So 2016 came to a close

So 2016 came to a close, we had ups and finished on a huge down.  But I'll get to that later. 

Mid-December saw grandchild number 3 born, a girl, Aleyna Grace, daughter to hubby's eldest son.  So over the moon with her, she's little darling.   Here she is with proud Grumpy and Nanna at one day old.   Mike is sooooo not comfortable holding wee little ones.  It was a quick hold for him and then quick, someone else's turn! ha.

Then we had the Christmas Parade for our little town.   I was part of our CWA 'float' - we dressed up as reindeers (plus I had Lucky the rein-dog) oh boy, he owned that parade like a boss.  Marched himself down the middle of the road in his little reind-dog outfit !   Look, truly he loved it, he's smiling right!!??    Heck it was hot in those reindeer outfits!

We got to meet Santa too!

Well it helps to have husband's in high places.

Mike drove Santa's golf buggy.

Lucky Santa made it to the Carol's in one piece, as the practice run the night before

Santa fell off the end of the golf buggy as Mike took off.

Mike and I took part in the special Christmas Eve parkrun, so much fun, 

all dressed up with my friends.    Again, rather hot!

I did my usual Christmas run round the streets in town, Santa hat and all.  

Lucky came with me.

I think he saw Santa when I took this photo, what do you think?

Mike piked on me this Christmas, he stayed in bed!

I did my usual colour co-ordination of my gift wrapping.

Lo and behold anything that wasn't in the colour scheme of black, white or silver.

It went on the chair beside the buffet.

I love my little wooden Christmas tree sent to me by my US friend Kathie.

Then what I had been waiting months for.

My bestie Sonia came for a visit with hubby and son.

So excited.  We just pick up where we left off.

It had been two years since we'd seen each other face to face.

Yep, it was REALLY like old times.

I haven't had my tenor horn out for donkey's years.

We spent some time in Warrnie, and didn't capsize.

We really were so cute in our sailing gear!

Alright so we weren't over our head.  

I don't think we were even over our waist.

Love this pic I took of Daniel.

New Years Eve we went into Parkrun.

Plans were to walk and talk.

But we did do a few runs for the photographer.

And my grand tally for the year was added up.

However it wasn't all fun and games.  Over the past few months Bo Bo had started losing weight again.  She'd take two steps backwards, one step forwards, but slowly got right down in weight.  Mike and I made a conscious decision that this was going to be her time.  We wouldn't put her through the trauma of nights away in hospital again.  As long as she was holding her own and not in pain, we would let her live out her time.

But alas on New Years Eve we had to make the heart-wrenching decision to say goodbye to our girl.  She wasn't coping, she had stopped eating again and her slight frame could hardly hold her as she struggled to get up.  With many many tears Mike and I made the call that broke our hearts and we said goodbye to our love of 14 years.  Our beautiful girl who came to us as a stray kitten, faithful to the end, she went to sleep gazing deep into Mike's eyes.  I'm crying as I write this, I don't think I'll ever be able to think of her without a painful lump in my throat and pain in my heart.

Goodbye sweet girl.

We loved you so.

This photo from a few years ago when she was look magestic.

Fallen off the face of the earth, but I've still been running!!

Well yes you may think I've fallen off the face of the earth, but surprise surprise I haven't stopped running.  Just too impatient to sit and blog unfortunately.

Best news though, biggest news ever, I have made it to 1000km for the year.  I've never done that before, the closest I've gotten was 903 or something like that last year.  I was over the moon rapt.  Mike came with me, well actually he DROVE to the park and I did a lap of town first, as I had to do 8km that night to make the 1000.   So he was running laps of the lake and I met him down there.  What a taskmaster, he wouldn't let up on me until he knew I would have 1000km in the bag.  He drove home and I ran home! ha.

Now this happened a few weeks ago, so as of now I'm up to 1053km.  Blitzing it this year!

Now back to Mike, he has gotten the bug.  It was only a matter of time since getting fitted for his Brooks at the Running Company.  Even though he professes that he is not interested in races or events, he floored me one evening when he knew I was going to head up to Hamilton to go to parkrun the next day, we were sitting having dinner on the Friday night and he says "so what time are we leaving tomorrow".  WE????   Yep, he wanted to come too.  My friend Narelle was going to be Race Director that day so he said, he can be another one at the run too.

Although never one to act shy or retiring is Mike.  When I went through the parkrun pics at home later on, oh dear!

Followed by his finish line antics, arms up in the air, he'd made it !!!  5km.

Followed by a dramatic grab for his race chip ...

I did say dramatic, didn't I?  He had the volunteers in stitches.  "I neeeeeeeed me chip" he was saying.  Never a dull moment.

Love that you get nice parkrun action shots.  It's a great course at Hamilton, a little double back and then a lap around the lake.  I really enjoy it, although I don't head up every weekend as it's an hour's drive.   I'm aiming for once a month.

So on the odd occasion we've taken to running together.  It's been fun.  I just do my plod and Mike does his jack rabbit sprint, followed by an out of breath "ooooh my ankles" rest while I pass him, and then another jack rabbit sprint again to catch up.   I must admit we are having a ball.  We don't always run together, but the times we do I'm really enjoying it.   Love my new 'half marathon girl' especially the back!

Lastly for this epic catch up post, I took part in the Indigenous Marathon Foundation virtual run for November.   This was the second year an amazing lass Sarah has put this fundraiser for the foundation together, with 942 participants this year, I also took part last year.  So this year I pledged to run 100km for November and I made it with change ... 107.41km.

Just a little about it from the website:

Each year, the IMF selects a group of young Indigenous men and women and trains them to run the New York Marathon. Their journeys can change not only their lives, but the lives of the people around them and their communities. The IMF was founded by marathon legend Rob de Castella in 2010. You can visit the IMF here and see all the amazing work they do. 

Roll on to last weekend and the man ran his first 10km (oh well 7km, with a chat to the neighbour, with a final 3km big blockie to finish it up), ahhhh see the allure of the double figures has gotten to him.  Then he changed, mowed the front lawn, and then fell into a stupor on the couch!   Ahh well, he earnt that grandpa nap!

Now lastly for the epic post, I saw this on facebook or instagram can't remember, but it made me laugh.  Next time hubby says you are hard to shop for ...

Keep on running, we still have 27 days to run!