...and a Happy New Year!

I hope everyone's holiday was as good as mine. There is nothing better than spending a few good days in a festive mood, laughing, eating and drinking all you want with the people you love the most. Oh yeah, and the whole "presents" thing is pretty cool too.

Since so much has happened in the last couple of weeks, and we all know how much I love making lists and taking pictures, here is the lowdown on Christmas/08.

First and foremost, the Friday before Christmas MY BROTHER CAME HOME FROM IRAQ!!!!

It was a few weeks earlier than they had planned and it made a great Christmas gift for all of us, but mostly for him, his wife and their three kids. YAY! Best gift EVA!

Here we are at Christmas, oh, about 27-28 years ago.


Then a few days before Christmas, J's parents came to visit. I am very lucky in the in-law department. They are the easiest house guests ever and we love having them around.



After driving up to stay with my parent's, we all went to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular.




Here we are keeping ourselves entertained during intermission.


Can you believe all these gifts are for six adults?


We ate an impressive Christmas Eve feast. My mom makes the best Christmas Eve dinners and this one didn't disappoint. The potatoes were insane.


I got to see my Godson Hamish again on Christmas. He was sporting the spiffy new bib I got him a few weeks earlier.


He wasn't the only tired one from all the Christmas hoopla. Zero was pretty exhausted too.


Apparently I was good this year because Santa (Jeremy) treated me very well and surprised me with a shiny new Michael Kors bag!


Since I have never spent more than $75 on a purse in my life I am constantly scared I am going to accidentally drop it in a puddle of mud (even though it hasn't rained here in weeks) or spill coffee on it's shiny camel-colored skin. So I used a gift card and some extra money from a few gifts I had to return to pick up another bag. I saw this Lucky Bag before Christmas that is equally as awesome, yet much less expensive. This way, I wont ruin the first bag with my everyday klutziness. Yay, TWO new bags for Christmas!



As far as running goes, there hasn't been much of that in the past few weeks. This morning Jeremy and I went to South Beach and walked a 4 mile stretch up the boardwalk and back for a nice, fast 8 mile walk. That was the most mileage I have done since the Columbus Marathon in October.


I spent the week before Christmas going to the gym a lot. This is the one good thing about not being able to run, I have been forced to start lifting again on a regular basis which is nice and much needed. I have also been stretching a lot which has been helping a little. Of course the week of Christmas, with the inlaws coming in and driving us all up to my parents house, I got no workouts in. Unless you count uncorking countless wine bottles from our celebratory drinking and washing dishes from the 5 million times we ate as working out. Needless to say, I haven't stepped on a scale in over 2 weeks. Oh well.

The good news however is that I found out from my doctor that the MRI resulted in no lower back problems. So Friday I decided to try running a slow three miles to see how I felt. Once again at mile 2-2.5 the tightness in my leg got so bad that the knee just had no support and basically gave out. I did run a bit slower this time though and took two minute walk breaks instead of one, which helped it to be a bit less excruciating when I was done.

That afternoon I went to see a PT. She was amazing and after evaluating me told me I have a pretty badly inflamed IT band, a bit of Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome and REALLY tight quad muscles that need to be stretched (which was probably causing a lot of my problems). After giving me an ultrasound and an IT band massage that almost had me crying on her table she said three things that really excited me.

1. She told me to keep running. She said I just need to go slow and stop as soon as the pain starts, three times a week, every other day. If I don't run, then start again, the pain will just come back.

2. She said it's probably easily treatable with more massage, heat and some serious stretching.

3. She said there is still a chance I could run at least the half in Miami.

WOO-HOOO!

I am trying not to get my hopes up too high, but we will see.

As much as I loved this woman there was one catch. She didn't take my insurance. And even with my Footworks Marathon leader discount, (she was recommended by the person who runs our running group) it was still $100 bucks a visit and she wanted to see me twice a week for at least a month. So I thanked her for making me writhe in pain, paid my hundred bucks and made an appointment for another PT this Wednesday. Hopefully, he will be as positive and as effective as this woman was and I will be out there running soon.

Until then, it's another day at the gym tomorrow and maybe a slow 2-3 mile run on New Years Day if I don't celebrate too much the night before.

Happy New Years everyone!