Speed Trials

My mom gave me an Advent Calendar for my birthday, and today’s chocolate was the big one: the chocolate santa!! Much fist pumping and “yesssssing” ensued…

Until Ange threatened to steal it (like he did LAST YEAR!!! I know, I couldn’t believe it either)

I booked out of work early and we headed down to Almonte to hang out at Angelo’s parent’s house. We picked up Ange’s brother, Richard, and Endo, his border collie. My first reaction to picking up the dog was “Major Groan” because for some strange reason I always think he’s an excitable dog. Nothing could be further from the truth. He’s super well-behaved, and was excellent in the car. Way better than poor Gracie (the late family dog) who would get so car-sick she’d just pace and drool all over the place in the back, trying not to throw up (and not always succeeding).

We spent the afternoon in Almonte, hung out with Angelo’s parents and both his brothers (the youngest, Anthony, was home from Victoria) and I got some awesome gifts. It was a really nice time there, so nice in fact that I didn’t think to take the camera out once (boo).

We had to leave in early evening to go to my family party. The Barrés always get together on Christmas Eve and usually end up partying pretty hard.

And in recent years, there’s been a resurgence of Visits From Santa, to appease the little ones (there are nine of them now!):

Mia!

Jacob!

Ky!

Mathieu!

Madeleine!

Christine?

What’s up, Bulwinkle?

All in all, a wonderful evening, which is just what this family needed after a year marked by tragedy. We all banded together and vowed to make 2010 a year of happiness and peace.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

The Annual Christmas Baking Day was an unbridled success again this year. We baked like crazy and came up with some really tasty cookies.

This year, we had an addition to our group – Susan was great, and her Santa’s Whiskers and Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies were to die for!! Holy yum!

Here is the spread:

There were Shortbread Snowballs, Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies, Almond Cookies, Browned Butter Iced Cookies, Gingerbread Cheesecake Mini Muffins, Marshmallow Pops, Orange Almond Bars, Lemon Squares, and some Gingerbread Cookies made with leftover batter.

My Gingerbread Cheesecake Muffins turned out to be more Gingerbread than Cheesecake, but they still looked super cute, thanks to my newly purchased mini muffin tin…

This almond cookie loaf was really tasty. The dough had orange in it, but the icing was leftover lemon icing from the snowballs… Sometimes, you just gotta mix one citrus fruit with another… They still turned out GREAT!

In fact, the only disappointment this year were the Marshmallow Pops. Though they looked super cute, with their melted white chocolate and candy cane / sprinkles topping – they were just a little too sugar-intensive to please our discerning tastes.

Here are the bakers (sorry for the blurry picture – my camera sucks in poor lighting).

This year we all wore aprons, which, personally, I think made the cookies taste better. In fact, wearing aprons is so much fun that we kept them on long after the baking was done. By the early evening, the last of the cookies were cooling on the rack, we were exhausted and giddy from the sugar and wine (DELICIOUS Apricot wine and Pumpkin wine brought by Sue – yeah, she can come back next year!!!) and played cards well into the evening.

I even drove home in my apron!! So all in all, another great baking day!

Angelo and I have been going to the gym about 2 times a week for the past few weeks, and it’s been great. I’ve had to alter my routine quite significantly, since I can’t even think of running on the treadmill, or using the step-machine or elliptical. There’s been a lot of walking, a little bit of biking, and a lot of physio moves, stretches, and upper-body strength training. It’s not what I want to be doing, and today I noticed I was staring, longingly, at the fit woman running on the treadmill. Oh how I miss running.

I also miss derby. I was at practice last night, and I took a whole bunch of notes and it sparked a few epiphanies for me. I so want to be on skates, working with my new team, building our skills. But I’m stuck just waiting it out, planning out my progression back into both derby and running once my knee fully recovers.

And in the meantime, I have for you the unveiling of our team logo!!! This was created by one of our teammates, Brickfist at Tuffyknees, and it’s freakin’ AWESOME!!!

I can’t wait till we get our uniforms. We’re going to look so baddass on the track!!!

“Babe, you’re looking better and better every day.”

overheard in the shower a couple weeks ago. Perhaps the best thing to hear first thing in the morning…

Slow and steady wins the race, my friends. I have been so much more at peace with my exercise/eating regiment these days. I have no unreasonable goal date in mind, or goal weight in mind. All I care about is getting my body moving and eating things that make me feel good. I’m happy and content, and that makes everything else fall into place.

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And then, last Monday, I went to a sports clinic to get my knee checked out. I hurt it at Roller Derby Training Camp (on my 30th birthday, no less!!) and wanted a professional opinion. After some prodding and poking, the physiotherapist said I had a sprained PCL. Though it’s only lightly torn, I’ve been instructed to stay off skates (and out of running shoes) for 6 to 8 weeks.

I’m also doing physio three times a week, icing as much as possible, and even have some acupuncture lined up.

This is my first injury, and it’s really throwing me for a loop. I can’t run, I can’t skate, I can’t even walk that far without inflaming my knee. And it’s scaring me. What will I do??? Just as I reached an epiphany about exercise and healthy, and now all my hard work from past months are threatened. Six weeks off skates is killer. And I miss running more than I can say. It’s made me very sad.

Here are my options: focus on physio strengthening exercises. Do ab work and upper body training. Swimming. Yoga.

January can’t come quickly enough!