Looking Back on 2012

I am amazed how quickly Christmas came and went this year. Now we are on the last day of 2012. I keep asking myself where has the time gone? I can still remember very clearly my mother telling me to enjoy my youth because one day time will fly. She was so right and that's why today I try to live each day to the fullest.

As I look back upon 2012, I can't help but feel so blessed:

In January, my honey and I took a big step and made our living together official.

In March, my niece Tori came to NYC with her school and we got to spend a lovely evening together!

In May, my sister Mary Beth and her daughter Tori came to NYC for a whole week. We had so much fun being tourists together and my favorite day was when we spent a whole day Thrift shopping in Brooklyn. 

In June, we went on a week long vacation to Los Angeles. So many memories!

In July, I commenced my NYCM training (with my honey getting up with me at 5:30am for runs before work) in hopes of running my 2nd marathon in the Fall. We also decided to complete our Sunday long runs up at Rockefeller State Park Preserve. The trails are beautiful and I can't imagine completing local long runs anywhere else after running on these trails for 5 months now.

In August, I tried to turn 41 gracefully and not let it bother me too much. I also stuck with my marathon training while suffering from a sinus infection for 3 weeks of the month. 

In September, I re-entered the racing world by completing a 4 mile race. I hadn't run a race since Summer 2011 and at that only entered 1 race that year.

In October, I sacrificed attending Rhinebeck with my fellow knitting friends whom I hadn't seen in a year so I could stick with my marathon training. 

In November, I was prepared to run the ING NYCM Marathon, and my sister Mary Beth came to show her support for the weekend, but Hurricane Sandy had other plans for it. I still got to run my 2nd Marathon, just two weeks later thanks to Philadelphia graciously opening up spots for us displaced NYCM runners. My honey also flew home with me for Thanksgiving and was able to meet the rest of my family.

In December, I was forced to take almost 3 weeks off from running because of a nasty head/chest cold I got at Thanksgiving. However, as of this past week I got my running game on again and am getting my running legs back. I also stayed local for Christmas and was able to celebrate the holiday with my honey's family. My honey and I completed our last trail run of 2012 up at Rockefeller State Park Preserve yesterday and it was so magical because it was in 2-3 inches of fresh, untouched by machine, snow!

Just ran 6.25 miles in the snow!

I am closing out 2012 with having run a total of 615.77 miles! I am thrilled with this number, especially since it's been a few years since I have run that kind of mileage. 

Overall I would say 2012 was a good year for me. I am excited to see what 2013 has in store. I have set some goals for myself and I look forward to sharing with everyone what they are tomorrow. Until then, I hope everyone has a Happy and Safe New Year's Eve!!!

Little Life Tidbits

Edited to add: I wrote this post this morning and as of now we have all heard of the tragedy that struck Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. I am deeply saddened by this and my heart and prayers go out to all who have been affected by this. I can not even begin to imagine what all these families are feeling and going through, especially so close to Christmas.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can not believe it's been almost a complete month since I last posted! The past few weeks have been such a whirlwind. I think I will sum it all up with a few Life Tidbit bullet points.

1. 11/18/12 - I completed the Philadelphia Marathon. With a 05:00:01 finish, I became a two time marathoner! Everything from the super warm welcome us displaced NYC Marathoner's received at the start, to all the awesome crowd support this marathon offered, it was a perfect day for me. My honey ran around the course to cheer me on at three different mile marks and the most important one was at mile 25.5 when he ran out to me and told me that if I hurried I could have a Sub-5 hour marathon. From that point on, I kicked it into high gear and sprinted towards the finish line. I didn't get that Sub-5, but I am sure proud of my 5 hour finish. Not bad for being 6 years older since my first marathon. I was only 11 minutes slower.

2. Thanksgiving Weekend - My honey and I flew to Atlanta, Georgia to spend the four day weekend with my family. Lots of fun was had by all. Tons of delicious food (Peanut Butter Pie), alcohol (Home-brew) and football.  Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures to document our adventure and by the time my honey and I flew back home on that Sunday, I was going home with a soon to be bad head/chest cold courtesy of one of my nephews that left me out of it for just over 2 weeks. I can now say thanks to this illness I was forced to not run for 2 weeks and my body has fully recovered from the Philadelphia Marathon (with the exception of my 2 baby toes, but that's another story I will spare you from for now).

3. 12/01/12 - Decided that I was going to knit 6 Christmas presents! My head must of still been clogged from the cold to think I could knit that many gifts in less than 21 days, but hey I'm crazy like that. I 411'd my sister and told asked her to drop everything and help me pick out yarn colors. To my astonishment within minutes I had an emailed list of her choices. Must have been the amazing night of sleep she got because we never decide yarn colors that fast! By Wednesday (12/5, just over 2 weeks to knit 6 gifts, EEEKS) I had my yarn! 

4. 12/06/12 - Decided that I couldn't stand my piece of crap Android phone anymore (I mean really I had to turn the phone off/on to be able to make/receive a phone call), I stopped by my local Verizon store and turned to the Darkside. I am now a proud owner of the iPhone 5 (was eligible for an upgrade) and I could not be happier!

5. 12/11/12 - My running boot saga ended! Ya'll may remember me asking for some helping picking out boots that would fit my ginormous muscular calves and then subsequently had to return all 3 pairs? Well, the 4th time must have been the charm because I hit the lottery with a pair of Clarks Mascarpone Mix Boots that zipped up around my calves beautifully! I have been asked to provide the information for them because there are more lovely ladies out there than we know who have the same problem. So I got them from Zappos and you can find them here.

6. 12/12/12 - Company Christmas Party at the office! Of course I wore my new boots! Here's proof that a good time was had:

Well it doesn't really show that, but trust me we had fun! 

As a side note, by the time I got above ground on the subway ride home from the office party I checked my email, on my super duper new phone by the way, and received an email congratulating me on being selected in the lottery for the Inaugural Nike Women's Half Marathon DC in April! I entered myself, my beautiful niece Tori (will be her first half marathon race) and my honey (also his first official half marathon even though he ran more than a marathon while training with me this summer/fall) as a group into the lottery and didn't really think we'd be one of the 15,000 lucky runners! Don't be fooled by the word Women in the name of the race, they welcomed male entrants too so my honey decided to sign up also since he would be there with us anyway.

7. 12/13/12 - I am really having trouble getting into the holiday spirit this year, even despite my last minute insane Christmas gift knitting idea I had. I am hoping sending out Christmas cards will help me out with this little issue. Of course, finding the time to address them will be another issue, but at least I have them purchased.

So that brings us all up to date with my oh so exciting life these days! I am looking forward to only 1 more week of work and then I am off until after the New Year! I will be having a little staycation this year in which I hope to accomplish many great things like reading, sewing, knitting, running, figuring out some goals for 2013. I am sad I won't be able to go back to Georgia to see my family over the holiday (by the time I received the extra vacation days to take the week off, the airline prices were way to high to try to visit), but it will be wonderful to spend this time with my honey and his family

I am off to knit like a fool! I'll be back next week and we'll see what great things I am accomplishing.

In the meantime, tell me what are some of your most favorite Christmas holiday memories and/or traditions? One of my favorite traditions that I started several years ago is to watch my most favorite Christmas movie every Christmas Eve, "It's A Wonderful Life."

Anyone else out there making Christmas presents? I have been known to make my gifts in the past, whether its something knit, sewn or scrapbooked, but I don't usually start three weeks before Christmas. Madness I tell ya!