A weekend full of firsts

This past week has been your typical busy holiday week. Between work, social events, Christmas shopping, and general adult life tasks (such as grocery shopping – ugh), I feel like I’ve been on the go-go-go! All things considered, this past weekend was an especially fun weekend, though. It was full of first-time experiences!

On Saturday, some friends from work and I got up way too early for a Saturday morning to run an Ugly Sweater themed 5k. I’ve never ran any distance longer than 2 miles before, so I’m pretty proud of myself for signing up to do this 5k “dash”. I finished in 40 minutes… a good first start, I’d say. I’m looking forward to signing up for another fun run in the spring or summer! 

After the fun run, we headed back home to attend a local matinee performance of The Nutcracker. We have another friend from work who’s daughter had two major parts in it. I know everyone has their feelings about ballet and musicals and whatnot, but I had never been to The Nutcracker before so it was really exciting for me! Plus, knowing someone in the performance made it even more exciting. It’s like rooting for your home team!

After the amazing Nutcracker performance, my husband and I went to dinner with is parents at a local restaurant that we’ve been wanting to try for years. If you’re ever in the Olympia area, you’ve got to check out Gardner’s. It’s a fabulous little seafood and pasta place. Well worth your time and money!

And the last “first” I have to share is that I finally took a stab at making homemade marshmallows. As a kid, it never occurred to me that you could actually get marshmallows from anywhere other than the store. Realizing now that not only can you make them at home, but you can make them any flavor you want, is fantastic! I used a recipe from this really neat book written by the folks at Bi-Rite Creamery. I made mine orange flavored to accompany a candied cranberry homemade ice cream. 🙂

Phew! As you can imagine, I’m feeling quite accomplished after my epic weekend of firsts. What are some things you’ve tried for the first time recently?