Getting Ready for 2015

I've never been a huge believer in "resolutions" per se, but the start of new year is a natural time to take stock of the goals and dreams I have.

What I want to accomplish in 2015:

• Be a more attentive wife and mother.  I want to leave work at work, and not take things that happen there so personally.  In the time I've been away from work on my vacation, I've noticed that I'm in a much healthier mental state and am able to give more of myself to my family.  Since I can't stop working, I need to find a way to be available for and present with my family even after I return to work.  I read a couple of good articles yesterday about how to mentally do this.
• This article is from a HR blog I follow for work.
• This article showed up on my Lifehacker feed.  I think one of the keys is to stop complaining which just allows me to wallow rather than handling things in a healthy manner.
• Get back down to 125 pounds.  While I'm fully aware that my weight and appearance shouldn't define me, I also know that I just feel better and more energetic at that weight.  I tried all last year to get my weight back down, and only succeeded in failing miserably as I actually gained weight.  I'm in my early forties now, and I can't afford to be carrying extra weight as it could start impacting my health.  So this is a goal that I will figure out how to accomplish this coming year.
• Continue to improve my photography, and consider selling professionally.  I love making photographs, and I like sharing those photos with others.  I plan to keep honing my skills and getting even better.  I know that anyone with a good camera can make their own photos, but I think that I have a good eye for composition, and that I notice things that not everyone would, so provide a different perspective.  I don't think this could ever be a full-time gig, but maybe I could make a little extra money by offering prints of my photos.  I'll keep my readers posted when/if I create a website for this purpose.  On a related item, I want to use my photos to make special gifts for people.  Everyone always seems to really appreciate those gifts (especially parents and grandparents when it's portraits of their family).
• Get even better at Statistics and figure out how to better incorporate "big data" analytics in my job.  I don't have time for formal classes or to work on a Master's degree right now.  But I do still find ways to keep informed and improving.  I've read several books, and I got another new one for Christmas that I'm excited to dig into.  I also get math books and DVDs and work through the problems in my spare time (yeah, I'm kind of a dork.)  I love the work I do, and it supports my family, so I want to keep being valuable enough to be able to provide that support.
• Get back into writing, and publish something.  This Christmas I helped my mom turn her memories of my dad into a book on Lulu.com.  It was therapeutic for her and made a nice memento for us.  I also realized while helping her with this, that you can create books on Lulu.com and make them available for sale on Amazon.  So this year I'm planning on getting something out there, even if it's just a collection of my short stories, because writing has always been so rewarding for me personally and I want to be able to share it with others.

What I'm looking forward to in 2015:

• Leaving the country for the first time when we do our walking tour of Ireland.  I know it's a little lame that I'll be 41 years old before I ever leave the US.  I also didn't see the ocean for the first time until I was 32.  My parents just never took those types of vacations.  By the time I was old enough to go myself, I was busy working and putting myself through college.  My dad got laid off from his aerospace engineering job when I was a senior in high school and was never reemployed in a decent job, so my parents couldn't help me with college.  After college I was too poor to take any good vacations.  Then I got married and started a family.  Sometimes I look at the pictures on the Facebook feed of three former co-workers of mine who travel all over the world and feel a little envious.  But none of them are married or have children, and really, I'd never trade places with them.  My family is the most wonderful and rewarding part of my life.  We've made it a point to take our children to lots of different places, so they won't be in this boat as adults.
• Getting past all of the "firsts" since my father's death.  Every time we do something for the first time without my dad, it's hard.  The holidays have been especially hard and my poor mom is having a difficult time coping right now.  It doesn't help that January 6th would have been my parents' 42nd wedding anniversary, and that it's so close to the holidays.  We still have to go stay in the cabin in Estes Park for the first time without my dad in early March, and then get past the anniversary of his death in April.  But hopefully everything will start to get easier after that since it won't the be the first time without him any longer.

2014 is exiting with a beautiful day here.  It's still really cold, though we're well above zero today and the sun is shining and sparking in the snow.  I hope you all have a wonderful New Year holiday!  See you next year.

Deep Freeze and Envy

Current picture out my back door

It's cold here right now, bitterly cold.  When I woke up this morning the thermometer showed -4 degrees.  Then as I worked out, I watched it continue to drop down to -6 degrees.  It's started to warm up a little now, to -2 degrees, although it feels like -14 with the wind chill and it's snowing.  Our high today is supposed to be 1 degree.  I actually don't mind it terribly, I'm on vacation and staying warm and toasty in my house.  My husband, my son, and I are going with my father-in-law to see the last Hobbit movie today, but that's also indoors, so it'll only be the walk from the car to the movie theater that will be uncomfortable.

Picture of the stormy sky last night

I'm feeling somewhat envious this morning.  I love art, and frequently wish that I could create it, but I can't.  There are areas where I'm creative.  I can write formulas in Excel that surprise even the Finance department.  I take photographs that sometimes capture a different perspective.  I sometimes think I can "paint a picture" with words.  I wrote and delivered my father's eulogy this year and got lots of compliments on both the content and the delivery.  I've always loved to write and I lettered in speech in high school.  But I can't use a blank piece of paper and a pencil to make something beautiful.  My husband and my daughter both can, which is why I'm feeling envious.

The finish was ruined on this old guitar, so my husband's uncle just gave it to him. My husband decided to make it look nice again, and he painted this in his free-time.  He didn't have any templates or anything, he just sat and drew.  He also drew the new logo for the elementary school where he taught for fifteen years.  He doesn't create art all the time, but when he feels like it, he can just sit down and do it.

My daughter made this picture using a pen and ink, and I do mean the old-fashioned pen where she had to dip it in the ink.  She was inspired by a drawing of bird and birdhouse, and then took off from there.  She frequently draws in her free-time (when she's not reading) and is getting to be very good. Apologies for the poor picture quality, it's behind glass hanging at my in-laws' house and there were too many lights to get a clean photo; and I didn't think it would be very polite to turn all the lights off while my mother-in-law was making dinner.

I guess I shouldn't want to be something that I'm not.  I should be thankful for the talents that I do have, they serve me well in supporting my family financially.  But I can't help feeling a little jealous when two of the people I live with can sit down and draw and create something beautiful for others to see, and I just can't.

Reading Vacation

I saved up my vacation time this year in order to take the two weeks of the holidays off with my family.  Although I've had to log on and do some work a few times, it's been very nice being home with my family and working on my schedule.  It's also affording me time to read.  Of course I find time to read when I'm working too, but right now I can sit down and devour books since I don't have very many responsibilities.

We have bookshelves in our living room, our master bedroom, both kid's rooms, and the basement.  There isn't one bookshelf in our home that isn't overflowing.  I'm a sucker when it comes to buying books, and my kids know it.  Book fairs at school are basically a free-for-all.  My daughter and I both love to read and spend a great deal of our free-time doing so.  My husband and son are a little less enthusiastic, though they both still read on a fairly regular basis.  My daughter enjoys physical books, although she does most of her reading on the Kindle app because of the convenience.  My son will read on a Kindle if that's his only choice, but he strongly prefers physical books.  I think it might be because of his ADHD that he finds it easier to focus on the story when there aren't any other options competing for his attention.

I'm pretty agnostic when it comes to my reading platform.  As long as there are words strung together in sentences, I'm good.  I do love the look, feel, and smell of a physical book.  I also love the convenience and anonymity of an electronic reader.  I can have multiple books with me when I have my Kindle app on my phone or tablet.  If I happen to finish the book I'm reading while I'm sitting on the bus, I can just start the next one without having to carry multiple books.  I can also read my guilty pleasure books in secret if I'm reading on an electronic reader, rather than giving everyone around me fodder for judgment when I'm reading something that might be written for a younger audience.  Also, books like The Stand are so huge that they're difficult to hold, so that one is physically easier to read on the Kindle app.

I've also spent lots of time with my family.  We've watched some family movies together.  We've had family game nights where my daughter destroyed us all playing Clue Master Detective, and my husband crushed everyone on Star Wars Trivial Pursuit.  I've also played some more with Lightroom.  I think it's going to take some time to get really proficient at it and make the photos look really good, but that's what practice is for.  But overall it has been a reading vacation, and I have to admit, as soon as I finish this blog post, I'm picking up my book again.  I want to finish The Book Thief so I can return it to my mother-in-law since I've had it for an embarrassingly long time.  There's really no better way to spend a cold, snowy winter day, in my humble opinion.

Legos Galore!

We had an absolutely beautiful day today.  This is supposed to be the last nice day for about a week.  We have another big snowstorm coming tomorrow, along with bitter cold that should be staying for awhile.  The birds were out in force this morning, perhaps they were enjoying the last nice morning too.

I took my son and his friend to a mall that's quite a distance from our house today, so they could visit the Lego store.  I really don't like shopping, and I especially dislike malls.  But I guess I must be in the minority based on the number of people at that mall today.  The boys had a great time though, and looked through nearly everything in the store.  Then we came back home and they've been building a new Hobbit Lego set for hours.  I'm not sure how many more Lego sets my son can actually fit in his room.  We have a set of drawers where he keeps spare Legos.  He has a a tower of Lego containers where small sets and mini figures reside.  We also bought him shelving that covers most of one wall to store Lego sets, and they're overflowing.  The Lego Tower of Orthanc sits on his bookshelf because it's too tall to sit anywhere else.  I'm not sure there's going to space for him in his room much longer!  But I keep reminding myself that it's a good engineering toy, and there are worse things he could enjoy playing with.  Of course, there are also cheaper toys he could enjoy, but it does give people something to get him for Christmas and birthdays.

I got to play with my new Christmas gift today also.  I received Lightroom as my gift from my family, and I turned my first picture black and white, while maintaining the color of the flower.  I also started playing with the watermark.  There are obviously many other uses for this photo editing software, but this was something I'd been wanting to be able to do for quite some time.  I'm very excited to really get in and use it more, and see what kinds of art photos I can make.

On another note, I have been eating better the last couple of days, so hopefully my first weigh-in of 2015 won't be as bad as it could be if I just totally let go of any discipline during my holiday break.

Friendship Drama

The Christmas festivities are complete.  I have mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, I'm glad that it's all wrapped up and life can return to normal, especially eating life since I have continued to put on weight.  On the other hand, there's always so much anticipation and then it seems to be over so quickly that it's a little sad.  Both my daughter and I have been fighting the blues a little bit today.  My husband went downtown to spend his Christmas money at the record shops (yes, buying actual vinyl records).  My son begged me to take him to Target to spend a gift card he got since he'd already built all of his new Lego sets and the gift card was burning a hole in his pocket.  He's saving the rest of his money for a trip to the Lego store with one of his friends.  I'm always a bit amazed that my son and this boy are still friends.  This boy and my son met when the boy was in 2nd grade and my son was in Kindergarten.  They became fast friends because they had so much in common, and they're still friends even now when my son is in 5th grade and still in elementary school and this boy is in 7th grade and at middle school.  But I'm glad they're still friends because this boy is so kind and smart, and he's a very good influence on my son.

Some of my son's other friends I'm not so happy about.  I know that it makes no sense to be angry with 9- and 10-year old boys, but when the maternal instinct kicks in, rational thought tends to exit.  There are two boys who are a year younger than my son, so who are currently in 4th grade, who live a couple of blocks away from us.  My son can walk right to their houses on the creek that runs behind our house.  They live across the green belt from each other, so not on the same street, but very close.  One of the boys I've never been overly fond of; he's like the antithesis of the older boy who brings out the best in my son.  This 4th grade boy and my son tend to bring out the worst in each other, and they've always been on-again, off-again friends.  They've been on the outs for some time now, which doesn't bother me (or frankly, my son) all that much.  But the problem is that he's a bit of a bully.  He tells the other boy who lives near him who he should be friends with, and gets angry if he doesn't listen.

For several weeks now, my son and the other 4th grade boy, who's also very nice, haven't been able to be friends because the nice boy is afraid of the other boy who lives near him.  But then the other day, while we're out on winter break, this nice boy came over to play with my son again.  They played for hours and my son told him that he'd continue to stay away from him at school so he didn't have any problems.  The boy left his gloves at our house, so the next morning, Christmas Eve, we walked over to return his gloves.  He asked if he could come and play again, so again the boys spent hours together playing Legos, running around in the yard, and playing the Wii.  It was starting to get dark when it was time for this boy to head home, so I told him we'd walk him home.  I don't think his parents worry about it too much, and I'm alright with the boys playing on the creek alone during daylight, but not after dark.  Just as we turned off the creek to go to his house, we saw the other boy playing on the greenbelt.  The boy who had just spent two days playing with my son screamed out, "my parents made me!"

It hurt my heart that my son had to hear that, and that this other little boy was so scared that he felt he had to lie and hurt my son to protect himself.  My son hasn't been an angel in this situation, and I know that he's brought some of the ire on himself.  These are children, who of course want to protect themselves and don't stop to think about how they're impacting others.  But I have to admit that I wanted to go over and have strong words with the boy who's being mean to my son and scaring his neighbor so badly that he can't admit he still wants to be friends with my son.  I don't want the unkind boy and my son to be friends again, because they cause too much trouble together.  I just don't want him to destroy my son's friendships with people with whom he plays well.  But I can't yell at him for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is because I don't want to scare a child, even if a small, mean part of me feels he deserves it.

I just keep reminding myself that next year my son will be going to middle school and these boys will still be at elementary school.  He'll make new friends there, and hopefully find himself as a student a bit more.  At my son's request, we got him entered into the lottery to attend the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) middle school, so maybe he'll go there and never have to see this particular child again.  Even if his name isn't drawn in that lottery, he'll have a year at middle school before he'll be at the same school as this boy again.  A year in which he'll hopefully mature even more and move on from this.  It's really hard not to be able to fix this for my son.  But maybe he's learning some valuable life and relationship lessons in this mess.

On another topic, it's quite beautiful here right now with our Christmas snow.  The day after Christmas (Boxing Day) we didn't get much sun and it continued to snow lightly off and on all day.  That was also the day we had our final Christmas celebration.  My in-laws (who I adore) came over, along with my father-in-law's parents.  They are a bit harder to take, and I fully admit that I had to have a couple of glasses of wine to get through that event!  At least the view out the window was lovely.

The waxing moon behind the snow-covered trees

I love the way these LED rope lights color and light the snow 

 The sun came out today and the snow sparkled under the blue sky .

White Christmas

We got our white Christmas this year!  I think we got about 3 - 4 inches of snow and everything looks simply lovely right now.

Snow-covered trees this morning

Snow and Christmas lights last night

Snow and Christmas lights on our deck last night

We had the most wonderful day yesterday.  I just feel so blessed to have a loving husband and two healthy children.  I have my frustrations (many would say "first-world problems") in life, but those don't prevent me from recognizing how fortunate I truly am to have my wonderful family.

We had a nice time at my mom's house yesterday also.  My nephew is still only five, so he really keeps the holiday magic alive for all of us.  My poor mom, who has never been a detail person (but is a wonderful and amazing nurse) was going through the holiday for the first time in over 40 years without my dad.  She ordered gifts for all of us, but didn't realize that once gifts were ordered, they no longer showed up on the Amazon wish lists.  She didn't remember who had asked for what and thought she got it all figured out.  But...my nephew unwrapped my new camera bag, and my husband unwrapped my new wireless remote camera trigger.  My mom was so embarrassed, but the rest of us found it endearing.

The drive home last evening from my mom's house was a little dicey, but we took it slow (actually way too slow, the person in the Jeep in front of me thought they couldn't go faster than 20 mph) and made it home safely.  Once we got back home we all changed into our pajamas and spent the evening together.  I love snow, and I especially love it when we're all cozy and warm together at home.  I think tonight after we have our final holiday celebration with my father-in-law's parents, we're going to change into pajamas again, start a fire, and watch Guardians of the Galaxy together.  At one of my previous jobs, we used to have field managers come into the office and they'd have a scavenger hunt where they had to go around the office and find people based on interesting facts we had listed about ourselves on this sheet.  I never knew what to put on that sheet that others would find interesting, because I live such a boring life.  But I'm alright with boring.  I feel loved and blessed, and while my evening may sound boring to some, it sounds like the perfect evening to me!

I hope all of you had a wonderful day yesterday, and that you get to enjoy the rest of the holiday season with people you care about.

Our Extended Christmas Story

It's Christmas morning and it's been a wonderful day so far.  Our Christmas celebrations start on Christmas Eve and don't end until the day after Christmas.  Last night we kicked off the holiday with The Feast of the Seven Fishes.  My mother-in-law is Italian, and her parents were the first generation born in the United States.  In fact, some of her grandparents didn't even speak English.  So we carry on the Italian tradition of the fish feast on Christmas Eve.  When my husband and I started dating, and for the first few years after we were married, we went to his grandparents' house, and it was a huge event.  Now that my husband's grandparents are more elderly, and his grandmother is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, his mom hosts the celebration.

My husband grilled a whole grouper for the meal.  Here are the before and after pictures.

One of the fish dishes is spaghetti with anchovy sauce.  When I first started attending these feasts with my husband, I must admit that I stuck to the meat sauce.  But over the years I've gotten more adventurous and I enjoy the special spaghetti now.  In fact the only two people who ate the meat sauce last night were my son and my husband's uncle.  Another one of the dishes was smoked rainbow trout that my husband's grandfather caught.  It's a fun evening, and the kids get to open their stockings at their Papa and Gran's house.

This morning we woke the kids up (it's sort of bittersweet that we have to wake them now, rather than them being so excited that they just had to wake us) and did our family gift exchange.  I'd post pictures but I promised my teen-aged daughter that there would be no pictures of her in her pajamas on social media.  There are Legos all over our family room floor now!  I got Adobe Lightroom for my gift, and I'm very excited to start using that on some of my photos.  We'll be going to my mom's house for a late Christmas lunch today and we'll exchange gifts with my family there.

Then tomorrow we'll finally wrap up when my in-laws come over to our house with my father-in-law's parents.  We'll do our final gift exchange at that time and finally be done with the holiday.  It's kind of fun to spread it out like this, and it's also always kind of nice to be done.

It's sunny and relatively warm right now, though it looks like I'm going to get my wish of a white Christmas after all.  We're under a Winter Weather Advisory right now.  It's supposed to start snowing this afternoon and we're supposed to get 4 to 6 inches.  I have visions of sitting in our living room and staring out at the falling snow as a background to our Christmas Tree, just like the parents do at the end of A Christmas Story (one of my favorite holiday movies).

I hope that all my readers are having a peaceful and blessed day and enjoying time with the special people in your lives today!

Hoping for Snow

I know that not everyone likes snow, but I really enjoy it.  I listen to people at work talk about how they can't stand any snow and they're already ready for summer.  Me, I get too hot during the summer and love this time of year.  Plus, while it's fun to hike in the summer, it's more fun to snowshoe in the winter and be several feet ABOVE the hiking trail.

We were supposed to get snow today, and I guess we did, though not nearly enough for my tastes.  When I awoke this morning (after I got my workout in), I looked out and we had the lightest dusting of snow.  It was so light that it barely counted as more than just frost.

The flatirons did look really nice in their covering of white, especially with the morning sun lighting them up.

It started to snow again this afternoon, and we did get a little more snow than earlier, it definitely qualifies as more than just frost now.  But it's still not enough.  We need to get at least a couple of inches in order for it not to just melt as soon as the sun comes out, which it does nearly every day in Denver.

Yesterday when I looked at the forecast, it was calling for snow on Christmas.  But today it says it's supposed to 50 degrees, and there's no longer a chance for snow listed.  Oh well.  I'll still be with my family and get to enjoy time away from work!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...my family room's a mess!

This is what it looks like when you have a wrapping station in your family room.  I was feeling very fortunate though because my children actually helped with the wrapping this year.  I still have to wrap their presents and my husband's gifts, but everything is all ready for the extended family.  Now it's just up-in-the-air when we'll actually see them since my father-in-law just came down with influenza.

Our Christmas tree is very festive and fun, especially at night time.  I just love how cozy the house feels when it's all decked out like this.

We did our annual lights drive tonight, and I'm happy to report that we officially hit a new milestone in our family:  For the first year since we've had children, no one cried on the lights drive!  When the kids were really little the tears were from exhaustion and too long in the car.  Then as they got older it was either from fighting and/or getting in trouble.  But this year we enjoyed the lights and made it home with no tears!

Our city building always has a wonderful display.  This year they wrapped the tree trunks in white lights and then did colored lights in the canopies.

The city used to have an entire elf village, and while they don't do that any longer, they always have this little train out.

Even the statue of the police officer had a scarf on!

My daughter and I have been participating in a monthly virtual 5K, and this weekend was our last one for the year.  I took a few pictures while we were walking today, and I'm getting anxious for the snow that we're supposed to get on Monday and on Christmas because everything is sort of brown right now.

I also had to work today.  My two-week vacation was supposed to start yesterday, but my boss decided to give me a new project about an hour before I had to leave, while she was running out the door.  So of course I didn't give her exactly what she wanted and she emailed yesterday after work asking for more information.  I decided I'd better just do it so I didn't have to take a phone call.  I really hope I get some time off, and don't have to be logged in to my work computer every day of my "vacation."

Anyway, I'm starting to get into the Christmas spirit and I'm feeling very ready for the holiday.  I hope that all of you are feeling festive and are ready to celebrate (or are already enjoying) whichever holiday(s) you celebrate at this time of year!

Busy Winding Down

It's been a few days since I've posted because I've been so busy lately.  I'm taking two weeks off over the holidays (you should see the grin on my face right now!) so I've got several things at work that have to be wrapped up in a bow (pun totally intended) before my vacation starts.  It's also year-end which means people need reports and data, and in the particular industry where I work things are sort of in crisis mode so I have more on my plate than I'd been planning on this week.

Plus the kids have band concerts, piano recitals, and year-end holiday parties at school.  My brother's birthday is on Saturday.  I still haven't mailed my Christmas cards.  So not only has work been busy, but home has been also.  But I have really been making an effort to enjoy this season and not just feel busy, and I'm pleased to report that I don't feel overwhelmed and I am feeling very merry.

Yesterday we had our department holiday lunch at work.  My boss and another co-worker didn't attend because my boss doesn't like to eat lunch and decided to choose that day to go to a field office for an investigation.  Now, chances are in this case that was really necessary and the timing was just unfortunate.  But it's hard to be understanding because my boss has accepted, and then cancelled at the last minute, EVERY SINGLE department lunch we've ever had.  I kind of want to send her this article about re-framing "have to" as "choose to."  But it was a nice lunch and Union Station in downtown  Denver is an architecturally beautiful building that is all dressed in it's holiday finery.

I hope your holiday preparations are going well and that you're able to relax and enjoy time with friends and family at this time of year!

Weekly Progress Report # 19

I had been doing really well with my eating this week and my weight was headed back down.  But in two days (Friday and Saturday) of poor food choices, I managed to put all that back on plus another pound.  Now I'm to the point where I need to lose about twenty pounds.  I may stop doing weekly weigh-ins with the holidays coming up.  My husband's family has food as a major part of their holiday traditions, so I never do more than hold my own during that time.  So this may be last weigh-in until after the first of the year when I have to get serious.

Weight:  142.4 (I almost weighed a second time because I was so shocked by this number).

It's starting to feel more like Christmas with our tree up now, and we're getting some snow today.  I would like to see a great deal more, but I suppose I should be grateful for anything.  This time of year everything is so brown, dead, and naked without a mantel of white snow.

What I'd really like to see is a storm like we had right before Christmas in 2006.  It was rather difficult to travel, but it sure felt cozy and secluded in the house.  It makes me rather nostalgic looking at these pictures and how little my kids were.  Another thing that no one tells you about parenting (actually they probably do tell you, we just can't understand until we're there) is how bitter-sweet it is to watch your children grow up.  Of course I want them to grow up, but I miss them being little terribly.

I did not get up at 4:15 this morning.  My work holiday party was last night, and we didn't get home until after 10:00, so I slept until I awoke without the alarm at 6:00 today.  I don't like parties because I'm such an introvert.  I especially don't like work holiday parties where I'm obligated to mingle and make small-talk with people I don't know that well.  It was pretty awful driving to the party between the Avalanche game and the police closing roads intermittently due to protesters marching.  I was just about to tell my husband to forget it when we found a parking lot with spaces on Larimer and Speer downtown.

We dressed up and put in our appearance.  I was worried that the skirt I was planning on wearing wouldn't fit me any longer.  It was a little tighter than I would have liked, but even my 13-year-old told me I looked nice, so I guess it was passable.  My daughter did my makeup for me and we're done with that for at least another year!  Phew!

My husband and I all decked out for the party

O Christmas Tree

I'm in my second weekend of getting up at 4:15 and I don't like it, but I think I might be sleeping a little better, so I guess I'll give it some time.  I do get to see beautiful sunrises getting up that early, and I'm home to get pictures of them.

I had been doing really well with my eating this week, then woke up Friday morning with the best of intentions, but ended the day having consumed far too many calories.  Saturday hasn't been any better.  So my weigh-in probably won't be as encouraging as I thought it would be earlier in the week.  The holiday eating season will be starting soon, so I may have to wait until after the first of the year to make real progress.

We got our Christmas tree today.  My son didn't even look with us because the nursery we buy the tree from has a puppy.  So he was otherwise occupied entertaining the dog.

Before

After

Crystal Snowman

It's not dark enough yet to get a dramatic and striking picture of the tree, but I won't be home tonight when it is dark enough since I have to go to my work holiday party.  I wish that others could understand that not all of us enjoy parties, especially when it's an obligation.  But I didn't go last year, and I figured it would be strongly frowned upon if I didn't go twice in a row.  So maybe another day this week I'll have a better picture of the tree in the dark.