For sure Christmas Vacation is in my top five movies. All Time. No matter how many times I watch it, I still find myself laughing uncontrollably as I watch it once again. I guess I just never tire of Clark Griswold and his fun, old fashioned, family Christmas!
Our family shares the affection for Christmas Vacation too. Each year growing up we would watch it on Thanksgiving while decorating for the holidays! Well, this year for Christmas vacation the sisters (and our awesome brother) planned a little surprise..."something real nice!". We headed south on an epic vacation adventure that mostly didn't involve running because I had to agree to no races and no talking about races in order to get my husband on board. This was the first time EVER that my hubby wasn't with his family on Christmas. Like Clark, he is old fashioned and likes to be with his family so I appreciate his willingness to break tradition and spend this Christmas with the Smith siblings in the sunny south. I think he had a great time and the break from the cold was needed this year!
Cheers to the beach for Christmas 2017!
It may come as no surprise to those who know us that Jeff and I have a hard time agreeing on what is "normal", "acceptable" and "reasonable" when running is involved. We just see things differently. But for Christmas, we set our differences aside and gave our kids a grand vacation with all their Smith Family aunts, uncles and cousins; a vacation that is sure to surpass even the Griswolds in the realm of Good Old Fashioned Family Christmas. It was the Merriest Christmas since Bing Crosby danced with you know who!
So no races and no race talk was part of the deal, but what we didn't agree to was not running while in Florida. That would just we CRAZY so every morning Mird and I woke up super early and went running in the 50 degree weather.... In shorts and tank tops... oftentimes on the beach! It was pretty awesome and warm!!!
In an attempt to seem normal, we created an agenda for the week. It really just covers food, beer consumption and a couple of other important items (some of which happened and some of which did not) because our idea of a vacation is a week with NO AGENDA (some people do not share our zest for the unplanned) so this was our compromise. We left the running off the agenda and just quietly snuck away each morning before anyone else woke up.
Constantines
Above is our attempt to recreate the Griswold Christmas Tree scene
"it's not going in our yard...it's going in our living room!"
Griswolds
I guess the angle isn't quite right, but I think we get an A for effort!
"little full lotta sap"
Vern and Mird spreading holiday cheer...
after a four mile beach run and a quick dip in the pool!
The only marathon we did this time was a puzzle marathon. Here's our recap for that race:
2000 pieces, 6 days, 8 kids, 8 adults, countless beers, several sunburns, Ed Sheeran, Beatles, a couple elves, 2 re-purposed tables, a yard stick, flashlight, double sided sticky tape and a partridge in a pear tree (haha)...to be honest I would have rather run 26.2 miles. That said, it was an awesome, "puzzling", marathon, experience and it did prompt one epic late night table run that was unbelievably fun! Thanks for that Mird!
Scrapbooking to capture the memories while they're fresh!
Scrapbooking was the perfect ending to our "Old Fashioned Family Christmas"
Special thanks to Aunt Dominica and Uncle Ivar who went above and beyond all week long. They not only agreed to "shack up with the youngsters" for the week, but they also drove through ridiculous east coast traffic on the way there, played with the kids, served as life guards, cooked us amazing food, did a majority of the dishes (thanks Ivar!), spoiled the kids and in the end helped them create precious scrap books to remember all of our vacation fun! You two are the BEST!
The whole crew...(we think)!
Florida December 2017
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from
Vern and Mird
We're Out...
shoveling snow likely since it hasn't stopped snowing since we arrived home!
PS a few funnies to remember from this one...
The blender is in the bathroom, duh!
Yes the toilet paper is lavender scented
The peanut butter was like our own holiday elf hidden somewhere new each day
and there's no place like Florida for Christmas!
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