Happy New Year!

I hope you had a great holiday–I did!  What follows is a not-at-all-short recap of my 9 days off. 😀

I started off the holidays doing something I honestly never thought I’d do.

Yep, that’s me, playing hockey. 😛 Well, sort of. 😉 DS#2’s team had a parent-kids hockey game, and after much encouragement from our coach and manager, and much trepidation on my part, I decided to give it a try. I never skated until a couple of years ago, when I took lessons. There was much stress and perhaps a bit of crying, and I only lasted 6 lessons (I paid for 8). I swore I’d never do it again, but DS#2 was really hopeful I would play in this game, so I swallowed all my fear and went out there. And I’m actually glad I did! I think I must have learned something in those 6 lessons after all, because I didn’t do too awful at the game. I never fell, I actually got away from the wall, and I even touched the puck five times! 😀

This is our family after the game. I can’t deny I was really proud of myself for doing it. I have been really afraid to skate again after my first few times, so I was thrilled to conquer the fear. I even skated again this past weekend at a birthday party for one of DS#2’s friends. Twice in a week! Crazy!!

Then we had two Christmas celebrations, one with my husband’s family and one with my mom’s family.  There was plenty of food to be enjoyed, for sure!  I contributed, of course:

DS#2 and I made that apple pie–isn’t it beautiful?

I ran five miles on the treadmill Saturday to help me work off what I knew was coming, then I ran another four when I woke up Monday morning, but when I stepped on the scale, this was the result:

That’s a .6 pound gain from last time.  Not ideal, but not all that surprising.  I worked hard to make good choices, and I did keep within my points, but sometimes it was hard to resist! 😉 However, I wasn’t too distraught, since I’d just come off two non-standard days of eating.

I went to my sister’s on Christmas night to open gifts with her and my mom.  Mom gave us all a surprise…

That’s me with DS#1, showing off our matching pajama pants. DS#2 has a pair, too, but he didn’t want to be in the picture. Funny, she didn’t make a pair for my husband… 😉

For my contribution to Christmas dinner, I made this:

The correct name is a Buche de Noel or Yule Log. My sister gave it the nickname shown, and I think it fits. It’s full of butter and sugar and chocolate, and if I do say so myself, it is damn good. Oh, and it was also 11 points per slice. 😛

After that, I woke up Wednesday morning, very glad I had made arrangements to go for a run with my friend Carrie.

The tale of our run is quite a story, but not nearly as impressive as Carrie’s own story.  It’s so impressive, in fact, that it deserves its own post, so I’m going to wait and share that in a few days.  Come back for it…I guarantee it will inspire you!!

After Carrie and I had our run, I fulfilled my promise to my boys for a “special day” during their break with just the three of us.

We went to the movies (DS#2’s choice), Buffalo Wild Wings (DS#1’s choice) and the local historical museum (my choice, lol!!).  We all agreed that it was a great day!

As you might be able to tell in the above picture, we got some snow on Wednesday. We got some more on Thursday and again on Saturday–and I love it! I won’t say I like driving in it, but I do love the beauty of snow, and I love the crispness of the air.  I especially love when the sun shines on it.  Michigan is beautiful in the winter! My husband likes the snow because it gives him a chance to use Big Blue.

That’s our tractor, which has a long story associated with it. I’ll tell it some other time. 😉

We had our monthly Winer’s get-together on Saturday, where the theme was White Chocolate, White Wine, and White Elephant (gift exchange). The food was great, as always! I worked hard to keep within my points all week, but I made sure to eat the things I really wanted.

I ran 5.5 (treadmill) miles on Saturday, then another four on Monday morning to help me work off all those points.  When I weighed myself yesterday (New Year’s Eve), I saw this:

I lost over a pound! I wasn’t too surprised, though, because I felt like I worked hard and earned it.  I’m trying not to get too hung up on the scale, though, because weight fluctuates, and as long as I’m doing things right, my weight will maintain, and that’s what’s important. Still, I must admit that it felt incredibly awesome to be able to start the new year knowing that I was at the lowest weight I’ve ever been in my entire teenage and adult life!!

The kids and I got invited to a New Year’s party (my poor husband was working). It was “bring a dish to pass,” and for me, that was a chance to do some baking, which I love to do but haven’t had a chance to lately.  So I worked my tail off Monday night before the party to make these:

Those are cappuccino brownies on top, which include espresso, cream cheese, and pretty much enough butter to keep a dairy farm profitable for a month. 😉 They’re quite good, though. 🙂

The bottom pic is one I’m rather proud of, both because the pic looks pretty cool (thank you, Instagram!) and because I really went out of the box with the recipe. They are “mini” versions of my mom’s famous Apple Cream Crumble Pie.  And they were AWESOME!  I’ll share the recipe for both desserts another day.

I did count the points for both of those items–ouch. When I got up this morning (New Year’s Day), I had intended to be a sloth all day, but I knew I would be better off, both physically and mentally, with some exercise, so I took a challenge from my new friend Carrie and went out to try my first-ever run in the snow.

That’s me before I started. I was hoping to get a 3-mile run in, but I honestly didn’t know if I could do it–we had SO much snow and ice!

See what I mean??  But I braved it anyway, and guess what? I did it!  It was tough at first, because there was a lot of ice in many spots, but I eventually figured out that I could run in the snowmobile tracks on the edge of the road and it was much easier!  Once I got my “groove” going, I felt great, even though it was only 25 degrees, and I ran not 3, not 4, but five miles!! How crazy is that?!

That’s actually a real shot of me finishing by the way, not posed after the fact (like most of my run photos, lol!).  DS#2 came out and waited for me to get back so he could take the shot. (Such a good boy!)  I am not ashamed to admit that I just love this picture. I love the snow, I love the sunlight, I love that I look like I might actually be a real runner. 😀

And that was my holiday recap. I hope you had a great holiday, as well, and that 2013 brings you much joy and success, whatever your goals may be!  Thank you so much for making my little blog a part of your new year. 🙂