Merry Christmas To Me...

I can admit I am not a huge Holiday person. I don't know why, but they usually give me a lot of anxiety. So this year I was wicked excited to learn we would be staying home. Well my parents and I would be. The wife would once again be heading home to Chicago to see her family. :/ The pups and I miss her.

I was happy to be staying home since my alarm is set for 6:15am on Friday morning so I can get to work by 7am. Woo... not! :P No I am happy to be subbing for a friend since I need the money. The problem will Thursday holidays is I miss out on 4 meetings worth of pay, which stinks.

After my Wednesday Noon meeting in Newton, I took to the highway to get home... and sat in traffic. Oh the holidays. ;) I was a little jealous of the people in the other cars heading out of town for a long weekend, but the traffic wore the jealousy off quickly. Haha.

Once I did some last-minute errands, I was ready to be home and away from the masses. I had planned to get in a second workout (had run 4 miles before work), but after surviving traffic and people - I opted for a beer. ;) Smart choice, right?

Around 6pm the pups and I headed upstairs to my parents' place to start our Christmas Eve tradition: Chinese food, wine and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Oh oh and PJs. Thank you comfort.

It was great to just kick back and relax for an evening. I am not good at putting away work (both for Weight Watchers and the blog) and just be. It is a sweet treat.

I was wicked excited about my parents' gifts that I made them open them Christmas Eve so I could set them up.

Yup I got them Fitbit Ones! I'm ready to compete against them already. Feel free to friend me on Fitbit if you want (email above on the pic).

Oh and my dad made these little devil cookies!

I am waiting for him to give me the recipe so I can actually calculate the Weight Watchers PPV.

Since I would be waking up early for a couple of run dates, I headed downstairs around 10pm. Not that I would go right to sleep, but I was ready to be laying down in bed. Thanks wine. :P

I bounded out of bed at 7am so I could get the pups ready for the day and myself clothed for my run. The game plan was a 5k run with my dad biking with me at 7:30 and another 5k with my friend Lori at 8am. Great way to get 6.2 miles in before 9am.

It was downpouring the entire time, but we felt badass for getting out there and getting it done.

Yes that is Lori and I drinking a Slumbrew (Porter Sq Porter for me and Happy Sol for her) at 9am. It was part of the main reason why she agreed to run with me. Lori and I went to high school together and are both part of the Slumbrew Happy Soles.

Lori is training to run her first marathon - Boston Marathon 2015 for charity. Amazing and so great to chat with someone training for their first marathon.

After Lori headed home to spend the holiday with her family, I was on my way to find an open Dunkin' Donuts. Yes priorities folks.

#DaniRunsOnDunkin

It took two stops, but I found an open Dunkins and was ready for the day to continue.

We did a small gift exchange. Well the parents had already opened the gift from me the night before and they just went to Universal Studios for a few days as their gift to each other. Sooo it was really me opening gifts.

Oh it was a great haul.

I received:

* Dunkin gift card AND two pack of French Vanilla K-Cups

* $75 in gift cards to Disney, which paired with the ones Tori and I received means we have $275 for our trip to Disneyland in January (YYYAAAYYY!!!!)

* Some minions - plush and plastic - from their trip to Universal

* Two sweet new Alex and Ani bracelets. I have a runner one so now I just need them to create a swimmer

* A sweet picture frames from the pups

* A Visa Gift Card (also will use at Disney)

* Replacement pair of sparkly black TOMS since I wore mine so much they have a hole in both soles

* Some great office supplies for my new standing desk

All in all a great and practical haul. I am big on practical gifts. ;)

Once I was finished with gifts it was the pups turn.

Yes they had identical stockings.

Inside they sniffed out: a stuffie, 3 tennis balls and two snacks. Molly immediately devoured her two snacks. She is not one for portion control.

After hugs, thanks and puppy kisses, we turned on Madagascar 2. I somehow had seen 1 and 3, but missed 2. So it was great to finally see it. Super cute.

As the morning went on, the weather improved. At 1pm the weather was sunny and warm so I had to get back out there and take advantage of it. Yes I went out and did a third run.

I squeaked out 2.8 miles to round my daily total to 9 and hit 1,075 miles for the year.

It was a great way to spend some time while my parents and the pups were all napping.

After I got back, it was really time to relax: Zensah compression shorts and socks, Harpoon beer and Puss In Boots on TV.

I could really get used to this "relaxing" thing. I should make it more of a routine.

My dad was experiencing some grill issues so dinner was delayed from 2:30 to 4:30. Fine by me since I was perfectly content on the couch.

We were able to have a low-key dinner: steak tips (delicious Hawaiian Cowboys from Dom's), green beans, carrots (with honey, brown sugar and orange juice) and mashed potatoes.

This is the first time I've had real mashed potatoes since probably last Christmas so it was an awesome treat.

Mmm mmmm mmmm! It hit the spot and was the perfect way to cap off a relaxing day with the family.

So now I will tuck myself in on the couch, finish tracking all of my Weight Watchers PPVs and watch How To Train A Dragon before calling it an early night.

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I want to remind everyone how thankful I am for your support on this journey. I love every like, comment, email, tweet, Facebook message and hello at a race. It truly means the world to me.

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What was your top gift from Santa this year?