Holly Trolley

Wait, wait for it, it's the fa la la Holly Trolley!  Doesn't take much to make me squeal with delight.  A swell free holiday service from SJ VTA.  According to this article in the SJ Merc:  The Holly Trolley was built in Milan, Italy, in 1928 and operated there until the mid-1980s, when the Italian government donated it to the San Jose Trolley Corporation.

So cute inside.  We sat on wooden benches.  If only every day commuting could be like today.  Well, it was a bit noisy -- this video clip captures the noise and the route.  Clang clang clang.  Festive.  Loved it.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

A favorite character of mine is The Grinch.  Alas, though, plant me downtown at Christmas in the Park and I get a little misty seeing kids having a swell time.

Our tree.  My camera does not do it justice.

Each year, The Fairmont San Jose has wonderful holiday displays - this year a gingerbread house.

Last week, I did the Santa Run to help support Christmas in the Park and Downtown Ice, the ice rink surrounded by a circle of palm trees, a classic California scene.

Ah, Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph's.  Miss E asked me to join her for this evening's Season of Hope concert -- her friend, a handsome tenor whose voice brought tears to my eyes was performing.

An interior view of the church.  Lovely concert.  Lovely time with Miss E and her family.

Last year, I joked about Reindeer of Troy in my neighborhood.  Well, somehow, this year, it kinda looks pretty.  My neighborhood is swell and they put up with me, The Grinchie.  Recently, we welcomed Garden to Table, a wonderful project to build sustainable organic farms in urban areas to help our less fortunate neighbors.   Right on my street.   Just another of my favorite things ....

Santa Baby

A year ago, The Boyfriend and I stumbled upon the first ever Santa Run Silicon Valley, an event to help support our wonderful Christmas in the Park, considered one of the top ten displays in the world.  I jokingly said I would enter the 5k race next year.

Well, here I am.  Did I do any training to prepare for this race?  Ho ho ho ho my belly laughs.  Um, I showed up.  Met my friends and waited for Rudolph and the other reindeer to whisk me away in their sleigh.  Didn't happen.  I expected to walk and maybe run a little bit and hopefully finish the 3 mile course in 45 minutes if I was lucky. 

I don't know what happened but I shot off like a reindeer on steroids.  Okay, a bit of fancy.  I started running (also known as jogging) and essentially never stopped.  I was like, yo Santa, yo Elf, get out of my frigging way.

There's me.  Sweat was pouring off me.  My thighs felt like cement.  I kept pace with this wonderful woman wearing bells and every time I heard her bells, I kept pushing myself.  Running in costume, among a sea of red Santas, some in tutus, others wearing antlers, and so forth, cracked me up and made the event funny and memorable and enjoyable.

I called The BF and said, I'm just about finished.  Actually it was more like I was high as a kite and yelled something crazy into the phone and thank God he understood. He had only just arrived and barely made it to the finish to snap my photo.  It was wonderful to have him there at the end.  Wonderful.

They had milk and cookies for us!  The first place finisher's time was 16.56.  As for me, I exceeded my expectations.  Don't go there, please as to what constitutes expectations....  Results are here along with an interesting graph.

I received a present later but I can't blog about that.

Just the Stats:

Finish:  33.58 with a pace of 10.57
I placed 1,035 out of 3143 finishers