Since I've been here I've spent a lot of time with my nieces and nephew. My youngest niece is almost 1.5 and she's a cuddler. She loves to be held, so I've spent lots of time doing that. Her older siblings are 5 and 6 and somehow, incomprehensibly, they think I'm great! They have tons of hugs for me and love to ask me things and show me things and have me do things. It's so much fun being with them. I have no idea how my brother ended up with such cute kids! Haha, that's not very nice. Both he and his wife are very nice looking, he just used to be mean to me when we were kids so I still reflexively say mean jokes like that.
My nipoti (is there a word in English for nieces and nephews combined?) and I made ornaments for their Christmas tree. A tree, a cat, and a stocking (glued shredded toilet paper to it to make the top fluffy, I couldn't find any cotton balls in their house). And today I went to my niece's Christmas program where they sang and danced. The most surprising thing to me is that when it was over, we all went to the back to link up with the kids, my niece saw us and came running up and I was the first one she hugged! How is it that they like me so much? I'm so lucky. I mean, I think of them so much, but we just don't get to see them very often, so I love that somehow they like me (especially since they were afraid of me for years and I was basically a stranger).
Not much else to report, just enjoying the family time. My brother and his wife gave me a guest pass to their gym, SCORE!, so I'm going to hopefully run 10-15 miles this afternoon on a treadmill. Sounds miserable, but given the crap that I've been eating and the alternative of running outside, it sounds like heaven to me! Anyway, I want to stay kind of up on my Reverb posts, so here goes.
I'm participating in Reverb 10 for the month of December. Each day has a new prompt to encourage participants to reflect on 2010 and manifest what’s next in 2011.
December 18 – Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it? (Author: Kaileen Elise)Right now the thing that comes to mind first is trying to spend more time with my family. Of course, I know that's not likely. Hubby and I are going to use a lot of our vacation time in the spring for the Boston/Italy trip. But seeing my family over the summer at my brother's wedding will count for something. But I'd like to watch those short-term weekend flight deals and see if I can't manage to get up here to visit a bit more frequently.
The thing I tried in 2010 that comes to mind is running related. It was my first year to make a serious attempt at qualifying for Boston and really trying to hammer down my 5k time. I qualified for Boston on the first shot (whereas it took me several tries to go under 4 hours), and I tried and failed at getting my 5k time where I wanted. Oh well.
December 19 – Healing. What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011? (Author: Leonie Allan)Hmm, this should be deeper but I don't feel like I had any deep healing in 2010. I think of my massive foot pain (plantar fasciitis) that is gradually, drip-by-drip, subsiding. I'd like to just not get injured in 2011 so there's no need for any healing.
Honestly, try as I might, I really can't think of much healing that's happened. For the most part, I don't have anything that needs to be healed. As I said above, my brother and I didn't get along well all the time (or even most of the time) while growing up, but in the last 5 or so years, basically since he's had kids, we seem to get along much better. So I guess that's healed? And I've worried before that his wife didn't like me (or others in our family) very much, but we really get along fine. I'm glad no healing is required! I don't feel like I've been particularly hurt in the past. Even ex-boyfriend hurts seem to have faded away in the last couple years, whether through the passage of time or getting married. And right now, I'm happy enough I'm not even so disturbed that my back-up prince got engaged to Kate Middleton. No healing needed there either!
December 20 – Beyond Avoidance. What should you have done this year but didn’t because you were too scared, worried, unsure, busy or otherwise deterred from doing? (Bonus: Will you do it?) (Author: Jake Nickell)This is hard to answer for a different reason. An answer quickly jumps to mind, but it's work related, so I don't really want to write about that. Maybe I'll do it in 2011. Maybe not. I guess I should have tried to make a better effort to watch what I ate, but I kind of avoided thinking about it. Marathon training gave me a ready excuse when I made bad eating choices, which sometimes leave me feeling poorly for days. But it all balances out I guess. I thought I'd lost a bit of weight this year, but according to the scale where I'm staying, not so much... Oh well. I'm not sure if I didn't worry about it for fear, worry, uncertainty, being busy, or other deterrence, I just can't say I really made it a priority. I'd like to change that in 2011.
Isn't being an aunt the best thing ever?! You don't have to "do" anything and you are still the bees knees. ENJOY the time with your nipoti!
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