Well, we tried...

Last Thursday, The Son and I were supposed to participate in a Jingle Bell Trot, sponsored by the YMCA in order to collect toys for children in need. It was a great idea, it could have been fun but... Mother Nature had other plans. It was cold or, I should say... FREEZING!

The Son and I bundled up and planed to go anyway, it was only a two mile run. I had already run five miles at the gym in anticipation of not being able to complete the two miles because of the company I was keeping, so I wasn't stressed out about getting in my exercise.

We were supposed to wear jingle bells on our shoes and we sat in the car to get "jingled up."

We got out of the car to head to the park where the run was being held and we were hit. Hit with a blast of cold air that made our bones hurt. This particular park is situated in a location that makes it always seem to be windy, even in the summer, but in December, when it's below freezing and extra windy out? Well, then it's as windy as Alaska and Chicago combined. (or at least what I imagine combining them would feel like.)

The Son and I got to the track, and again we were hit with a blast of cold air, he looked up at me and said, "Momma... it's really cold! I don't think I can do this." I told him we would go around one time and see how we felt. One time is only a half a mile. We joined the few die-hards who were already running around the track, there were supposed to be 125 people but I'm afraid not nearly that many showed up. We ran, the wind blew. We ran, our eyes teared up. We ran, our noses ran too.

As we ran, The Son kept asking me if we were almost finished and I must admit, I too was feeling really, really cold. I told him we didn't have to do more than the one lap if he didn't want to. He didn't want to. We got to the end of the lap and headed into the gazebo where they were handing out hot chocolate and cookies. It was pretty much too cold to even stay for hot chocolate and cookies even though some of our friends were there,

so I asked The Son if he wanted to go home, stay there or head to Starbucks. Can you guess which one he picked? That's right, Starbucks!

We went over to Starbucks where The Son is somewhat of a celebrity and knows all the employees, and we hung out, enjoying our grande skinny skim latte (me) and our vanilla organic milk and rice krispie square (him)

as we chatted with the baristas and The Son went around with my camera and took some photos... he's getting pretty good, I must say.

So, to sum it all up, the run itself was a bust, thanks to that often nasty Mother Nature but with or without the run, the toys were still collected which was the main goal of the whole event. I also realized that The Son just might have a future in running. The Boy is fast! When we were running on the track, I had difficulty keeping up with him at times. I would guess he was running at a 7 or 7.5 mph pace because when I run "fast" on the treadmill, I'm running at a 6 to 6.5 mile pace and I was running fast and he was running faster. In all honesty, I was very surprised at his speed, not to mention impressed. I think we'll be working on running together more frequently... when it gets warmer of course.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend friends, we're going to be working on holiday decorations today, and tomorrow and the next day...