Christmas Festivities

Christmas Eve singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Luke made this a tradition to always have a Jesus Cake on Christmas Eve.


Mimi reading a Christmas story to Drew, Luke, Elliot, Kyle and Sarah. Which two faces do you think make me laugh?


Julianna all dressed up!


Daddy and his boys! This picture of Kyle and Jake both blinking for the flash cracks me up :)

Christmas Day at the Colchagoff's. Here is the whole cousin line up! Torin and Tobin in the back then Noah, Brenna, Thane, Drew, Julianna, Kyle, Jake, and Grayson holding him.


Mommy and Kyle cuddling and waiting for the unwrapping to begin!


Daddy promised the kids a pancake breakfast, yummy!!

Jakey says, "Where are my pancakes???"

Ready to check out the loot!

The Bumgardner 4. Kyle, Julianna Jake and Drew.

Pierogie Making

OK here we go! I know I have a lot to catch you up on. Let's start with our pre Christmas tradition of pierogie making! My Mom and sisters and I get together a few days before Christmas Eve to make our favorite Polish dish. Store bought frozen ones WILL NOT do! Oh no! We go all out. This is a big deal. We need to set aside an entire day because for as many as we make we need a good 4-5 hours.

Here we all are ready to get started. Stefanie, Mindy, Me, Mom, Meredith. Go Team Pierogie Makers!!!

We start by peeling potatoes to make the cheesy mashed potato filling. We also fry up a batch of sauerkraut (true Polocks need the sauerkraut ones). Mindy is the official dough maker lately... how many batches of dough did you need to make this year, Mindy? A dollop of filling gets placed on the dough, the dough gets folded over and pinched together. Then they are boiled & fried and ready to be served up with sour cream. Mmmmm... mmm... mmm good!

It is always good to have several little fingers on hand for pierogie pinching. Elliot, Kyle, Luke, and Mimi!

Julianna and Britney

Sarah enjoying the finished product!

What a great day! It is loud and hot (because of all the boiling and frying) and crazy trying to get this all done with a dozen kids dancing around us but we LOVE it. I also love that the past several years we have done this at my house. Being the oldest child I love being able to hold this tradition here in my home. As we were starting out my Mom says, "Can you believe that your Grandmothers did this all by themselves? At least we have each other!" My response was, "I just can't believe that they mashed the potatoes by hand at least we have a Kitchen Aid!" I'm not sure but I think she rolled her eyes at me.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to tell you that this is what we eat for dinner on Christmas Eve when we celebrate the holiday with my side of the family!

Running Update

Well, I said I would keep you posted as to how my training for the 1/2 marathon is going. So here it is. Back in November on Thanksgiving I ran in a 5K (3.2 miles) with my sister Meredith and my brother Mike.

Since it was only a 5K I was ok to run it on little training. Since then with the colder weather and rainy weather I have not been all too motivated to get out there and run. However, that changed today.

Today I got my Christmas present a little early!

That's me and my Kyle giving my new treadmill the thumbs up!!

So now I'm officially back in training! 2miles today!!

Sometime in the early spring I want to run a 10K and the first weekend of May I want to run in the Frederick 1/2 marathon with Meredith. I figure then I will be good to run the 1/2 up in Maine in September.

Emily here we come!