Happy Holidays to you all! This Christmas season felt as if it came to soon, kept us without ideas for gifts, found it hard to feel the Christmas spirit, and will hopefully sneak out as quickly as it arrived. Anyone else find the season a little less spirited?
We have much to be thankful this holiday. Everyone in our immediate family is healthy and safe. Our extended family is spending the Christmas weekend in the GR area, all together - the cousins are in Heaven! The outlook for 2010 is promising - both business wise and personally.
Looking back at the year 2009 leaves smiles on our faces. T1 and T2 had great school years; T3 had his 1st year in preschool @ CMU; T4 grew and changed almost daily. The summer held an amazing adventure for our family. SASSY was boarded by all the McGuirk clan for 2 weeks in the Bahamas then 2 weeks touring the west coast of Florida from Marathon north to Clearwater Beach. Wonderful memories, lots of photos, laughs and fun water times.
Santa brought the kids wonderful gifts; Mommy and Daddy too.
This morning, the 26th, was quiet in the Dean household as I left for a run. With a light dusting of snow and fairly smooth roads, I took off through the subdivisions. Running in this area is nothing like running at home; not a "mount" to be found in Mount Pleasant. Here, though, in the south side of Rockford, I enjoyed quiet subdivisions with many hills to challenge me. Mostly the solitude was a welcome event; sure the air was a bit crisp, but we do live in Michigan and nothing I haven't endured before. A few sprints up and down some very steep "mounts" left me feeling as though someone was stepping on my chest. While catching my breath it was a great feeling to look back and realize just how steep that hill is! Knowing the family was warm and snuggled in their beds gave me even more of a push to keep going to my goal. Being able to survive 3 sprints up Ryan's Valley Hill made me feel as though I needed to push myself just a bit more. So 2 more subdivisions saw my tracks before deciding my legs were just a bit cold. Turning around to go back the way I came led me to pass that Ryan's Valley Subdivision once more. Should I? Sure why not; so yes I ran down the hill for one more sprint back up. 65 minutes later I walked into the house cold, sweaty, and feeling tough. Believe me that hill is intimidating! Bring on the Christmas cookies now! No, after that thrilling of a run the last thing I am putting in my mouth is unhealthy calories.
T1 and T2 are enjoying cousin time and T3 is doing his own version of walking on his toes and his cast. And T4 is commuting from big kid cousin time to hanging out close to mom.
Happy Holidays to everyone out there. 2010 promises to be a comeback for our Michigan economy - or so the economists say... we'll see.
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