Good morning everyone!

Hard to believe that Christmas is only 8 days away! Yikes! I'm getting things done little by little but I still have enough to do. I'm taking it day by day rather than stressing out looking at the big picture.

My eating has been sliding as has my journaling and I need to get myself back on track in that respect. I still need to decorate the house. I've had a hard time getting into the Christmas "spirit" this year. It's kind of like when it rains it pours kind of years. My car needs new shocks ($350) and I'm trying to figure out when I can get them taken care of. I also had to make a trip to the dentist for a toothache--the crown I had put on this past year is giving me trouble and they need to take it off and do a root canal on the tooth...ugh! Anyway, I have an appointment on Thursday afternoon to start the ball the rolling. There are other places I'd rather go than to the dentist. The only good thing about this is that I'll finally be able to drink cold stuff again. I miss drinking cold water...room temp just doesn't work for me.

So, how's everyone else holding up this holiday season???

Hi Melissa.

I'm holding up OK, however I'm getting rather impatient waiting for the end of day Thursday to arrive. I'm off til Jan. 6th and am having a hard time keeping my mind on work. It's not that I have a lot left to do at home - just that I really need the break from the office.

That's a real drag about the dental work and the car. Not a very good time of year to have those things pop up, but then again, when would be a good time? Hope you can find some inexpensive way to get the car repairs done. The dental work is another story - I don't go looking for bargains when there's a root canal involved

I weighed in on Saturday after being AWOL since August. Was up .2 so I was pretty happy about that. I'm .8 over goal weight and 9.8 over personal goal, so I know what the new year has in store. In the meantime, just happy to be back to official weigh-ins. I didn't even mind paying the meeting fee.

How's everyone else?

Melissa, sorry to hear about your car and tooth problems. What a time of the year to have them. We just had to replace our 3-year-old water heater. I did not enjoy paying that out at Christmas time.

Susan, good for you with the weigh-in. That's great. Are you back into running?

I'm into Christmas. It's been fun this year because I have the time to do my baking, cards and decorating. Usually I'm in a play and there is no time to do anything. Tonight is choir practice for Christmas Eve. Some great music.

Talk at you later.

Good morning all!

I'm getting there with my Christmas preparations. I have a lot to do over the weekend but the weather is going to be such that I'll really be in the Christmas mood--they're calling for snow! I'm planning on making my nut rolls on Saturday since my hubby and the boys will be out Christmas shopping. We're planning on getting our tree up on Friday evening and then finish decorating it on Saturday night.

I still have some shopping to do but I know what I need so that's not too bad.

I was up at the scale this week (1.4#) and I'm focusing on taking care of myself (i.e. journaling, water, eating right, etc.) and then the holiday stuff. I've got 2 good days under my belt. Today we're having a little office "party" later on and I've planned for it so I should be okay. I won't eat dinner until late since I'll be working at WW this evening so I can get away with a light dinner.

Domina: I did a short, 20-minute run on the treadmill on Tuesday and though my knees were weak, I didn't experience any pain. I'm going to try to gradually get back into a run every other day - short ones to begin with - to see if I can get back to my previous fitness level. If so, that will be the greatest Christmas gift by far.

Melissa: Glad to see that you're taking care of yourself through all of this.

To both of you, and to lala, laurel, myra, patch, katie and anyone else that I may have inadvertently missed, have a wonderful Christmas/Hannukah season. See you in the new year.

Hi everyone!

I barely survived the dentist yesterday--the darn crown wouldn't come off--told the dentist he glued it on good! Anyway, they had to cut it in order to remove it. The good part is that I can now drink cold things and it doesn't hurt! I'm still a little cautious on eating anything on that side. I have to go back in January to get finished up (root canal) and then he'll have to make me a new crown since the other one is ruined. The good news is he isn't going to charge me for a new crown

My car is going into the shop on the 27th--I made arrangements with my mechanic to make payments. There is a Santa Claus!

It was downright balmy here yesterday (55+ degrees) and it was sunny so I went for a nice 40-minute walk over my lunch hour yesterday and it felt so good. I took my walkman and Christmas tape and just enjoyed the time.

I'm looking forward to getting things done over the weekend. I know that everything will get done and I feel good about it. I'm not going to stress over the little stuff.