so taking that and my sore foot into consideration, I shouldn't be too hard on myself. I just have to start getting out there a LOT more. Mid-January is going to be here before I know it and is going to kick me in the tail.


Less than positive run or not, it felt REALLY good afterwards (I mean, not immediately afterwards), but a little while later.


Then Kellen had his belt test today for Taekwondo. (Which we found out about on Wednesday, but I'll leave that alone).


I wasn't sure what all he was actually getting tested on, but considering everything they were having the white belts do, I was concerned about him actually earning his orange belt.


They ran them all through the routines (I'm sure there is a different word for that...), and then had them do the board break. The students were lined up in height order, so Kellen was the last one to go. There were actually several in front of him that had to hit the board a few times to get it to break, but I'll let you take a look at the video to see how well Kellen did.






I think the other observers were concerned about him because he was the smallest, but he sure showed them! He did so great!

Like I mentioned, they ran them through a variety of things, but it was mentioned that not everyone was actually getting tested on everything they were doing, so I just wasn't sure...But he did it!

He got his orange belt! We're so proud of him and he's just thrilled!




I made a run to Hobby Lobby for the supplies for a craft project that I've worked on off and on all day. In case you're wondering, it takes a L-O-N-G time to paint clothespins. 48 clothespins, to be exact. I do have a better system now, though, so it's going quicker, thank goodness! I'm painting half each two different shades of green to make a wreath suitable for holding Christmas cards, and I'm hopeful that I'll at least finish the painting portion of that project today. I'm about 3/4 of the way done, so we'll see. But it's 10:30, so it doesn't look promising.



I also have another wreath that I'm wanting to make from the cut portions of our Christmas tree. I fear if I don't finish with that project before Matt gets back from his next shift, that those cut portions will end up in the trash. *grin*



Then tonight we did some other decorating and finally got the rest of the Christmas tree decorated. We've done this in stages this year because of Matt's schedule and Tatum's bedtime...I really wanted us all to enjoy the decoration aspect.

So last Friday night we got the tree, earlier in the week we put the lights on it, then tonight we finished with the ornaments and the angel topper. Tatum understood the concept somewhat...she enjoyed trying to put the ornaments on the tree, she just also thoroughly enjoyed taking them OFF of the tree as well. Repeatedly.




And of course, we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas while we were decorating...I'm so glad that Kellen loves that one just as much as I do! It makes it much easier to justify watching it while we're getting in the holiday spirit!



And here is our finished product. Matt and I realized that we could have easily gone another two feet with the height of our tree this year, but oh well. We all like it, and for this year, it suits us just fine!