It doesn't seem possible that Christmas is already over, and
it won't be long before the New Year arrives. Time has flown
by and I can't really explain where it went and how it got away
from me. So a belated Merry Christmas to everyone who
still finds their way here after such a long silence on my part.
Hope it was wonderful and magical and everything that you
had hoped it would be.

For me this year has been about getting fit, loosing weight
and building up my nearly non-existent self esteem. Joining
Weight Watchers was my first step towards those goals.
I attended my first meeting on March 31st, and since then
have only missed one meeting. I started walking short
distances as my first attempt at exercise and slowly built up
my endurance and my strength while increasing my route.
For five months I walked pretty much exclusively.

In September, realizing that the weather would be turning soon
and walking would become difficult (if not impossible) during
the Winter months, I looked for an alternative to the walking.
I began to climb the stairs here at home. We live in a four
level side split house so stairs we have aplenty and I figured
I might as well put them to good use. Again I started with a
short routine, marching up and down perhaps 30 odd times
before running out of steam. But that number increased to
50 times a night fairly quickly, every other day, with my
normal walking routine in between.

Worried about wearing out either my knees or my carpets
before the Winter was half over I decided that I needed to
find a better solution to my Winter exercise problem and
in October I joined Curves. I go to Curves four times a week
and I walk home from it's location in Georgetown afterwords.
I also try to get one long walk in on the weekend, and so far
the weather has been good enough to allow it. And I still do
the stairs occasionally too.

The time spent on exercise, fixing healthy lunches for work,
and dinners for home, attending Weight Watchers meetings
etc has eaten away a substantial portion of the time that I
use to spend on the computer blogging, and time I use to
spend stitching. Bummer!!

Well, what can you do?? I need to work on my commitments
to both since stitching is the hobby that I love, and blogging
connects me to the friends that I have made whose crafting
inspires me and whose tales of their lives and their beliefs and
their daily challenges, often written with humor and insight,
often enlightens and sometimes educates me.

So what has been the end result of all this work???

This picture was taken back in early May at the residence
where my Mom lives. I had been with Weight Watchers
for about six weeks and had lost about 14 pounds at this
point.

This picture was taken at the end of November.

And so was this one. I have lost a bit more since that time
and in mid-December I achieved my goal weight, went on
maintenance at Weight Watchers, and then lost more
weight while on my first week of maintenance. In total
I have lost 74 pounds and now weight less then I did on my
wedding day nearly 20 years ago. I can wear my wedding
rings again which is something that I haven't been able to
do for about 15 years.

Of course Christmas is a heck of a time to go on
maintenance but what can you do?? I have not been
a good girl this weekend but decided that for Christmas
I was going to enjoy the food and the holiday and get
back on program after New Years eve. I will have to
humble myself on weigh in day at Weight Watchers on
Tuesday night though.

I did do a bit of crafting during the holidays, which
included making a few new bows for family presents
and making gift tags out of last years Christmas
cards as well.

My camera doesn't take the best pictures in the world
but you get the idea. This gold one is my favorite but
I annoyed myself to no end when I hot glued it to my
DH's present upside down. See ... the goose on the
wrapping paper is standing on it's head. DOH!!!

Surprises in the mail included a lovely piece of hand dyed
fabric from Staci at Snippets and Stash. I was thrilled and
delighted to receive a package in the mail from her a few
weeks ago with this beautiful fabric that will soon be put
to good use. Staci has been making a great many of her
Christmas gifts for friends and family herself and I think
that's pretty awesome. Those are the sorts of gifts that
mean the most.

Andrea at the Crafting Room had a draw in November
for eleven different Christmas ornaments that she'd
stitched and finished in her usual exquisite manner
and I was thrilled to be one of the winners. I haunted
the mailbox and probably gave the mailman a complex
at the same time until this little beauty showed up
safe and sound. I adore this pinkeep and it will be
something I'll treasure forever. Thank you again
Andrea.

And here we have another reason for my blogging
absence. I'll admit it. I've been held captive by a
Lizzie Kate design that I started a month ago and
have been working away diligently at whenever I
can. I am loving this project so much. I'm stitching
it with the threads and the fabric provided in the
kit, but have made a change to the top square because
I couldn't figure out what the green squares and the
pink squares in it were meant to represent. Christmas
presents??? I got out another Lizzie Kate chart and
translated my own thoughts on how those squares
should look from a design on that chart. I feel much
better with how it looks now.


Christmas Eve DH and I attended a Nativity Play put
on by a local church at a horse farm about 10 minutes
drive from here. The stage was set up in the riding ring
which is a large, enclosed space. The barn with the horses
is attached to the riding ring so before the play began DH
and I and all the other people who came for the performance
got to walk around and visit with the horses before the play
began. It was snowing when we left here but it was
relatively mild compared to other years when we've attended
this special service. Still, by the end of the service our
fingers and toes were frozen, not to mention our backsides
from sitting on wooden chairs in an unheated building.

When we got home friends came to spend Christmas
Eve with us and we laughed and talked and drank tea
and ate home made scones with cream and jam, and
other yummy things until midnight.

Christmas day it was just me and DH and my Mom and
my SIL. I cooked roast beef with yorkshire pudding and
all the trimmings, and my SIL brought a home made
coconut cream pie (with whipped cream) for dessert.
Yeah, I know.... It's a good thing Christmas only comes
around once a year.

Although we had snow on Christmas Eve on Christmas
day itself the temperature rose and in the afternoon it
began to rain, and it rained steadily and often quite hard
until the next morning. So it was a soggy, grey
Christmas for us this year.

This weekend has been fairly quiet and we've been
relaxing somewhat, though tomorrow we have
friends from Scotland coming for dinner and their
yearly visit with us. They come to Canada every year
to spend Christmas with family and their time with
us is a highlight of the holidays for us.

Tuesday I go back to work (ugh!!) but DH's place
shuts down over the Christmas holidays, lucky guy,
so he's off for the entire week. He will still get up at
5;30 with me though and drive me into work so I don't
have to leave the house at 6:00 am and take the Go
bus/train service and public transit to get to work in
Mississauga. He's a sweetheart.

I guess that's pretty much it from me for the moment. I'll leave
you with another picture of Rupert, crammed into a box and
sound asleep. This can't possibly be comfortable!! But he loves
boxes of any size and shape and will force his way into the
smallest size until it either bursts or he ends up wearing it.

My best wishes for the New Year to you all. Hope to be back
again in a reasonable time and perhaps with a happy dance to
share.

And thank you for your support and encouragement through
out the year.

Hugs!!!