Motivational Monday

As it is the week of Christmas for Christians, I wanted to share with you a bit of Christmas motivation. I saw this quote and it struck me quite hard that this is the definition of Christmas or any holiday you celebrate with those you love {insert that day where Christmas is}.

I immediately thought of Christmas Eve. It is the night during the holidays that my hubby and I turn down all invitations from family and friends and celebrate the holidays together. My family is three hours away, so some years we have a six hour commute to celebrate with them. Other years we stay local and celebrate with his family. But Christmas Eve is ours. We go to church, then come home to a candlelit/Christmas tree lit dinner with wine. After dinner we go to the tree with Christmas music playing and cookies to open our presents to and from each other. It is our holiday time.

Then the holiday rush/madness can begin on Christmas. We have found a way to make the holiday enjoyable and meaningful to us while still enjoying time with friends and family.

On this Motivational Monday, this is my wish for you. To carve a little bit of time out over the holidays to make a special tradition for just you and your family - a time without the running around where you can truly appreciate the ones you love making memories you will have for the rest of your life.


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Labor Day

Happy Labor Day!

I hope you are enjoying your day off today!  Here's a quick explanation of what Labor Day is thanks to the Department of Labor. 

Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge

This past year I worked hard to lose some weight and exercise more regularly (training for a half marathon will do that to ya!).  To date I have lost 21.4 pounds since May 1st.  I'm happy with that.  Wish it were a tad bit more, but hey 21.4 pounds is better than nothing.  I joke that I had a goal of losing 20 pounds before the Princess Half Marathon in February, didn't  lose it, and now before Philly when I had no weight loss goals, have lost 21.4.  Guess I don't do well under pressure?  LOL!

Well, the holiday season is upon us and for lucky me a Caribbean vacation also.  Christmas is in about 5 weeks and I want to end the year off on a high note, so I signed up for Run to the Finish (Amanda)'s Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge.  After the Half Marathon I'm afraid I'll just sit around waiting for training to start for the Yeungling Shamrock Half Marathon (December 10th in case your curious), so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get my butt moving since the challenge starts after Philly and will keep me moving until official Shamrock training starts.

I'm not hoping to win overall.  I don't care if I don't win any weekly or overall prizes.  My goal is to use this challenge to keep myself on track through the holidays.  I've worked sorta hard these past 6 months to lose 21.4 pounds, I don't want the holidays to mess it up!  Vacation will do that for me!  ;-)

Feel free to join in!  It would be great to have some friendly competition!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween friends!  Hard to believe October is just about over!  I thought I'd share some Halloween memories and favorites with you today.  :-)  Feel free to share some of yours too!

* As a kid, I never wanted to go out trick-or-treating until it was dark out.  Which meant I waited until my mom came home from work.  Drove her crazy!  I had a perfectly good dad at home all afternoon who would take me out, but NOOOOOO.  I wanted to wait til dark.

* After trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, we would go to my grandparent's house to show off our costumes.  And if one of my aunts or uncles offered to take us around the grandparent's neighborhood to trick-or-treat as well, who were we to argue?

* I am deathly afraid of scary/haunted houses.  Can't do them.  I did go a couple times in college, but it didn't go well.  I'm all for a nice hayride, but no haunted houses thanks.

* Same goes for horror movies.  Can't stand them.  My imagination is way to active!  Which is sad for the hubby because he loves them.  Lucky for him one of our friends likes horror movies too and will go with him to see one.

* But, I do love cute Halloween movies and such.  Favorite Halloween movie is Hocus Pocus.  How can you not love this movie?  It's so cute!

* I'm also a big fan of It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  It was my favorite t.v. show to watch when I was a kid around Halloween.  How can you not love the Peanuts gang?

* I'm partial to black cats.  Can't help it.  While growing up, I had a black cat my parents named Cinder.  She was an outdoor cat, so she didn't spend much time with us and she was awful mean, but I liked her.  When I adopted Higgy and Pooka, I had a hard time not taking the two black kitties in the basket.  But, when Higgy (a tabby) jumped in the box I brought to take them home in, I couldn't take him out.  

 Pooka: According to legend, the púca is a deft shape shifter, capable of assuming a variety of terrifying or pleasing forms, and may appear as a horse, rabbit, goat, goblin, or dog. No matter what shape the púca takes, its fur is almost always dark.

* My favorite Halloween song is The Monster Mash.  It's so fun!  

* My favorite Halloween candy?  Snickers, hands down.  I always looked for those in the trick-or-treat pumpkin I carried as a kid.  There sadly were never as many of them in the pumpkin as I would have liked...

* I will admit to loving all things pumpkin.  :-)  Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, things spiced with pumpkin.  Such a great flavor!

* Candy corn?  Love it or hate it?  I for one love it in all it's candy waxy goodness!  Candy corn, Indian corn, marmellow pumpkins.  Yum!

So, what about you?  Any Halloween memories or favorites you'd like to share?