It’s the day after Thanksgiving and I just have so much to be thankful for. For one thing, I have recovered from my massive food coma from last night.

Day Before Thanksgiving
I’ll start off with a recap of Wednesday which I had off from work. I started that morning off with a 5 mile run from Eastlake over to West Lake Union and back. It was very rainy and I’m proud that I made it out there.

Clearly, this would be the Oiselle Clearly Vest, Stripey L/S shirt, and Lesley tights. This kept me super cozy and dry even in the rain.

A couple other tidbits from Wednesday — after my run, I got to meet up with Joe for lunch at Veggie Grill. This was the Buffalo Bomber and super delicious.

That evening, I decided to bake banana chocolate chip muffins using this recipe: Banana Chip Muffins II from Allrecipes. Instead of 3/4 cup white sugar, I used 1/2 cup brown sugar, and added 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Let me tell you — these muffins were fantastic! Perfect for when you have a ton of bananas going too ripe and want a fairly healthy recipe. It has no oil or butter and, instead, uses applesauce and mashed bananas.

That evening, Joe and I decided to have dinner at Serafina, one of our favorite Italian restaurants and just down the street from our house. Yum! They have the best eggplant dish that you must try if you dine there.

Thanksgiving Day
I started Thanksgiving Day off on the right foot with a nice 4 mile run aka my own Turkey Trot. The main reason for running in the rain was to balance out all the food I’d be eating for the rest of the day. It’s seriously the best food-focused holiday ever.

After the run, we packed ourselves and the pup up and headed up north to Mt. Vernon to spend the holiday weekend with Joe’s family.

Beer before Thanksgiving linner (lunch and dinner) is always appropriate.

Joe and I got to meet our new baby niece, Maddy. Adorable.

And our nephew Noah is such a fun kid.

Thanksgiving dinner was the best. Believe me, I went back for seconds. I am the biggest fan of mashed potatoes and definitely couldn’t breathe after. My pants feel tighter today, but that’s fine with me! 🙂

Joe (and his Movember mustache) and I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving weekend.

I have so much to be thankful for. In no particular order:

My amazing family

My fiancé Joe

The best pup in the world Lola

My amazing friends, including my besties, and old and new (plus all the new running buddies as friends I’ve made this year

Oiselle and Oiselle Team family

Being accepted as a FitFluential ambassador

Health

Love

Running! So much in fact that I’ve decided last-minute that I’ll sign up and run the Seattle Half this Sunday bringing my 2012 total to 7 half marathons and 2 full marathons

Great job/career

Being engaged and planning our 2013 wedding

SO much more!

Thank you all for contributing to my thanks. 🙂 Cheers to the upcoming year!