Contemplations on my Christmas Break (aka Emerging from my Holiday Stupor)

Testing.....testing....

Is this thing on?

What day is it?

Where am I?

Yesterday was my first day back in the real world and, though my re-entry wasn't extremely difficult, it wasn't exactly easy either.

I was "on vacation” December 23 - January 3, but I did make three separate trips to the office to do payroll, pay bills and other necessary things. But at least it didn’t involve driving in rush hour traffic, wearing heels, or talking to anyone except myself. Not that I talk to myself while doing payroll. *ahem*

Though I wouldn’t say I got lots of R+R these past 10 days, I most definitely had lots of great times with family and friends, and that's really what matters anyway.

Kendra and I, and a friend and her daughter, went to see The Nutcracker Ballet at the Fabulous Fox Theater on Christmas Eve afternoon.

Then we had a great Christmas Eve dinner with cousins.

Red hot smokin’ Santa really did read my Christmas list. Hello little red beauty….and a double batch of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

It’s unusually cold in the ATL for this time of year…….brrrrrrr….  I'm even wearing socks in the house, and I never wear socks in the house.  Who says the global is warming?

I can’t believe swimsuits and cover-ups are out in the stores already.  I mean, give me a break.  Shouldn't we at least be able to buy our boxes of Whitman's chocolates for Valentine's Day without being reminded about squeezing into small pieces of fabric held together on the sides by string or gold metal circles?

I bought a swimsuit and cover-up on Sunday.

Honestly, it didn’t really dawn on me until sometime around Christmas that we were entering a new decade.

Two Thousand Ten or Twenty Ten?

And I guess for the sake of being nicer for the new year, I will reserve my sordid opinion about the terrible liberal slant that was so prevalent in all of the mainstream media's "year/decade in review" montages.  So - yeah, yeah, yeah....Bush ran the country into the ground for most of the first decade.  Whatever.  At least we're on firm ground now.  Unless we get sick.  Or laid off.  Or ride in an airplane.

I watched more movies over the break than I watched the rest of the year combined:

Duplicity – marginally good. I'm just not that into psychological thrillers about hair products.

While You Were Sleeping – Enjoyed it!  Light, entertaining and funny. And I like Sandra Bullock.

The Hangover – 5 stars. One of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a very long time.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – touching and wonderful (and long!)

What was your favorite movie of 2009?

I seem to have misplaced more things than usual this holiday season, including but not limited to: my new health insurance card, both of my car keys at the same time, an American Express bill, my powder compact, a gift card, a roll of stamps and a pair of gloves.  This is the second pair of gloves to go MIA.  And the only thing on the list that's been found so far is one of my two car keys.  I mean, I can function without gloves, but who can function without a car key?

I got my hair cut over the break and I asked my hairdresser to give me some loose waves instead of blow drying it straight, and she did it using a flat iron. (Pardon my non-makeup face, but we're all friends here, right?  At least I'm not in my pajamas.)  I actually liked the new do but so far have not been able to do it myself…not even close.

I had some extensive dental work done last Tuesday and have since been back to the dentist four times. That's one of the major reasons there wasn’t much R+R during my vacation..not to mention how much it cost.

We celebrated our New Year’s Eve wedding anniversary with dinner at the new St. Regis in Buckhead. They had an 8 course meal that was delicious and lots of fun.  The designer bought several pieces of art from me for the hotel project, so it was fun to see them hanging on the walls in the hotel  We had a drink in the wine bar before dinner. You will notice I did not don a dress for NYE – wore jeans in fact. Fuss free, comfortable and not a single person looked at me crossways.

I vowed I was going to leave our inside Christmas décor up until mid-January because it seemed like I barely got the house decorated before the clock struck Christmas Eve. But, I changed my tune by the 27th and all the berries and snowmen and santas are packed away for another year.

And then I started thinking about what I was going to put up in their place and for some reason green and birds and nests and ferns and botanics and eggs kept swirling around in my head and then I got the new Pottery Barn catalog and look what I saw

I've been keeping a reading journal since 1999, recording all the books I read each year and notes about certain books I really loved.  In 2009 I read 13 books; I'd hoped for at least 20.  I have a clean fresh page in my journal for 2010 and at least two bookcases full of books waiting. 

What was your favorite book of 2009?

I've made a few resolutions / goals for the new year but I've learned I do best if I tell you how I did after the fact instead of telling you about what I hope to do before I get started. 

So how'd I do in 2009?  One of my biggest goals was to lose some weight - and more importantly lose body fat (hello having a baby when you're almost 40!).  I lost 27 pounds and 13% body fat.  It was not easy. In fact the first 3 or 4 weeks were really, really rough.  Ask me if you want specific details, but there is one way and only one way to successfully lose body fat and keep it off:  lots of protein and water, no sugar or refined carbs, minimal alcohol and caffiene, and weight bearing exercise alternated with intense but short cardio.  I can't tell you how many people ask me what I did and when I tell them they say, "I can't possibly do that."  They can. You can. I did.  If you have a new year's resolution to lose weight, you can do it.  But if you're going to do it, do it the right way. You can count calories or fat gram or points all you want.  You can use your Wii or kill yourself logging hours of pretty meaningless "exercise" on the treadmill.  It will work in the short term.  That's why Weight Watchers is so popular.  But it won't work in the long term.  That's why it's not called Body Fat Watchers.  Big difference. 

 

For those of you who have been waiting for the grand finale of the Running post...sorry about my bad timing.  And sorry that I don't really have it in me to craft the grand part of the grand finale.  But it's a great ending.  Robbie is now Robert (or Rob).  He found me on facebook and caught me up on the 9 years that have passed since we ran together.  He's married, with a son of his own...and he is still running!  In fact, he's run 20+ marathons and made it through college on a cross country scholarship.  He wrote me about how much his first year of running meant to him.  And I wrote to him about how much his first year of running meant to me. 

And finally, I have a new business underway and it will take most of 2010 to get it up and running. 

Thank you to this awesome lady for my logo design.  Try her!  You will LOVE her! 

And to this awesome lady for her great photography skills.  This is one of the many wonderful photos she took around my house. 

Happy New Year to all of you! 

 I hope it's great for you in many, many ways.