I am not feeling well. I’m supposed to run a New Year’s Eve 5k tomorrow, but I’m starting to think I might not make it. I skipped this morning’s run to conserve energy and hopefully prevent myself from feeling worse, but I don’t think it worked. I suspect I may have a mild case of tonsillitis. Seems to happen every couple of years. I guess we’ll see how I feel tomorrow. Maybe I’ll wake up miraculously cured. One can hope!
Tag: christmas
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December 29
I feel like I’m in the middle of a Christmas hangover. Partly it’s because my body is valiantly fighting off some kind of sickness and I’m tired and scratchy. But also it feels like we’re in the aftermath of a tornado that was made of peppermint and sparkles. Christmas is over but it still lingers. It’s not bad, really, there’s just a lot less anticipation. Anticipation is possibly the best part of Christmas. But tonight we played one of our new games, Mount Cleverest, and it was pretty fun. It turns out I am NOT actually the smartest one in the family. Or so the game would have us believe. I am not fooled.
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December 28
I ran four miles this morning like it was nothing. Not that long ago, I wouldn’t even have attempted it, it would have sounded so ludicrous. But I did it and it felt good. I just have to stop and acknowledge all that’s gone into that feat. It’s a big deal.
After that, the girls and I went clothes shopping. Christina wanted a nice outfit to wear for her birthday. She didn’t end up with much that’s different from what she already has, but she did at least seem happy with it. Robin and I rummaged around Goodwill and found a few things for ourselves. I bought a dress for Friday as well, and a pair of jeans. I bought sizes that I wouldn’t have believed any normal person could wear, and they fit. Comfortably. More for me to stop and acknowledge.
This year has literally been transformative for me. I don’t know what light bulb switched on, but I’m so grateful it did, and that I’ve been able to keep it lit for as long as I have. We also went food shopping, and then I passed out because my throat feels scratchy and I’m exhausted all over my body. I haven’t been sick in years either… but maybe that streak is ending. I’m going to try to sleep it off. Maybe I can head it off at the pass.
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December 25
We had a nice Christmas. Everyone seemed to like their gifts, and then we had a nice dinner with Colleen and her family. We made another turkey roulade for dinner and it was delicious. By the time the kitchen was cleaned up (oh my god so many dishes), I was exhausted and passed out on the couch. Just what Christmas is meant to be.
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December 24
Everything is ready for Christmas at last. I spent the afternoon making cannoli cake. It’ll be hard to top salted caramel apple pie cheesecake, but I’m going to try. We had our traditional dinner of cold cut sandwiches and that was good as usual. Right before we go to bed on Christmas Eve always feels like the quietest moment of the whole year. I find it almost as hard to sleep as the kids do.
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December 23
It looks broken, but Christina intentionally built her gingerbread house on its side. It’s modern. I think everyone’s house fell apart at least once. I’m just sad Billy didn’t build one. His disasters always make the rest of us look good.
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December 22
It was back to work today and I got more done in one day than I have done in entire weeks at other times of the year. It felt good to be this productive. Christina baked a bunch of Christmas cookies all by herself, which is also awesome. Robin smiled at dinner and said words out loud, which always makes me happy. All in all, not a bad day.
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December 20
Robin came with me to today’s Santa Run and I had so much fun running with her. She hasn’t been running or training, so the fact that she ran at all was awesome, and then she went and ran half a mile without stopping! We had other short intervals of running the rest of the way, which was also awesome because I assumed she’d be done after that long run. The second best thing about this race is that the medal is both sparkly AND includes Rudolph on it, complete with a light-up blinking nose!! Hands down best medal ever. Probably my favorite race ever, too.
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December 17
Christina remembered she needed to bring her Secret Santa gift for dance just about when we were halfway there. She asked me to go back and get it after dropping her off, but Robin had a cheer performance at school that I couldn’t miss. Somehow I made it home despite insane rush hour traffic, got her gift, and made it to Robin’s game only three minutes late. The game was pretty awful. It was clear no one wanted to be there. There weren’t even parents watching. The boys lost 56-8. I left as soon as the game ended and got Christina’s gift to her seven minutes after class started. Then I had to muddle back through traffic to meet Billy and Robin for dinner, who were already waiting at the restaurant. By the time dinner was over, I was ready to go home and relax before getting Christina, but Billy pointed out that it was already time to pick her up. So I muddled BACK to dance for the third time in two hours. It was an eventful afternoon and evening. But everyone got what they needed, except maybe the boys basketball team coach.
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December 15
I opted not to go out for this morning’s run due to the cold temperatures and high wind, and I’m glad. Instead I spent the day working on next year’s family calendar – an annual tradition since 2008! I also managed to go food shopping, do laundry, and make meatball subs for dinner. We’ll get the rest of our Christmas lights up at some point. Maybe.
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December 14
We went to see The Nutcracker today, which almost didn’t happen because I bought tickets to something called “The Nutcracker and Sorcerer’s Apprentice” instead. We only found out by accident because a commercial for The Nutcracker came on TV and it said it was this weekend, not next weekend like the tickets I bought. Upon closer investigation, I saw that what I bought were tickets to an orchestral performance of selections from The Nutcracker, along with some other classical pieces. And they cost FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS MORE than The Nutcracker tickets I wanted. I was completely devastated and cried for almost half an hour, but finally decided to go ahead and get the tickets I wanted for this weekend, and now I guess we’re going to the symphony next weekend too. It’ll be good for the kids to get some culture. Anyway, today’s performance was a lot of fun, and I cried again because I was so grateful that we got to go. ‘Tis the season not to read the bold type in the performance description that says, “THIS IS NOT THE BALLET.”
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December 10
I am teetering on the edge of being too productive this week. It’s not good to set these precedents. I have a good reason to back off, too, because I have not been sleeping well for a few nights now. I wake up into a half-sleep around 3 or 4am, stuck in a dream where I’m trying to solve an unsolvable problem. And it’s hard enough to try to do that when you’re awake… doing it while you’re sleeping is exhausting! I’m trying to figure out what it is in my life that’s making me feel stuck like this. It probably has more to do with the fact that I DON’T have a problem to solve right now that my mind is inventing things for me to solve in my sleep. I’m lacking inspiration and motivation in general, which is only exacerbated by my lack of sleep. So let’s see what happens tonight. If I can get some rest, maybe I can come up with something more fun to keep my mind occupied.
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December 8
There comes a point where being productive becomes counterproductive, and I hit that point today. It’s ok, though, because I am excellent at inventing distractions. Honestly, though, it was a pretty quiet day, and those are nice too. I am without a project or pastime at the moment, so have spent most of my free time on the couch trying, not too successfully, not to be bored by what’s on TV. Luckily we have Christmas to keep us occupied. We do have a really big tree to look at.
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December 7
We got our biggest Christmas tree ever today, literally the first one we saw. It touches the ceiling, but it’s nice because there was actually room for all our ornaments. Only one broke this year… seems every year we lose at least one. Now it feels like Christmas.
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December 4
A light pole fell down at a major local intersection overnight, closing it down for hours and causing a traffic nightmare for most of the day. We were literally the only people at car line in the morning because no one else could get there. I thought the school was closed. We had a plan to meet up for pizza after Christina’s dance class and then go pick out a Christmas tree, but Robin was in an epically bad mood and then Billy spilled her full glass of Dr. Pepper all over her at the table, so we decided to bag it. I still think that was a smart move.
Year in Photos 