And the countdown continues!

Only 1 more week until the wires come off... woohoo! I did have a sad realization however. I'm most likely not going to be eating solid food until almost FEBRUARY. Why, you might ask? Well, I'll have rubberbands on the wires for a minimum of 3 weeks. During this time, the main focus is to teach my jaw how to open again. I've talked to 2 people who have had their jaws wired shut, and both said not to expect to open more than a finger's width for the first 2 weeks, and it took them close to a month and a half to have a semi-normal range of motion. That 6 weeks put me around the end of January. Unfortunately, however, I'm going to have to have some crazy dental work done once the rubberbands come off. Come Mid-January, I'll have to have another round of surgery to get the posts in place, a few root canals, crowns, etc etc. Soo, take another week of healing after that, and you've hit February.

This brings me to a new question. I scrapped my Marathon entry for a Half Marathon Entry at the Myrtle Beach weekend. Can I successfully run a half marathon on 1 month of training plus a 2 week taper (not allowed to run until after Monday)? I had a few 10 mile runs prior to the accident, but the last Half I did was in September. Never done a marathon. And I haven't trained for a month, with the exception of 2 swims. Hmm.

Other changes included to my list of events include scrapping the Jingle all the Way 10K, and the Celtic Solstice 5 miler. Doc said no. I am, however allowed to participate in the Christmas Light Run through DC on the 17th, due to the fact that its not a high pace environment. Should be interesting to see how well I can sing christmas carols while running through the city with bells on my feet. :)

I'm also sad I won't be able to go ice skating downtown this year :( I have to avoid any activities that increase my chances of falling and busting up my face again. I'm good at ice skating, but you never know when a small kid might fall directly infront of you and trip you (read: this happened last year, and I had a nice ice-rash on my chin). I will have to go get some pictures again of the trees. These are from last year:

National Christmas Tree on the lawn of the White House (seen dimly in the background). The National Christmas tree is surrounded by a small tree decorated by each state and territory.

There is also a Menorah during Hanukkah on the front lawn, a manger scene, and the Yule Log (which is a giant fire pit about 6 feet deep, fueled by large pieces of the "yule tree" . Keeps you quite warm while looking at the tree's) You can see the smoke from the pit in the picture above.

Trees at the Botanical Gardens. There is also a very elaborate miniature train set that goes around the front of the Gardens. The track is handmade, fabricated by little twigs. It is definitely a work of art, and I hope it is there again this year.

Capitol Christmas Tree. I personally think the Christmas Tree on the lawns of the US Capitol is much prettier than the tree at the White House. Less tacky, just simple and beautiful.

I'll post pictures of this years decorations once I manage to get Downtown. This year, I won't pick the coldest night of the year to go down like Austin and I did last year. Most of my pictures were blurry. Longer night exposure time combined with uncontrollable shaking didn't work out so well.

Oh, and also in the Christmas spirit - if you are doing a Secret Santa exchange this year, check out this site: Secret Santa. With this site, you can set up a list of people to be included on the exchange, they can go in and create a "wish list" to share with the group, and you can set up so certain people are unable to be secret santas (ie: husband and wife in a group). Gotta love technology.