'Tis the week before Christmas and all through the house ... not a creature is stirring except for me and my coffee. The cats are all parked in front of the heat vents, sucking up all the warm air. They think I'm nuts to awake this early.

We finally got our tree decorated last night! It stood naked in a corner of the living room for a week, waiting for DS to finish his finals. He commented, as we were decorating, how odd trees are that have all matching bows and ornaments and are perfectly decorated. To him, a Christmas tree is our odd and unusual (and pretty motley) collection of ornaments collected over the past 30 years. A banana! An apple core! Sequined egg beater! Dinosaurs! Bungee Santa! (the cats' favorite toy -- poor Bungee Santa is pretty beat up ) I still have the ornaments that I thumbtacked over my desk when I was in law school in a vain attempt to be festive. It's definitely a family history tree!

When we were done with the tree, we got Chinese food with a side of sodium weight gain. Very predictable and it will be gone in two days.

After the gym this morning (boy, has it been deserted!), I want to do my last big grocery shopping before Christmas. I have a roast beef and turkey ordered for Christmas Eve and Day but will dash in on Thursday for those. Everything else today. And a bunch of errands, hopefully the last of those too. Traffic has been a nightmare and the snow messed up everyone's plans, so a lot of people still have shopping left to do.

We'll be spending Christmas at home and it will be pretty low-key compared to our 24 person Thanksgiving. What are all of your holiday plans? Are you ready??

I am ready for Christmas Eve with my family, Christmas day with DH and the cats, and then the looong drive up to North Bay for 3 days with DH's clan.

The tree is coming in tonite (after our housecleaners today) and I get to do my favorite thing, which is decorate the tree, tomorrow night while DH is writing his exam.

I am still under red line so right OP with maintaining through the holidays. I have written down what I will eat on all of the three celebratory events so I will still be under red line after it's all over. I will enjoy getting together with family, rather than using the time as an excuse to eat a whole bunch of stuff I don't really want.

Notice I'm not using "hope to be" etc. I've made up my mind to do this this year. There will be treats, but in moderation. No alcohol, lots of lean protein and veggies, and that should do it.

Have a great week all! Enjoy the holiday!

Dagmar

Hi,

It's all silent and deserted overhere as well. The country got 4 inches of snow, which means that it has shut down. n public transportation to speak of, and everyone that does not have to go out will stay in. I am very much staying in, admiring the pretty snow from inside and keeping my wood stove going.

DS just biked off to go and stay with XH for a few days. He has never done that before, never slept there, never been there for over 3 hours, so I was pretty much amazed and not happy at this plan.
DS explained that this is because he does not see his father that often. Right. OTOH of course no-one forced XH to forbid them entrance in his house if they did not accept NL, and no-one forced XH to quit his job and go sailing 6 months of the year either. But I have a wide grin on my face now as DS organised yesterday that his friend will go there too. The pair of them has been together at my house for a number of times, and I know that two 17 year old boys get on my nerves in a huge way. Furthermore, the sky is clouding over and another snowstorm is predicted for this afternoon...if the buses quit it is not me that will have to go out and fetch this friend from the station. Ahhh, the joys of growing boys and testosterone. Three days with his dad with one laptop (that they probebely either will not get to install games on or will be **** to clean up after they left), no playstation, no wiii, just XH, NL, boardgames and healthy outdoor fun.

I am going to do some chores.
Enjoy the holidays!!!

rabbit

Good morning! I am off to the gym as well and I hope it's deserted. The kids are with my until Jan. 5. Hold me.

Happy birthday, Bright Angel! I think you have a wise plan for the holidays.

Ah, Rabbit, it sounds like you get the last laugh. Sometimes we have to be patient, but in the end, the ones who do us wrong get what they deserve.

Hi Ward! How was the gym? it's the best way to destress!

Dagmar, you are my hero for your holiday planning and staying under your red line! I'm going to think of your wise words this week.

Happy Birthday Bright Angel. I hope your day is filled with joy, laughter, and love.
Karen

Happy birthday Angel!

Great job avoiding the holiday goodies everyone! Good luck with avoiding stress and with the kids.

I am not doing such a great job of avoiding the holiday goodies. Saturday I had a major craving for something sweet. Luckily DH talked me out of baking something (which would have made far too many). I was trying to talk him into letting me go out and buy a single-serving portion of dessert when our neighbors showed up with cookies! So the dilemma was solved, but I ended up eating two cookies and two buckeyes. No real damage done from that, the scale was the same Sunday morning.

Yesterday, however, was a different story. DH made springerle, which are anise cookies that he always makes at xmas. My mom had requested them so we made them to bring to LA with us. I also ended up deciding to use up the half can of sweetened condensed milk in the fridge by making coconut macaroons, ostensibly to give to MIL as a thank you for watching our dog while we're gone. I ended up eating about four macaroons and four springerle, then about 1/2 C of the persimmon ice cream that we still had in the freezer.

You know, having written that down, it doesn't sound all that bad. It's certainly not a lot of cookies compared to what I used to eat. Still, I was supposed to be good until I got to LA, and I failed at that.

Happy Birthday Bright Angel!

No Christmas cookies here. I decided that just catering the office Christmas party will be enough for me! Saturday, after doing a 45 minute cross train on the treadmill (3.25 miles), I hit Costco and two other grocery stores as well as a side trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond. DH and DS went golfing, so I came home and proceeded to cook the chicken breasts and then shred them in preparation for making the enchiladas. At dinner time I realized that I was physically tired and ended up tossing a simple salad and throwing in a frozen pizza for our dinner.

Sunday I repeated my trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond because the rug I bought was too small.

We were going to go see Avatar on Sunday but decided to wait until next weekend so DD could go with us. Instead we saw Invictus. Good movie--although it started out quite slow. Not nearly as good as The Blind Side, but it was interesting to see how Mandela's mind worked!

I got up this morning and repeated my 45 minute cross train on the treadmill. Amazing how good I feel! I really felt like going on longer, but alas I had to shower to get ready for work!

Question for y'all: does anyone own a Keurig coffee maker? I'm seriously considering one for our office. I just need some opinions.

Allison, Santa's elves whispered in my ear that I'm getting a Keurig for Christmas, so I should be able to give you a review in a week or so!

Good morning and happy winter solstice!

Meg, how is your older cat doing? Isn't that funny when they sit on the heat vents? Even the kitten I had for a while (she got adopted on Saturday!) did that. One cat I had would take up the whole vent. She was long-haired, too, so you'd think she'd be really hot. Did my grocery shopping bright and early this morning, too.

Dagmar, congrats on being under your redline and having such a great plan. Have fun with your tree decorating.

Rabbit, staying inside on a snowy day with your woodstove going sounds wonderful. Should be interesting with your son and XH.

Wardhog, have fun at the gym.

Bright Angel, happy birthday! Very sensible plans.

Jessica, today is a new day. Persimmon ice cream? Oh, that's what they do with those things.

Allison, Saturday at a Costco. You're a brave, brave woman. I have to go see The Blind Side--glad the trailers weren't lying.

Other than the Christmas cards from friends that I put on the mantel, we're not decorating, although I may get more into the spirit and put up my snow village now that the kitten is gone. I miss my little sweetie, who loved looking at the Christmas tree lights. We were going to take her to the botanical gardens this year to see the light display. Anyway, enough of that. The sugar monster is still within me, dang it. But today I will slay it. I heard a dietician talking about putting pumpkin in everything so I put some in my morning quinoa--very filling. She even talked about putting it in spaghetti sauce. I draw the line at that one!

Have a good Monday, everyone!

Allison - I own a Keuring, and Michele does too. I love love love love love mine. Can't say that too many times. I think it is the greatest gift I ever got from my parents.

On the way to the park while DSS & DH play - if I don't go know I'll never make it. I'll come back and reply to the everyone else after the run.

Happy birthday Angel!

Good day all!

As for the Keurig--the reason I want it is twofold: One--no waste. There are times when I'd love a cup, but don't want to make a whole or half pot, so it makes sense. Two--the pot here at work is horrible! Someone obviously burned coffee in it, and if it sits in the on position for more than 15 minutes the whole office starts to stink! I'm sure we'll get a lot of use from it, and what really sold me is that you can buy the adapter so you can use your own coffee and not have to buy all those little pods. I'm sure I'll head to Target to get one this week. I'd buy it from Bed, Bath and Beyond but they don't carry the Elite which is the perfect one for our office.

Thanks for the input Shannon and I'm sure you'll be happy with yours Meg!

Sheila~you HAVE to see The Blind Side!!!! You;ll laugh one minute and cry the next, but it's a really good movie. I didn't even recognize Tim McGraw without his black hat!!

I'll check back in later as I'm late to the dentist to have my crown finally finished (yuck)...

But I wanted to suggest to you Allison that you look up your coffee maker on Amazon. That is where I bought mine and it was the best price, quick shipping, and no tax. And I do love it!!! We have so many different coffees and teas that we are enjoying. No mess.... one cup at a time.... it is amazing!!

I also loved the Blind Side. I'm dying to see Invictus as we lived in S. Africa. I had forgotten it came out so I need to go see it this week!

Busy day so far-- already been to the vet with my barfing cat, to Target, to Safeway and now off to the dentist. First day off is a whirlwind!!

Happy Birthday Bright Angel!! Hope you have a wonderful day!!

My jawas have the conveyor belt on top speed after eating all those cookies yesterday. Somebody remind me that I will not die if I wait until I get home (in an hour and a half) to eat.