oh, that's right...Christmas is coming!

As I've said before, we don't 'celebrate Christmas'...we get to have a day off together and use it as an excuse to buy things.  Each year, we buy less...because there are fewer things that we truly need.  These days our lists include things like new bulkhead door, gutters, new flooring in the dining room, new exhaust for my car...things like that.  But, Hubby does enjoy a nice bottle of Scotch to get him through the cold winter nights.  And his favorite children's book authors seem to still be putting out books (thank you, Graeme Base!), so I do love getting him little things.  And I LOVE wrapping gifts.  Sometimes I come close to just wrapping empty boxes for fun!
However, what just occurred to me is that it's nearly Christmas Eve...the night I get to spend with the few family members I am close to.  The night of our gift swap...for which I need to get a gift!!  I was planning on hitting the antiques mall in town, but I don't know when I will have a chance now!  I have found a couple things on Etsy, but it's getting to the point where I am just nervous it won't arrive in time. I actually ordered a little trinket to go with my swap gift but got a message from the seller that he was refunding my money as he couldn't find the item.  He was very apologetic, and it wasn't that big of a deal for me, but this happened last year, too!  There was a book I ordered and the woman couldn't find it.  So that compounds my fear of trying to order something so late.
I often get so wrapped up in all the day to day that before I know it, a week has passed and I'm still trying to cross things off my list!  I'm sure I'm not the only one, but boy! don't the holidays just seem to speed up time!?
But on to some good news...
I already got one of MY gifts!  And, as excited as I am to get this, I was again touched by how awesome our friends are.  We decided that I should get a treadmill.  But of course do not have hundreds of dollars to spend on something that is not a necessity.  So, I kept checking craigslist until I found 3 that looked good, in my price range.  Hubby called on the first one on my list, and got set to pick it up Monday.  But how do we get a treadmill to our house without a delivery service?  Hubs drives a Scion (the one between the sporty one and the big boxy one) and I drive a Cavalier...neither is going to house a treadmill, even if it does fold down!  So, Hubby posted that he needed a truck the next day, and within minutes our friends were offering their trucks.  I actually had one friend come in to my work and tell me where his truck would be and that he'd just leave the keys in it for us.
Now i know lots of people have friends and family who will do this, but to me it is the speed of it all.  One quick post to facebook, and within minutes someone is there to help.  Of course, I had to help unload it during my lunch break, since the truck he borrowed was our plumber friends giant work truck, and the treadmill is super heavy on just one end, so it's awkward.
Anyway...that means no more excuses for not running, or working out at all, really! 
We have to somehow get it down to the basement.  It will not go around the curve of the stairs so it will have to go in through the bulkhead.  Which wouldn't be a big deal, if not for the fact that our bulkhead door is now a rotted wooden door, covered with a tarp that has been nailed down and secured with several 2x4's (courtesy of the Hurricane Irene scare).    So, for now, until the two of us have more than 10 minutes of  'hi & bye' in one day, it stays in our 'dining room'. 

It didn't have a manual, so i have to get online and find one.  There are so many buttons, I just don't know what to do with them all!  There is an additional part you can get for the heart rate function, but I already have 2 heart rate monitors, I probably don't need another.

I unfolded it and gave it a go today.  (Oh, I actually called my vet job today and they said they could do without me today!!)  I was definitely making it harder than it needed to be...I am very new at this.  I have never even stepped one foot on a treadmill before today!

I decided that I really need to download the manual, because there are several workout programs in the machine, but I don't know how to access them.  So, I struggled a bit trying to figure out why it would speed up and then slow down, but managed to get to a steady jog.  I think it'll do the trick!

Maybe I can lose those pounds by spring, after all!?

And in other news, one of my snowflakes sold the second day they were at the bakery.  At least that's something...some positive feedback.