As usual, my parents threw their annual family Christmas party at their house on December 23rd. As is our tradition, the cousins (and their spouses) in attendance took the obligatory staircase picture. We're missing several members of the family here, but that seems to be more and more common as we get older and families expand, making it a little more difficult to travel to these events.
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| Most of the cousins and their spouses |
My brother, his fiancé Betty, Will and I all stayed with my parents until Christmas morning, when we all hit the road to celebrate the holiday with other sides of the family. Will and I went to his dad's house for brunch, then headed home for a quick nap before joining his mom's side of the family at her house for dinner that evening.
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| Beau and his best buddy Boomer (my parents' dog) in Raleigh. |
All in all, the holidays were wonderful, but I can't say I'm not glad to have them over and done with. You forget how much work goes into shopping for gifts, cooking, decorating the house, etc. until the season is upon you yet again. Now, I'm just glad to be able to sort of wash my hands of it until next year. Don't get me wrong -- I love Christmas and everything it stands for. But today the whole thing really just seems like such a huge production, don't you think?
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| Will and me with his dad and stepmom on Christmas morning. |
Let's fast-forward to the New Year. Over the past few years I haven't really been one for resolutions, so I guess I decided to make up for it this year by instituting three big ones -- I started the HCG diet (with homeopathic drops, not the true injections), threw my hat in the ring for Dry January (no booze whatsoever) and decided to make January a "fiscal month" where I stop the relentless spending (I'm looking at you, Amazon) and allocate money towards gas, groceries and bills ONLY. So far I'm doing really well with all three of these -- I've definitely lost weight on this diet (although I'd be worried if I didn't, because it's essentially 500 calories per day of nothing but vegetables and lean protein), I haven't had a drop of alcohol, and I've only bought one thing on Amazon (a baby shower gift for my cousin and his wife). So that in itself is reason to celebrate, seeing as how the month is almost halfway over!
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| Ground turkey and cauliflower rice with steamed asparagus. |
Oh, and we got snow a couple weeks ago. Not quite even an inch, but it was enough to shut the whole city of Fayetteville down, which is typical. Either way, I enjoyed the scenery. And we're due for another storm tonight, so I'm sort of looking forward to that. Maybe after this snow storm we can finish up this winter business and head right into spring. I do love snow, but I'm ready for the warm weather to reappear.
I say that now, but it really is so much fun to watch the dogs out in the snow. They're not quite sure what to make of it, but they sure do have a great time running around like lunatics in it.
Ok, so I guess that's really all I have for now. I'll round up some of my favorite HCG recipes soon and share them with you guys. The 500 calorie days last for 24 days total, and I'm on day 16. So I'm almost there, you guys! Keep your fingers crossed for me!
