Dancing, running and sweet rewards

I was blessed with an awesome Birthday weekend. I think a big part of it was the realization two days before my B-day that I can't do it all anymore. It's bittersweet to me, but I have finally decided I can't keep up 30 hours of work per week. I'm too stressed out. Once I got that out of the way, enjoying my birthday weekend was great!

Friday night Scott and I enjoyed dinner and dancing (and free babysitting) for his school's annual Holiday celebration. Thank you Stacey's for the photo.

Saturday morning I ran in the Reindeer Romp 4 mile Race. Hurray for 10 minute miles! I don't call myself a "runner", I am proudly a "jogger." They gave all the competitors jingle bells to wear on their shoes. It was fun!
Saturday night was a community Christmas singing event at my church. I was able to sing with both my church choir and the Kirksville Community Chorus (p.s. locals, if you want a fun, musical and festive Monday night activity our concert is next Monday, Dec 14 7:30 pm @ the First Christian Church on Washington St).

On Sunday after church, my birthday gift to myself was indulging in making a cake. But not just any old cake from a box, probably the most labor intensive cake I've ever made in my life (not including decorations). It was a blast. Especially because I didn't care how it looked. I just wanted to make something exotic that I'd never done that tasted great.
The cake was a cream cheese pound cake (same recipe as the petit fours) with two varieties of homemade mousse, white chocolate and raspberry. mmmm. Note to self: cutting a 10" cake into layers with an 8" knife doesn't work very well. Good thing I was going for taste and not appearance. Although, I was pretty pleased with the look of the layers in the slices.

The abundance of leftovers (after the one slice each Scott and I ate) went with Scott to school where I was able to offer hard-working med students a nice little treat and they didn't care how it looked. Everyone wins!