Christmas Wrap Up

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Ours was a perfect mix of chaos and calm, perfect gifts, over-indulgence (food, food, food ugh), family love and fun. We actually have one more family gathering this evening at Mike's sister's house. The 'Virginia Kolonicks' are in town today so we waited until today to do the cousin gift exchange and the grown up exchange.

In fact, the grown up exchange is a little different this year and I'm excited about it. Every Thanksgiving we all draw names, and of course that is who we buy for. The last year or two we've changed it up to do a game exchange, or a themed 'couple' basket. Running out of ideas, and not really needing another game sitting on the shelf collecting dust, Mike suggested a charity exchange this year. Each couple is putting the name of their favorite charity in a hat and whichever one gets picked, every couple will write a check for $25 to that charity, for a total of $175 donation. I'm looking forward to this, and I have to say...it's a real 'feel good' gift - as opposed to frantically searching around for that perfect 'unique' gift, or, buying exactly what someone 'needs' after talking to their spouse. ;-) This is a much more meaningful 'gift' , and I think it's a nice example for the kids as well.

The kids had a GREAT Christmas. I'll tell you what, no matter how old they get, there is nothing better than the looks on their faces when they come barreling down the stairs from our room on Christmas morning! We have a very firm tradition in our house for Christmas morning, and the kids stuck to it and climbed in bed with me when they woke up, while Mike went down to make sure 'Santa' truly came. He makes coffee, builds a fire, puts out snacks...then he starts the music. The Song of Christmas in our house....Joy to the World by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. As soon as the kids hear it they're off! Bounding down the steps to see 'The Spread' under the tree. Ahh...there's nothing better. It makes all the scrambling, early (4am) morning wrap sessions, cleaning, shopping etc. worth every moment!

Among the family favs this year of course is the rec center membership...we will be going next week to get our id's made. I am really excited about this....especially for Mike, who has been building up to this 'I need to do something about my weight' moment, and Alison, who will be starting softball training soon and has put on a few adolescent pounds over the last few weeks of inactivity. Grace is even chomping at the bit to run with me, and I am looking forward to the spring when I can get her out with me...she'll be 10 in May, so she should be able to do a mile or so right? She definitely has the energy for it, that's for sure! Alison is not so in to running, but she likes the eliptical machines. The 'teen' age group (13 and up) are allowed on the fitness floor at the rec betwen 3-5pm, AFTER they complete an orientation session. So I really hope that she finds something she loves to do...and doesn't just sit around in the game room/snack bar area with her friends! This is a crucial moment in time especially for my girls....I do not want them to go through the same weight struggles that I did....I want them to adopt fitness habits NOW...I can see my behavior starting to rub off on them in small ways and this is one of my resolutions for the New Year. Get my family active and fit! (In an oh -so -subtle-isn't- this -fun kind of way of course.)

I have some running and fitness related thoughts to write about too (something totally lacking here lately ha ha), so that will be in 'Part Two' of my bloggy catch up!

Happy Holidays!