Wow... It's hard to believe that 2 years ago today that I weighed 255lbs!  Ever since that day I weighed myself, I vowed to do much better.  Now I'm at 205lbs!  Most of the weight loss has been due to Weight Watchers when I started in March 2008 of which I lost 35lbs total, so far, on the program.  In fact, it's almost like it's a requirement at the EMC since every staff member is doing it! 

What's great about Weight Watchers is that you don't stop eating the foods you like, but you learn how to proportion your eating.  In addition, it helps you track your progress using a point system.  In many ways, it feels like a game when I'm "playing"... I continually challenge myself to either lose the weight I have or at least stay at the same weight as last week.  You are required to weigh yourself at the same time/same day, once a week, and in addition to this, you should be doing it in front of at least one other person.  That's what keeps you honest!

I think that's why many people have found that blogging about their weight loss strategies and progress happen to be the most successful as it's keeping the person honest at what they're doing.  Though I haven't blogged much about Weight Watchers at all, I thought that I'd at least post how excited and proud I am for sticking with my promise to myself to loose a significant amount of weight.  Of course, I couldn't have done this without Corinn's help as we've buddied up and she looks amazingly fabulous!  I won't announce how much she's lost, I'll leave it to her to do.

At my height of 6'2", I have a high goal of 187lbs (the top of my BMI)... In high school, I was 6'0" 180lbs.  I don't know what I'd look like 20lbs less than I am now, but I'm going to try.  When I was in college in 2000, the last weigh in I remember was 210lbs.  It's been almost 9 years!  I'm also trying to be religious about going to the Gym with Corinn, but with some odd schedules and somewhat hectic weeks, it's difficult.  It'd be good to be buff and 210lbs, but I doubt it'll happen... I'm never going to play professional football, but then again, maybe I can make that my goal some day. 

So the day after Christmas my parents hosted the second annual Boxing Day Brunch.  This has become one of my favorite parts of the holiday travels.  Old family friends, and lots of people I grew up with come to the house for a yummy brunch!  This year we had french toast casserole, fresh squeezed OJ, sausage and lots o' pastries!  Quite honestly, I pulled out my camera with the intention of taking photos, but just had too much fun visiting with everyone (and eating) to remember to actually do it!  I got to catch up with family friends and high school classmates.  It was really wonderful to reconnect with everyone and I was really grateful that Mom coordinated the whole thing.

Unfortunately my brother wasn't able to join us on Christmas Day (his girlfriend had to work the day after) but they did manage to make the trip down on the evening of the 26th.  Ray and I hadn't seen them since last Christmas (except for a few hours one day in July when I helped my parents pack for the move).  It was great to get to spend two days hanging out.  I think the boys spent most of their time playing war games with my Dad and on the brand new pool table.

William made his feelings about having his photo taken pretty clear. 

These are the only photos we took of my parents new house.  Once again, plied by sweets, I completely forgot to take photos!  There new house is beautiful (this was the first time we got to see it finished) and they are super duper happy with it.  All that's left to do is finish unpacking!

Today was the day of our annual Christmas travels.  The morning started out at Nate and Jina's for a holiday breakfast and gift opening.  Vanessa, Jason, Roger, Ray and I made the trip up to Georgia, and were rewarded with pancakes, bacon, fruit and holiday cookies!  After breakfast we opened gifts (Ray's favorite part).

Nate, Ray and Jason all got the same warm, cozy ear-flap hat.  There was some debate as to who looked best in it, and the best way to wear it (flaps up?  flaps down?), so the boys had to have a pose-off! 

I think the only person who liked opening gifts more than Ray was Merlin.  Merlin's Christmas gifts (chew toys) were wrapped in a gift bag, which not only was he allowed to open, but did quite effectively!  Both Ray and I were impressed (while Sam has an affinity for curly ribbon and bows he has never figured out how to open a gift)!  While Merlin was thrilled with is chew toys (one of which he demolished within a half hour) he also suspected that any other gift bags might also have a gift for him.

Around noon we hopped in the car and headed south for part two of Christmas Day.  As we were anticipating some questionable weather, Ray and I decided to take the ferry, so that we could take the straight shot down 87 in New York (instead of those windy Vermont roads).  Actually, the ferry makes for a nice ride and Ray and I battled on Mario mini-games on our Ds's (Ray gave me a metallic pink Nintendo DS for Christmas - very Sex and the City).

  We spent the evening with my parents and Uncle John.  We exchanged gifts and had a super dinner: standing rib roast, mashed potatoes and so much yorkshire pudding that we had left overs!  Unheard of!  We ended the evening watching SABOTEUR, well Ray and I slept through the middle, but we did wake up in time to see the famous Statue of Liberty scene.

All our love to you!  Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

And Happy 30th Birthday Andrew Wargo!

Our plan for today was to head down to Waitsfield for a wee birthday get together for our friend Andrew's big 3-0!  Unfortunately, Mother Nature had a different plan in mind!  On Friday we had been pummeled with snow, but yesterday was quiet.  We awoke this morning to an almost white out!  We debated back and forth about whether we should try to the roads or not.  After a few phone calls we decided to try our luck.  Our friend, James, was home for the holiday from LA, and he had called for a lift.  We figured a good test would be to see if we could pick up James, so we packed our sledding clothes, flashlights and kitty litter.

Here's a shot of Ray driving us through the snow, and a few views of the roads!

  This first shot is the highway, and the second one is a fairly main street in Williston.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.  We had quite a bit of trouble getting to James's and we realized that the Waitsfield roads would be worse.  We called Kat and Andrew and made our apologies and sent our Birthday wishes!  Turns out that no one else but Danielle (who had left much earlier in the day) had managed to make it down.  We have follow up plans to see the Birthday Boy on Tuesday.  Since we rarely get to see James, and we had made it that far, we spent a bit of time with James.

Since we were out and about, and Essex is closer than South Burlington, we decided to head to Jami and Tonya's.  We watched the end of a Seahawks' victory and then walked to The Lincoln Inn for some burgers.

Can you believe how super big those flakes are?  I can't even guess how much snow we've had this week.  James made it up to Burlington on Friday, and he said (at 2:00 pm) that we had received 17" since his arrival!  The roads were only slightly better on the way home, but waiting had helped our cause; there were still almost no cars on the road, but the snow had slowed up a bit and the roads had seen a few more passes with the plow!  So winter has arrived in full force!  We are now as far away from summer as we will ever be, so it gets closer each and every day!  Yippie!