Honorable Mentions

It just wouldn't be right of me not to tell you all about my wonderful Christmas gifts. Of course, you saw the beautiful quilt that Jacob and my mom made. I was very touched by that thoughtful gift. She gave me the "blueprint" that he used to direct her. It's very intricately drawn. I'm going to take it somewhere to have it framed. He really put so much thought into every detail, and mom said he was very specific while she was sewing. He can be such a sweet little guy sometimes!

I got many other very nice gifts too - PJ's, bath stuff, clothes - but my two favorite gifts are shown below:

My parents go us (OK, OK, I'll share it with Greg) this awesome food processor. Last year when I started my purification program, there were so many great recipes that needed a food processor. I borrowed my parent's processor for some of them, but many of them I simply didn't try. The machine is big and heavy and it was a pain to keep lugging it back and forth. I will be doing the program again in the beginning of January, and this year, I'll be able to make everything! I haven't tried it out yet, because between holiday parties and all that eating, I've been too stuffed to even think about cooking much of anything! Rest assured, however, that this baby will be put to good use very soon!

This, my new Garmin Forerunner runner's watch, is another fantastic gift. I used to drive different routes around town to track distances to run. I would estimate my pace according to the time it took me to run the route. It was a a fine methodology, but I only had 3-4 routes that I used because honestly, it was kind of a pain in the rear to drive a route before I ran it, especially because I needed to start and stop at my house (or work) to know accurate mileage. I don't like to "gauge" things. I like to know specifics, so I rarely just ran without having a predetermined route. It was limiting. Now, thanks to my dear husband, I can run wherever, whenever and know exactly how far, how fast, how many calories and my heart rate too! I can bring that baby home, plug it into the computer, and it automatically keeps track of my running record, which is totally awesome for a number of reasons. First, it's good to see how my fitness level is changing (or not), but also, I can easily look back and see how many miles I have put on my shoes, so I'm not guessing when it's time to buy a new pair!

I was only able to use it once so far, because we had wicked winds on Monday, with frightening wind chills. Then Andrew developed an ear infection and was home with me all day Tuesday. Today the kids are home with me too, so I won't be out, but I hope to sneak in at least an hour jaunt on Thursday and maybe close to that on Friday, to fend off the exorbitant calories I will take in at our New Year's Eve party. The day I did take it out, I loved it. I found myself looking at it constantly, just to see how my pacing was varying from song to song, how far I had gone, etc. It was a very thoughtful gift, from my very thoughtful husband (OK, I did ask for it outright, but I didn't ask for any one watch specifically, and I know he did a lot of research before buying this particular one, so he is still eligible for the brownie points).

Of course, my Christmas would still have been wonderful, even without the gifts, but hey, let's face it, we all get excited about new gadgets from time to time too!