Christmas at the G House is now officially over!

Oh boy, what a couple of days we have had.  Christmas has been WONDERFUL this year.  Is it because of a new found joy for life?  Who knows.  But I just know that I have embraced it and run with it.  Literally.

Christmas Day.  Beautiful weather.  We had done the big family thing the weekend before, so Christmas Day was to be ours.  Amazing how many people try to talk you into coming to their Christmas day meals when they find out you are spending it alone.  But we actually love the Christmasses we hide out here, do our own thing, have our beautiful meal, take our time, enjoy each other's company.  This year was no exception.

Mish had asked for a Christmas gift from us, that we do a workout on Christmas Day, with a hat on, and send it to her.  So I went jogging around town just after 7am.  I hope I gave the neighbourhood of this little town a giggle if they looked out their windows and saw me jogging by wearing a santa hat.  And kudos to Mike he got up after I left and hung around outside waiting to see me jogging back down the street from the other direction to snap some photos for Mish.

Yep, I do live in a little community, we don't have footpaths in the majority of streets, so jogging is usually down the centre of the road!    I love that last photograph, you'd think I'd just won a gold medal for a marathon run!

I made sure I set up the tripod and thanks to the timer, I got a photograph of Mike and I.   I really love this photograph, so different to last year, which I'll have to dig out.  I feel so confident and well to be frank, it's like we've turned into a honeymoon couple once again.  We've never been so close.  I'm happy, so he's happy.  Wonderful.

We did the ham and turkey and vegetables as usual, that's Mike's favourite and so it was important to me to make that.  But I made sure I dished my plate up using the 25% rule, and I left the table feeling satisfied and not at all bloated like I usually would.

We set about opening presents and I was delighted that Mike gave me a fabulous walking back pack, he knew how much I loved walking the Otways and hiking Mount Abrupt and I've said I want to do more of that in 2013, get right out into nature and breathe the fresh air and push myself to achieve.  This is so perfect, it is light, it has nooks and crannies, perfect for camera, lunch, water bottle, jacket or whatever else I would need.  And it's so comfortable too.

Inside the backpack there were smaller wrapped up gifts, oh joy!  This man of mine really put thought into surprising me this year.  I got a beautiful pendant in the shape of a heart with the inscripton "LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH".   How perfect is this for the new me I am becoming.  Totally my motto.  And there were a couple of Michelle Bridges books too, another great choice.   

There was a bit of this going on after that.   Someone felt full as a goog.  That totally would have been me in years gone by, sleeping with a gurgly stomach, but not this year.  I had energy to burn, so played with the dogs for a while with their new toys.

The fact that we were pacing ourselves meant that 4 o'clock had rocked around and we decided that we'd now have dessert.  I made the Mini Chocolate Fudge Cakes from the 12wbt Christmas menu.  O...M...G they were sooooo good.  I'd totally make these for a dinner party, they were so stylish and delicious.  So I ate my one beautifully set out plate.  Mike on the other hand had multiple!  Still, we were able to freeze what was left over.  How's this for special...

We didn't end up having dinner, I had a yoghurt but that was about it.  What a terrific day it had been.  I felt strong, I felt in control, and I now know that I can survive Christmas without taste testing everything in sight.  And the fact I even got out and exercised on Christmas Day, what a great way to set up for success.  

So we ended up snuggling on the couch and watching a movie Christmas evening, talk about a perfect way to end the day.  And then someone else wanted to snuggle too  :-)   Complete and utter peace.

So that was it, our perfect Christmas Day, followed by another perfect day for Boxing Day today when the kids came tonight for dinner.  They were absolutely rapt with the Vietnamese rice paper rolls and vegetable slice and salad, there were only crumbs left on the plate!  Success!

So I hope that your Christmas has been a wondrous as ours was.   All done for another year.  But followed straight away today by weigh in.  I was absolutely jumping for joy when the scales had recorded a .5kg loss. Absolutely pumped!