Christmas: aka break from life

today is December 29th. the last time i was sitting at my desk at work in NYC’s Financial District was Friday, December 19th.

Merry loooooong Christmas break to me. thank the Lord.

suffice it to say, i feel like i just took a mini vacation from my regular life and fell into a 9-day black hole of all things wonderful and homey and comfortable.

my Christmas break was long, lovely, and exactly the way i wanted to spend a week off.

*family time. alllll the family time. it’s like the four of us live in our own little bubble at the lakehouse, completed by 3 dogs. we watched The Family Stone, which i think is my fave Christmas movie and seems to be totally underrated. i forgot how awesome this movie is, and with such an amazing cast.

every time i watch a movie with Rachel McAdams, a small part of me wants to be her. or be friends with her. or both. and every time i watch a movie with Luke Wilson, every part of me wants to date him. especially his character in this movie.

we did our Christmas Eve tradition of attending the candlelight service at my parents’ church, which i always enjoy immensely. as soon as we start singing “Silent Night” and the flames begin popping up all over the sanctuary, it feels like a bit of magic has descended out of thin air and wrapped us all up into a velvety moment, a transcendent moment, where all is right with the world for the duration of that song. as long as we hold those little flames and raise our voices with the people we love standing beside us, our hearts are full to bursting.

on Christmas morning, my dad and i went for a run together. rephrase: we drove to the place where he has mapped out a mile route and ran it at the same time, until i lapped him and we finished 4 miles (me) and 3 (him). 🙂 i think he secretly loves that i can outrun him these days, and i totally love that he passed down his running legacy to me. it was awesome to be able to get out and run with him, for the first time in years.

i rocked a pretty good pace on this run, too, so that was a nice little addition to my Christmas. check out them splits?! happy girl.

*cuddle time. breaking news: i am officially a cuddler.

baby Henry, my bff’s lil guy, has officially stolen my heart. i’m still not having children, but it’s nice that my friends continue to have such adorable little babies who seem to want to turn me into a big mush. i held this guy as much as possible over break. he seems to like me, which is always what i’m going for with cute boys, so that works.

*all the workouts. the best thing about having your days to do as you please is that you do everything you like best — which means i worked out every single day except for this past Friday, the day after Christmas. (a day spent relaxing with the boy was more important and much needed, and entirely worth skipping any workout.) i ran (outside or on a treadmill, when it was raining) almost every day (!!!) and had 2-3 good, long strength/total body workouts, so i think my caloric expenditure far outweighed the wine intake this week. winning.

my “fastest” run was my Christmas 4-miler, and my longest runs were two 7-milers: one on a treadmill at the beginning of break, and this guy outside on a hilly route on Saturday. my legs were so tired throughout this entire run, but i managed to survive.

those hilllllls. def slow a girl down and make your muscles scream.

i wish i were training for the NYC Half (insert sad face), as i’m feeling so good and loving the running so much lately. i’m thinking of doing the Queens 13.1 half in March, so we shall see about that.

*Christmas drink of choice. Josh by Joseph Carr, Pinot Noir. this wine was my go-to drink this past week. really loving this lately, and my mom (who is wonderful on all accounts, not just because of this) knows i love it and makes sure we’re stocked when i get home. she’s so good to me.

 *read. i finished a beautiful, clever, witty, amazingly-written novel over break, called The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.

this is what i’d call a real “book lover’s book.” it’s beautifully crafted, with rich, dimensional characters and interesting, clever dialogue, and the theme of good literature and literature loving runs rampant throughout, as the main character is a book worm and literary aficionado herself. it held a double appeal for me, then, because it’s also set in New York City and paints a glorious, realistic, varied portrait of this amazing city in the late 1930s, with all its dazzle and charm and grit and rawness. i loved loved loved it and am so glad my friend lent it to me. Alex — you must read this next!! you’ll love it. 🙂

i have a habit of taking pictures of passages in books that i want to remember, and this one struck me:

and, welp, it apparently struck other people out there as well. ah, how Google searching brings us all together.

and now i’m off to try to write something grand about life and love and loss and New York, dahlings. because that’s what life is all about, after all.

hope you all had wonderful Christmases!

Tell me a highlight from your Christmas!
Read any good books lately? i need recommendations!
How’s the running, runners?

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