Happy New Year!

But Santa, I've been ever so good...

	Gimli would like: - cheese - toys - cookies - Marrobones - a new Mr. Sun - more cheese - some apples
	Merida would like: - all of what Gimli receives so she can steal it away - cuddles with Candy - but most of all, she wants snow Alas, it's a green and rainy Christmas for us this year.

New ornaments

Every time we travel, we make it a point to return with a new ornament. This year was no exception.

Merida

When her ornament was first released, it was quite popular and the shops at Disney couldn't keep it in stock. Now that Frozen has taken over, there were quite a few Meridas available :)

 We picked up this one and the next one on our most recent trip in November.

This is my unofficial motto when I run.

Faith in myself. Trust in my body. Pixie Dust for that extra bit of something.

A friend gave us this one.

Exterminate!

Here's our tree now.

The fluff awakens

Since the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens today, the corgis are paying tribute to the Star Wars universe.

You are unwise to lower your defenses!

The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now *I* am the master.

Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.

AT AT

The fluff is strong with this one.

A basket of fluffs

The dark side is strong with this one.

Flat Corgi Friday - What's a couple more animals?

Flat Corgi Friday is back. We were on vacation in November and I have more Flat Corgi pictures to share. It's difficult to have content when you only brought out the corgis once this year, but such is life.

This past November we spent a few days at Animal Kingdom Lodge before a 4 day Disney Cruise to the Bahamas. I have a full post coming about that whole experience and what I learned from it, but for now, here are some pictures of the Flat Corgis.

These two pictures were taken around the Arusha Rock Firepit in Jambo House.

The view from our balcony. Because we are DVC members, when we stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge, we stay in Kidani Village. This allows us to book a savannah view room where we can see the animals roaming around.

What's a corgi without the obligatory cow picture?

No Flat Corgis in these, just a few pictures of the animals

Feeding time

The baby zebra and its mommy

Grateful Day 1

I've recently discovered the organization, Plasticity, who works to improve employee engagement/morale/retention etc through data and psychology combined. One of the social media campaigns they are leading this month is the #12GratefulDays initiative. Starting today - 12/7, they post a daily mission and you respond to it via Twitter.

I love this idea, so I figured I'd expand and turn my daily entries into blog posts.

Today's mission:

Name 3 things that happened last week that you are especially grateful for and share them in images, videos or text.

In no particular order:

1. The corgis racing around the house.

Nearly every day after our evening walk, Gimli runs up and down the length of the house. Merida chases him from the living room in the back all the way up to the front and back again. Eventually, she tires and she remains in the living room, while Gimli continues towards the house. Most times, on his run back he then chases her around the coffee table.

Every day I say, "oh, I must record this!" And everyday I do not.

It looks something like this.

2. Finishing a tough run.

Last month Runkeeper posted a new challenge - the Global 5k run on December 6th. Their aim was to bring thousands of runners together on the same day for the same goal. They are tabulating the data right now, but by their estimates, they brought together about 200k runners.

I signed up for it and off we went early Sunday morning. We were fortunate enough that there was no snow or ice on the ground, though it was a little chilly... ~ 1 degree Celsius.

I've done 5ks before so the distance wasn't too much of a challenge, but I had updated my "5k race" workout interval to:

1k - run

.5k - walk

1k - run

.5k - walk

.5k - run

.5k - walk

1k - run

Sunday's run was the first time using this schedule and while I was sore afterwards, I was pleased to have accomplished it. This is the closest I've ever gotten to running the full 5k. I have more ground to cover, I know, but it's a far cry from where I stood back in January.

3. Homemade cookies

Last week, I made my first batch of gingerbread cookies. Although, if we're being honest, they are gingerbread Mickey Mouses. It was not as difficult as I thought, but I really had to get my hands into the dough to mix it properly.

These cookies are all gone now, but I'm going to make another batch this weekend. Those Mickeys should have M&M buttons... unless someone eats all the M&Ms before Saturday.

Tongue out Tuesday - the cake version

This past weekend, we held a get together with friends to celebrate Christmas and my upcoming birthday.

One of my surprises was my cake, which was modeled after a certain fluff ball. I'm sure you'll see the resemblance.