It has been a while since we wrote here, I know. I actually haven't taken one single picture since the last one was posted on flickr, but we have been keeping busy.

Mike celebrated his 31st birthday on Monday, the 14th. We spent the weekend in the Twin Cities where after we watched the Packers win, Dan and Katie made us all a very tasty (and healthy) meal. Then we all went out to a very cool bar in St. Paul, the Muddy Pig, that serves a whole plethora of good beers. For his actual birthday, we stayed home and played his new present from Benjamin and I - Guitar Hero 80's Encore, which is just a blast!

The previous weekend, we went to see Avenue Q, a very funny and entertaining musical. The tickets were a Christmas present to me from Mike. We had a very fun night away, just the two of us!

We have a busy few weeks ahead of us, full of very exciting things. Mike will be running the Securian Frozen Half Marathon this month and is helping to organize the Lace Up Against Breast Cancer Half Marathon in February. His big news though is that he has once again registered to run the Boston Marathon this year. He is excited to hopefully have better weather this time and to improve his finishing time.

I am once again performing as an actor in a murder mystery as a fundraiser for a local charity. If you live in or near Rochester, I highly recommend buying tickets - it is a very fun event (plus all you can drink wine and all you can eat desserts are included)!!

We will be attending the Twin Cities Food and Wine Experience again this year where one of my personal heroes, Collette Peters (a cake decorator) will be speaking. At the end of February, Mike and I will be jetting off to a much needed relaxing and romantic vacation in Hawaii. It will be our first vacation without Benjamin since before he was born! We are beyond excited!!

So that is what is going on with Familie Schmitt...I'm sure we will be back with more updates soon!!

So excited on his new bike!
Originally uploaded by Familie Schmitt

If this picture doesn't sum up our holiday, I don't know what could. Benjamin absolutely loved Christmas! He (and us right along with him) enjoyed every single moment of it all. I put pictures on flickr from both Christmas and New Years. The three of us spent Christmas Eve in Rochester by going to our church for mass and having a delicious Indian meal at home. Mike read The Night Before Christmas and Benjamin left all of the essentials out for Santa and crew. We were all up around 7:30 Christmas morning for our family present opening. Highlights were Benjamin's new sparkley tricycle, lots of puzzles, Jessica's new running coat, tickets to a musical, a Bento Box for Mike, Candyland, and many other great things! We managed to pack up the family to head up to the Twin Cities soon after opening the very last gift. We enjoyed the Schmitt Christmas at Cindy and Bert's house with all of Mike's brothers and their significant others along with Great Aunt Alice. Andy and Jennifer surprised us all with the announcement of their engagement!! AJ and Benjamin really enjoyed opening up more gifts and we all stuffed ourselves with a delicious meal later that evening.

Our Christmas continued later that week when my parents came up from Chicago with their Hyundai literally stuffed to the seams with even more presents. That Sunday morning we spent a long 4 hours opening all of the gifts and playing with everything we received. The house was quite a mess for days afterward!!

On New Years Eve, Andy and Jennifer came down to go with us to a celebration at a local Spanish-Tapas-style restaurant. The party was a 1920's-themed New Years, so I just had to dress accordingly. We had a really great time and rang in the new year under a balloon drop with our free champage at the restaurant at midnight.

The next morning Jennifer, Mike and I ran the Resolution Run, a 5k put on by the Running Room. The weather was a brutal 1 degree temp with somewhere around a -14 windchill, but we still ran and had a great time!! Jennifer and I even shaved 3 minutes off of our last 5k time! Of course, Mike could have run the race 3 times by the time we got done, but we felt really good about our accomplishment!! And now we have new shiny Running Room jackets to prove it!

It is amazing to think that another holiday is now over and another new year is here! I guess it is time to take down those Christmas decorations and get ready to celebrate Mike's 31st birthday!!!!

Happy 2008 to everyone!!!!!