A time to make all those resolutions... lose weight, exercise, be more patient, etc. etc... and then to break them all before the end of January!

I usually do make myself the resolution to exercise more and loose some weight but this year I might actually do it. I am just feeling really blah, really not happy with my body. I can't do anything about the stretch marks (or battle scars rather) left to me by my children but I can - maybe - tone and tighten! I refuse to diet, food is my drug. I love food, I eat ALL the time, seriously... as I type this I am drinking my morning diet Pepsi (its like my coffee!) eating graham crackers and snacking on mint candies...I eat when I am bored, tired, mad, stressed, hungry, not hungry... I just love food. So if I wish to continue this, I must exercise! I must walk! I must just not lay on the couch by 9pm every night eating potato chips once the kids go to bed! But, and I am sure you do, know how hard it is to not do that? Especially right now, with all this snow and frigid temperatures, curling up under a blanket on the couch, eating sounds mighty right just about now!

One main resolution this year I am going to TRY very hard to keep and remind myself daily to do is to be more patient with the kids. I don't think I truly learned patience until I became a mom. Kids teach you just much, if not more, than you teach them. But during certain moments of stress and life, I find myself acting out and not being patient with them. I so don't want them to grow up in the same type of house I did, where yelling was a daily event and snide remarks were made more often than kind ones... so that is my biggest battle in the coming new year. Stay calm, stay patient and just live and learn....

So what are your new years resolutions? Will you keep them? Lets talk in two weeks and see!

What a great Christmas we had! The kids were so excited and it was just fun. I have been really trying hard to see things thru their eyes, appreciate the grandness of it all, the lights, the gifts, just really enjoy the moment. As adults, we sometimes loose that and its hard to get back!

We don't have too many traditions in our house when it comes to Christmas. We add one every once in a while... last year we made our own gingerbread houses - girls (McCaiden and I) against boys (Dennis and Esdin)... We just use graham crackers, royal icing and every candy under the sun. It is so much fun and the kids really like doing it.

We did it again this year and it was fun. We didn't travel too much over the holidays, just a one day trip to the grandparents and back. My brother was home for the holiday so it was nice to see him and his wife for a while.

As beautiful as the holidays are, they always seem so stressful! This year was a little less because of the less traveling, but tensions run high in my family between my parents and I and that causes such stress. It is something I bring on myself... I try to stand up for myself and I get beat back down... it is really depressing that at this age I am still trying to make them happy. Sad, really.

But whats done is done and ahead I trek. I vow to make the new year great. I vow to stand up for myself more when it comes to my parental units. I vow to be a better parent to my kids and I vow to lose 20lbs! LOL Once I get this darn cast off my ankle, that is!