My Own 12 Days of Christmas

12 days until I leave for Florida.  Very excited...very nervous.  Very happy I'll be able to spend Christmas together as a family with Hubby.  Speaking of Hubby....

It's been 13 years today that we became "exclusive."  We don't celebrate this date anymore, opting instead for the wedding anniversary in August but it still sticks out in my mind and we acknowledge it.  Now Hubby and I don't really agree on this date.  He believes our anniversary should be in August when we met and when he believes he started courting me.  I know I didn't think we were dating until much later so 12 years ago, we decided that December 11th sounded as good a date as anything else and that it was a good compromise.  And so it's been 13 years...some days it feels like just yesterday and others...well, not so much!  :)  Maddie was missing Daddy the other night and asked if I had a picture of him.  I went to grab a spare one from our wedding to give her and instead spotted a very old, framed picture of the two of us in his apartment.  We looked so young!  Maddie was thrilled to get it.

I've started working on my goals for 2013.  I feel very ready to recommit and be remotivated.  In a way, it starts today.  I'm trying to cut back on the sweets that have invaded my office, home and many stops along the way.  Exercise has been nonexistent but trying to work in a little more activity by way of cleaning and hauling.  For the last 2 years, I have maintained or lost weight during the holidays.  This year, I'm aiming for maintaining.  I think this is a pretty good goal right now.  I was reading JRD's blog yesterday and truly...the expectations we put on ourselves is sometimes just too much.  I know many who will disagree with me but I believe it's OK to back off of the serious weight loss if it's causing too much undue worry or stress on top of everything else.  Sometimes that has to take a backseat to life.  I'm not saying go off the deep end.  I'm not saying start eating a diet of eggnog milkshakes, sugar cookies and peppermint bark (mmmmm...peppermint bark).  I'm just saying sometimes maintaining is the best we can do under the circumstances and that needs to be OK.

I also ran across Adorkable and Chris' blogs and they talked about being kind to yourself.
This is so important!  I made this one of my goals in 2012 because I recognize that the negative self talk has GOT to go.  This isn't a pass on improving yourself.  This isn't intended to be avenue to give yourself excuses for not working towards your goals. You just need to be fair in your assessments.  Your self worth is not wrapped up in how much you weigh, how much money you make or anything else superficial like that.  It's all about those intangibles that you, and only you, can offer the world.  Remind yourself of those things that make you YOU and make you lovable.  Remind yourself often.  I have come so far with this in the last year but some days it's definitely harder than others.  It's something some of us will constantly need to work on but it's worth it.

So in honor of my last accomplishable goal in 2012 and in honor my very own 12 days of Christmas...I bring you my 12 Days of Kindness.  Every day I'm going to post something good about myself and I encourage you all to do the same.  During the silly season, it's really easy to get wrapped up in the hoopla and the stress...take a couple minutes today to decompress and remind yourself of how fabulous you are...just the way you are.

On the first day of Christmas, my inner ego gave to me - a mother who would do anything for her kids!