>How Could I Forget?

>So in my Christmas post I forgot to mention what I made this year. Last year I made my own organic Italian seasoning mix and lavender scented sea salt for the bath.

This year I made:
-Pumpkin cranberry bread
-Gingerbread biscotti
-Cranberry almond biscotti
-Espresso Walnut brittle
-Honeycomb brittle

This year I had two dietary adjustments I needed to make too. No dairy/egg and no refined sugar. It actually wasn’t difficult at all. I just looked for some vegan recipes and stocked up on organic sugar.

The only one of these I had made before were the gingerbread biscotti and they are good! The brittles were from Martha Stewart so I knew they would be good and I just looked up the others online. Thankfully, they turned out well, or at least I thought so.

Hmmm…now I need to start thinking about next year!

P.S. I got myself a new template for the New Year.

>So This Is Christmas…

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I think of this each year at Christmas. Buried somewhere in a box I have a photo I took of it in college.

I haven’t been writing as often because I’ve been getting ready for Christmas and just sort of relaxing a bit. It’s been nice.

Jack got everything he wanted but in a strange turn of events he’s upstairs with Chris putting together a huge lego set instead of playing with his Wii. I’m pleasantly surprised by this.

In a little bit we are going to make poached eggs with the cool silicon poaching cups that Chris got me. I’ve already been enjoying some coffee with mint chocolate Baileys in it, YUM!

What I’m most excited about is the secret package I’m mailing Monday to a friend. She doesn’t know it’s coming and I think she’s going to really like it. Her and her kiddos deserve the most awesome Christmas and it makes me giggle with delight to be able to send her something.

Christmas bothered me for awhile, because I mostly was seeing the really gross side of it. The overspending, the greed, the obsession with “stuff” and all the stress. I almost tried to avoid Christmas as much as possible. This year I decided that I can’t change how other people treat Christmas, but I can change what Christmas means to me.

I can honestly say this is the best Christmas I’ve had in at least 6 years. That is the best gift I could ask for.

>NVRGVUP

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That’s me on the right in the black shirt.

To understand what the title means you will need to head over to the derby blog and read my post over there.

This week a lot of the girls from Utica drove to scrimmage us. On the way down my stomach hurt because I was so nervous. I was afraid I was just going to look like a complete idiot in front of my league and theirs. I honestly didn’t know how it would go.

We started and something in my head clicked and things made more sense. No, I didn’t hit as much as I should, and my timing was still off a bit, and I know I still need to get better about switching from offense to defense, but I was blocking better and reacting better and things just felt right.

I left there feeling incredible. I can honestly say that I really, really hope I get to bout this season now. I’ll understand if I’m not rostered, but even if I only get to skate in 1 jam, I’ll be so happy.

This is the vegan, mostly organic cake I made for the party.

The very next night (last night) was the derby holiday party. It’s overwhelming, in a good way, to look around a room of almost 60 people and to know you are friends with them. Many of these people are not just regular people in my eyes either. They are incredibly talented athletes and leaders and amazing women.

To share beers with them is an honor, but to get knocked down by them is a great privilege that I’m very thankful for.

>I Ran…Outside…And Nothing Was Chasing Me

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This morning I decided to go for a jog because my friend was sick and we didn’t go to the trainer as planned.

I should start by saying that I hate running. HATE! I will sometimes do it at the gym on the treadmill but the treadmill has some good shock absorption. Running outside just rattles my whole body.

I should also mention that it was FREEZING cold outside when I decided to do this. I dropped off Jack, came home, got out of the car and just started running.

I ran up the main road that our house is on and right away I wanted to quit and turn back. But I kept going. I just kept telling myself that if I started walking I would be even more cold so I just needed to run.

I ran all the way up to the light, turned around and ran home. I’ve never even walked that far in that direction with the dog. I didn’t stop once. I just checked on Google Maps and each way is .8 mile. I cannot believe I almost ran 2 miles.

I figured out how much further it would be to one mile. I’m going to try this again and do a full 2 miles. If I can double it, I could run a 5K no problem. You have absolutely no idea how amazing this is for me.

I guess running isn’t so terrible after all.