I'm Baaaaaaaaack!

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Contrary to popular belief, I am alive!  If anyone reads this blog regularly, I apologize for my 2 week MIA status.  I actually did not intend to take such a long blogging break, it just kind of happened.  Every year around the holidays, my whole family gathers back in Pennsylvania to celebrate, with most of us being fortunate enough to get a week or two off from work to spend time together.  So I packed up some essential belongings (read: 2 cats who vehemently oppose car rides) and headed back home for two weeks.  My sister and her family were in from Georgia for an extended stay as well.

I had all intentions of blogging over the holidays and even had a few post ideas lined up but life just happened.  The holiday season felt very rushed to me this year, in the few weeks leading up to it as well as the holidays themselves.  And with so much family in town, we literally had things scheduled to do every day during the week of Christmas.  The bigger our family gets, the crazier things seem to get (but in a good way!).  I was somewhat off the grid and unplugged the past two weeks, although I was still posting on Instagram and Twitter, and it felt pretty nice.  But I am pretty anxious to get back into my normal routine, and to get writing again.  I have lots of overdue posts ideas so get ready - you just may get sick of me :)

I'm not going to overload you on a Christmas/New Year's recap because I know you've probably read more than your fair share of those lately, but below are a few pics of what I was up to over the break:


1.  Christmas Eve with kids

Two things to note here:  1. This is only half the presents (they opened the other half Christmas morning).  2. The tree is only decorated on the top half.  Not a new trend, but babies are apparently drawn to tree balls like runners are to race swag.

 

Waiting for Santa!  Instagram

 

 

2.  Christmas Day with the fam

 

Instagram

 

 

 

 

3.  Running!!  I was actually considering joining a gym back home for 2 weeks so that I could get some strength and conditioning workouts in, because I wasn't sure how the weather would fare for running.  Truth be told most of my runs were pretty darn cold! But my running felt really really good, and really really strong.  I'm thinking maybe because I just came off that month of boot camp conditioning?  My mileage the past month or two has been pretty low but out of nowhere I pulled a 10 miler while I was home! What?!  My other runs were anywhere from 4-6 miles. I'm already excited for a spring Half (more to come on that in another post!).

 

Snow running!  Instagram

 

 

Jillyruns on Instagram

 

 

4.  A Night Out at the casino.  Yes there is a casino in Bethlehem and no I don't gamble.  I just take pictures.  And drink.  And eat mussels.  And maybe flirt with a 26 year old bartender (oy).  Hahaha

 

Instagram

 

 

Is it illegal to take pictures of people at the BlackJack table? I dk??

 

These mussels were heaven.  So much garlic.  Those cheese fries in the background (not mine) are taunting me with certain death.  So much LACTOSE

 

 

5.  Learning to cook.  A doomed endeavor?? My sister is a GREAT cook/baker.  She and my nephew were teaching me how to make vegan fudge.  My baking skills leave a lot to be desired but this fudge is the bomb.com.  If you are interested I will find the recipe for you. It's from a vegan cookbook my sister has.

 

I'm wearing an apron so you know I mean business.  I told my sister I don't even own one of these mixers so can I just mix stuff with a spoon at home?! This must be her reaction face.

 

 

The finished product.  Sweet vegan heaven.

 

 

6.  New Years 2014.  I am not a huge New Year's person.  The changing of the year on the calendar is not usually a huge marker in my life.  Granted it is somewhat exciting and I do admit to getting caught up in the wonder of 'what will the new year bring', but I tend to think of 'new years' in terms of years of my life, so usually my birthday signifies a new year for me.  I also don't make New Year's resolutions because I tend to make changes and set goals throughout the year.  Also I don't think NY resolutions work!  I think changes are made one day at a time, in small steps, and I don't think its realistic to say you will stick to something for an entire year that you haven't even tried out in real life yet.  I do believe in setting goals, but I think they need to be flexible and will often change throughout time. 

 

So NYE this year I went to the movies with my sister and brother-in-law.  (We saw Anchorman 2 - it was ok.)  And then my family always hosts a NY Day party.

 

New Year's Day 2014 with my sisters.  Instagram

 

 

 

Now I'm back in Baltimore and ready to get back into the swing of things.  I've got lots on my agenda in the next few weeks and already have some plans and goals for early this year.  But that will be for another post.  Even though I wasn't writing, I was reading lots of blogs over the past two weeks and it looks like many of you had great holidays and even some big changes during that time!  2013 was a year of some (major) changes for me and the year I started blogging so it will be very memorable for me.  I have a few ideas about what I want 2014 to be, but as the great Gump says, life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!  Onward and upward my friends :)