Hi and hope everyone is having a great Christmas.

DH left back to work this morning. My step-daughters all went to have Christmas with their mother. Me, Lacy and Shane went and had Christmas at my brothers house . It was nice visiting him and his family since we only see him about once a year.

Dawg, cute doggie pic. I don't imagine my dogs would like that either, LOL.

Allison, hope your mom is better soon. I know it's even harder for you with her in this situation on the holidays. Hugs.

Gary,the lasagna was good, but I ate only about a 2 inch square of it. For some odd reason I don't have much of an appetite.

Christmas this year definitely turned into a full week of activities and I am wore out. Hopefullly I'll recover by next week and be ready to hit the gym. I did take a walk outside for a while today.

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you had nice moments in your families!

I went back to my hometown and we ended up only having a "real" Christmas meal on the 25th only, which was a relief, because being faced with food for at least three days straight was quite the daunting prospect. Of course, our guests also brought food and desserts and stuff, which meant we had a lot more food than originally planned, and not of the "light" kind. But it could've been worse. I know that if I have to blame myself, it'll be for my pre-Christmas bingeing problems, and not because I've pigged out on day-D. Oh well. What was nice was that it was good food that was brought home -- no fries or boring stuff like that, but gourmet French food, really enjoyable when you didn't stuff yourself (I slept well afterwards, which is a sure sign I didn't overdo it). I only took one portion each time, and as was to be expected, I was the only one to eat vegetables. I don't care. Their loss, not mine.

The only thing that really irks me is this tendency to cook a TON just because "we don't want people to think we're cheap". My mother insisted to make so much pasta that we ended up with a quantity that would have allowed every single guest to get second-helpings *three* times at last! I'm not even offering to take some back home tomorrow, when I go back to my own studio to go on revising for my next exams, because I can't see those pasta anymore.

(And guess who was the wacko who popped a WATP DVD in and exercised throughout this couple of days all the same. I couldn't stand keeping still on a chair for so long!)

Alas, just as I suspected ... I am the laundry fairy.

Everybody doing OK?

Gary, what a lovely family!!
Allison, you and your mom are in my prayers.
Lily, good job getting out for a walk even during this busy time. I'm completely worn out too, but my Christmas isn't really over yet because I still have to visit my side of the family.
Kery, gourmet French food sounds lovely -- that's certainly not what I had yesterday! I had turkey, dressing, gravy, etc. -- the usual American Christmas dinner. It was good, but I ate too much!
Susan, I'm a laundry fairy today too, and a dish fairy, and a packing fairy. We're trying to get everything done so we can get out of here and get on the road.

We have a 5 1/2 hour drive ahead of us today to get to my mom's house (and it's in the same state -- Virginia goes waaaaaay down into the southwest corner, in that part nobody seems to know about!) There will be lots of eating for the next four or five days while I'm with my mom, so I need to be prepared. Honestly, I'm kind of tired of eating right now! I'm very excited about seeing my nieces, nephews, and great-niece. And yes, I feel much too young to have a great-niece!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the day!

Happy day after Christmas,
I am happy to say, I did not drink any liquor the past several days, wowsa what a MIRACLE, I just thought yanno I don't really need it, so I had a few glasses of grapefruit juice instead, it looked like a cocktail.

I Got a ton of comments thrown at me, some were complimentary others were not so much, oh well peeps are funny, heres a few I heard this week, like Dang Girl, EAT A BURGER already! Or your soooo skinny, eat another piece of cake! You better be done losing, because pretty soon you will look sick!
Then I had a few friends that said you look GREAT, I am so jealous but then they threw in you skinny lil ***** at the end. So that was my friends sincerity at their finest i guess.. Ha ha ha

Yesterday I ate too much homemade candy. They were health candy bars basically made out of soda crackers, but that was my big splurge of the day, did my usual hr long workout, plus weights, plus played wii for a good hour too, so I should be ok scale wise. Back to my routine today though and just did my workout, now it is time to shovel a 6 foot snow drift that I have been avoiding for the past 4 days, will probably take a good 45 minutes to break trail, so yesterdays my candy consumption should give me the sugar high to shovel shovel shovel...

Kery, WTG on doing the DVD and managing your portions.

Gary, great pics.

Susan , I am the laundry fairy too. My house looks pretty messy right now and it seems like I've cleaned constantly this past week. Just a lot of folks around to mess it up I guess.

Our Christmas is done now and I spent last night paying bills and balancing my checkbook. Then, I tried to watch one of my new movies with Lacy , but I fell asleep halfway through it.

I didn't overeat at all at my brothers. I always feel like his wife is watching me to see if I'm getting Fat again. I refused their offer to take home any leftovers.

Today is right back on plan for me. Beginning day 1 of SB induction. Will definitely be on my treadmill today cause it's cold and rainy outside.

I got some sad news yesterday. An old friend of mine from high school is dying with cancer. It started in her intestines and has spread to her lungs and liver and she has less than 3 months to live. I'm debating over whether to go see her or not. I have always been very close to her mother. So, I probably should go. But, I had drifted apart from Robbie over the years because she got hooked on drugs. The last time I saw her she was tweaking so bad that I couldn't even stand having lunch with her. But, I know her mom, Anne, would appreciate me coming to see her and Robbie. I'm really worried too about how Anne is going to handle all this cause she just lost her husband last Christmas. After typing this I think it helped sort my feeling out. I should go to at least be of support to Anne.

Merry christmas all!

Rabbit

Good morning everyone (almost afternoon).

My Mom has been moved to a rehab hospital and is starting to feel less pain. She can't go home until she can transfer from bed to chair without assistance, so I don't know how long that will be. It's nice that they're feeding my Dad as well as her!

Gary, I ran right over to Coachella, but couldn't find the kidnapper. Maybe next time (oh and an address would be helpful LOL!).

Who wanted to know about I am Legend? I really liked the movie! I cried at one point--who knew I'd cry at a movie about zombies?!?! Anyway, it is a good movie and obviously a good story as this is the 3rd time it has been made into a movie.

I'm really sick. I caught a cold and the first two days were okay--just a slight sore throat and runny nose, but now it is worse. I hope it doesn't turn into a sinus infection. I'm really miserable and am having thoughts of skipping tomorrow morning's run. I can't sleep because I can't breathe so I just don't know how I'll run. The run on Christmas wasn't very good, either.

Hmmm, yes, this laundry fairy seems to need to flit into action again today! What are those clothes doing in there???

We had a nice Christmas. Ordinary breakfast (well, for me. I made DH bacon with his eggs!) and then dinner next door (oh, and an orange for snack). They had both turkey breast and ham. I kept to my goal of one spoonful of anything I wanted, and that was plenty. There were also shrimp and veggies for appetizers, so I had those, minus the dip for the veggies. It was a hoot over there. 5 little girls under 4! All but one walking, okay, make that running! Then 3 girls between 7 and 12, 2 teenagers, and a host of 20somethings (parents of the littlest girls) and a moderate number of 40somethings, and above all this the 2 parents of the 40s (grandparents of the 20s) and us. 30 people in all, yikes. Plus one very worried cairn terrier. It was busy, let me tell you... But nice to be around when you don't have your own family nearby.

I'm off today too, which is nice. I'll get a lot of stuff picked up and put away. We had about 6" of snow overnight, so DH has gone outdoors to shovel. It's only 10F so I think the snow will be around for awhile.

Gary - you stood us up for the Ahi Tuna! It was terrific. Thanks to you, we have delicious leftovers for tonight.

Allison - so sorry to hear about your Mom's broken leg. Hope she's able to transfer soon.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve, Candle Light Service, sleep over, and Christmas morning at my SIL's. For the first time since I've known DH, there were no little children and I didn't get stressed from the noise. I actually had a nice time.

Our 'orphan' Christmas Day night dinner party went very well. Our guests stayed until nearly midnight and I almost fell asleep on them!

Today, I've already taken down the Christmas Tree ornaments and the decorations in the family room. Tomorrow, the lights come down and the tree goes out so we can start stripping the room to spackle, paint, and put in a wood floor. Then we'll be able to dance at home. We also plan to put a dance floor in my studio. In April, we're going to throw a dance party for all the great people we've met through dancing.

Tonight's Westie Wednesday so we'll be going to a dance party.

Finally checking in. Good to hear most everyone had a good holiday. It was it's usual state of semi-controlled chaos here but everyone was happy. I stepped on the scale this morning expecting the worst and found I had lost 2 lb. Maybe I need to go on the rum cake diet. Eh, probably not.

After sleeping 12 hours and then taking an hour and a half nap yesterday, I woke just after 3 this morning. I've been busy putting away the fine china, fancy silverware, and serving dishes that were set out to dry, doing the laundry, and working on the final bits of the Spring issue of the magazine I edit. Last week, I already started production on the Summer issue.

We went to the dance last night but only stayed an hour. DH had over used his collarbone the night before and was feeling it too much, so I pretended to be tired so he wouldn't strain it further by dancing too much.

My eating has been out of control for the last 3 days. I'm afraid to get on the scale. I was only one pound over goal going into Christmas, but I'm sure all the cakes and cookies and cheese I've eaten will settle on my tummy and thighs.

Santa brought me 2 books that were on my wish list - Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" and Anthony Briggs' translation of Leo Tolstoy's "War & Peace". I plan to take the 1358 page W&P on our sailing vacation in the Spanish Virgin Islands during February. We're chartering a large catamaran with 3 other couples.

Another good book I finished last week was "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follert. It was a mear 978 pages about building a cathedral in the 1100's. It was fastinating to learn how people lived and worked.

What was your favorite gift besides getting together with friends and family?

Back to work this morning. My how time flies!

My lunch is packed and I'm praying that the gifty stuff is all gone from the nurses station.

Favourite gift? Hmmm boy ... I always love new pyjamas but I'm pretty excited about my workout clothes and my kitchen speakers. Wait ... who doesn't love a pink sweater or vanilla body butter .... um, can't decide.

I was happy to get a new jogging outfit that is too big. yay!