Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Merry Christmas! I got up around 7AM this morning (since that's when Seth woke up), and started the Christmas festivities. For breakfast, I made a new recipe: gluten-free cinnamon muffins, made with a blend of almond flour and coconut flour. I had never used almond flour and coconut flour in the same recipe, but it turned out quite excellent, and the taste was lovely. Also, I busted out my home-made vanilla extract for the first time, as it is almost matured. Basically you just cut open 15 whole vanilla beans (about $15), and drop them into a bottle of vodka ($10). Let sit for 6-8 weeks, shake occasionally. And then after a couple months...walaa! 750mL of pure vanilla extra, for $25 of investment. When you think about what vanilla usually costs, it's an incredible deal.

After breakfast, we opened presents, just the three of us. Seth still has no idea what's going on, but he liked playing with the tree and trying to break stuff.

After presents, Seth was in a bit of a stupor, from staying up way past his bedtime last night at a Christmas party, plus all the excitement and unusual food from the morning. So we put him down for a rare morning nap (he went out like a light for a couple hours).

I had been planning on running in the afternoon, but decided to do it around 10AM instead, to take advantage of Seth's nap time. Since it's a holiday, I ran a little bit longer and a little bit faster than usual (probably fueled by Christmas cheer). I ran the Bear River Loop, out west in the valley near Almaga and Benson. I hadn't done that route in a while. My first mile is down the hill from my house, and that was about a 6:15 (typical since it's a big hill). The second mile was flat and through Smithfield town, and it was 6:08. And then I headed out of town toward the Bear River, and the miles really started clicking. 5:45, 5:51, 5:44 (now running south along the Bear River), 5:42, 5:45 (now running back toward Smithfield, ever-so-slight uphill), 5:50 , 5:59, 6:24 (back up to the hill to home). So it turned out to be an accidental tempo (3rd degree tempo, aka RanSlaughter). I felt very joyful the entire run, full of gratitude of being able to run at all, and full of gratitude for the birth, life, death on the cross, and resurrection of Christ (what this day is all about).

God rest you merry, gentlemen,

Let nothing you dismay,

For Jesus Christ our Saviour

Was born upon this day,

To save us all from Satan's power

When we were gone astray:

O tidings of comfort and joy,

comfort and joy,