the 12th month

good things about december
of course, attending holiday parties, receiving gifts, and sipping egg nog (while eating gingerbread) are fun. but that’s not all this month has to offer!

“Now the calendar’s just one page, and of course I am excited”
bonus points for anyone [other than my father] who can identify that lyric from my #1 christmas song. can you all believe it’s already december!? in honor of the new month, i would like to present some of my (other) favorite things about the last month of the year:

long nights provide a great excuse to hibernate & hunker down, which happen to be two of my favorite activities.

just putting this enamel pot in the oven makes me feel a little warm & fuzzy inside
baking things, snuggling, and curling up with a good book (or dvd) on a free night just make more sense now than they do in july.

january magazines! and the promise of a ‘fresh new you.’ completely ridiculous — and yet they get me every time.

CE was the first to arrive
our weather doesn’t suck

and when it finally does snow a little, it’s exciting! (extra exciting now because i am no longer considered an ‘essential’ employee of the hospital . . .)

training for spring races typically kicks off in december (or january). i have my eye on this one:

while i had hesitations previously, i am trying to stop putting life on hold while we work on TTC-ing. therefore i think i am planning on signing up for this half-marathon (which i ran last year). i’ll let you all know when i decide for sure!

i get to make resolutions! i get to make resolutions! i get to make resolutions!!!! and i get to read about others making resolutions as well (love this part, too!). last year i did a countdown. some of my resolutions were successful; others were not. this year i would like to focus on making my goals a bit more concrete and measurable.

buying gifts is fun . . . especially online. how crazy is it that you can do all of your holiday shopping without leaving your doorstep if you so choose? on sunday i made a mega-order from amazon and most of my shopping is done – just like that.

one cute find:

available for under $10 at amazon
kitchen sticky notes by chronicle books is one of many fun stationery gifts available on their site. i actually found this item in at paper source while in PA, but have since ordered more online.

i bought it initially for my mom, who is a wonderful (but not super-organized) cook.

maybe that will change now that she has a whole set of menu-crafting pads and recipe page flags!

i was THISCLOSE to getting an extra for me but i think i already have enough paper in my life
(if that’s possible.)

———————————————————————–

11.30.10

workout: 4 miles easy – with josh!!

what was in that enamel pot?

80% local frittata: local sausage, eggs, arugula, and white sweet potatoes
all from our bella bean box! even the whole wheat roll was locally baked at 9th street bakery. admittedly, that is a non-local smoked cheddar on top. close enough (although we could have easily have gotten local cheese, too. next time . . .). josh actually made this meal while i worked on my grant. with anything involving eggs, he is the master chef. this was loosely based on a recipe from the CE cookbook and it was absolutely delicious.

grant progress report: i was lucky enough to be given this afternoon ‘off’ to get some serious writing done. i am mostly finished with my overall proposal, though there are a few blanks and the dreaded ‘discussion’ sections are not yet done. i am SO excited that one week from today, this will be submitted and i will be able to focus on other things!