World of Wii Fit! or WWF!

Welcome to the wonderful World of Wii Fit! For our birthdays, my parents and siblings bought Fi and I a Wii complete with the Wii Fit game and accessories. Fi hasn't had an opportunity to play yet, but I managed to get a Wii Fit workout in earlier this evening with my mom and dad looking on. Suffice it to say, my Wii Sports needs some work, but my Wii Fit wasn't so bad.

The cool thing about this Wii Fit program is that it keeps track of my progress. I did, however, ask it not to tell me how much I weighed, though it has no problem telling me if my balance is poor or if my performance on a certain event, program or yoga position is "couch potato" level. I named my Wii Fit trainer Claire (you can pick between a woman or a man), and she was pretty encouraging, sometimes. I'll keep you updated on how it goes with Claire and Wii Fit.

I also tried this pretty scrumptious Fage Greek yogurt today with some tasty three berry granola (I know that sounds unappealing to some, but I have to admit, I'm a total sucker for granola and berries-not fruits, mind you-just berries). I'd heard about this Fage yogurt for quite some time from a few of the food blogs I peek in on and am pleased to announce it is as wonderful as everyone says and I highly recommend this delish combo. It's creamy and a little thick and very filling. I had half a cup and put the rest back in the fridge. Perhaps my mom's lasagna (boo-yanya-in baby Dustin's language) filled me up or the excellent Indian veggies I had for lunch that Mom made for my birthday.

Moving on, though, Fi and I hope you all had a spectacular holiday thus far. Mine started out with a twenty-hour drive back to NY in rain, sleet and snow followed by the arrival ofmy siblings: Kiran and Sara with an unexpected cousin's arrival on Christmas Eve (Srinivas or just Sri: pronunciation-Shree).  My family gathers at our house for Christmas Eve, then on Christmas day we head over to my Aunt Ronnie's house-two hours away, but worth the trip.

Here's my family on Christmas Eve from left to right...Uncle Teddy, Mom, Kiran, Sara, Pop, Aunt Barb, my cousin Jamey, and Aunt Ronnie

On Christmas morning, we have another tradition where we open gifts from youngest to oldest. This means little Sara goes first, then me, Kier, Mom and Pop. My favorite part of Christmas is giving gifts I think the people I care about would like. I know that probably sounds totally corny, but true. This year Dustin and I did gifts for our families together-which is also a first-and everyone seemed really excited and happy about what they got. We gave Sara some pj's she wanted, a pair of shoes and Hall and Oates' Greatest Hits. Kier got a giant 93 piece car kit for his new car.We gave Mom some clothes cus she said she needed them terribly. Clothes are tough, but Connie completely dug what we gave her. For Pop there were slippers and sweatsuits (yes, they still actually sell sweatsuits and my dad has gotten VERY into outdoor work since he retired a few years back). We gave Aunt Barb new pants since she doesn't fit into ANY of her hand-me-down ones and, lastly, we gave Sri an iHome for his iPod. Everyone seemed happy, which made me ridiculously happy, too!

Oh, I almost forgot-my fam totally hooked me up, too. I got a new battery for my computer so I'm able to write my blogs whilst sitting on the completely cozy chaise lounge in my parents living room. Kier and Sara gave me a Garmin because Dustin and I travel so much that they thought we needed it-which they were right about. This will make my drive back to Columbia so much easier than trying to read my hand-written directions in the light given off by passing traffic on the highway.

After gifts, I went for a run in some of the new running tights Mom and Pop gave me and it felt fabulous. It'd been way too long since I'd run (about a week, maybe a little less than that, but still!) When I came back, the family had started on breakfast which Kiran made: eggs of all kinds, omelettes, (I had a yummy egg white one with veggies), toast and breakfast meats. I was starving and had some coffee and my omelette before heading to the shower and getting ready to head up to my aunt's house for part two of gift-opening and more eating.

So, we drove the two hours to my aunt's where we snacked on some shrimp, cheeses, crackers and tons of little eats. The  scrumptious scent of browning turkey filled the house. Aunt Ronnie had made my favorite dishes: roasted veggies and broccoli with garlic and pepper. We were preparing to sit down and have dinner after posing for some pics and helping set the table when out of nowhere...disaster struck.

Above is a photo of the women in our family at dinner that night. Mom, Sara, Aunt Ronnie and myself.

To the left is a photo of my Uncle Teddy and one of his and Aunt Ronnie's dog's: Cash. Cash is just a little over a year old. He's a purebred shepherd from Germany, but not well socialized. Above is also a picture of the kitchen where Cash and Sara were when the incident occurred. As a matter of fact, we were all in the kitchen getting ready to sit down for dinner when Sara bent down to Cash's level and began to pet his face with her little hands (Sara is maybe 95 pounds, 5'2.5" and, as you can see, very small overall). No sooner did she say, "See, Cash, you don't have to be afraid. I'm not scary," than Cash barked and bit her right in the face. Poor Sara is unlike anyone else I know and instead of sounding an alarm or yelling, crying, anything, she gets silent when she's badly hurt. Reactions were slow motion, but as she stood, I ran across the room in time to see blood pour out of her chin, forehead and lower lip. My dad and mom rushed her into the bathroom and I washed off her hands which were covered in blood and icy to the touch. She cried quietly while my parents cleaned her up and put bandaids on to keep the skin as close together as possible while they drove twenty minutes to the ER of the hospital my dad used to see patients in once in a while.

The left is Sara heading to the ER and on the right is her return to Christmas dinner. She may be tiny, but she is completely tough and what a trooper! She had my mom text us from the ER to let us know she was hungry and planned to eat when she arrived back at my aunt's house. They used derma-bond to close up the gashes on her forehead and chin and she was back in less than two and a half hours.

We were thrilled to have her back and she told me, later, in confidence that she didn't want Christmas to be ruined since it had already been hard enough on the family without my Grandma around. In some regards, my little one saved Christmas. Sara was always kind of mine. Sure, she's my parents daughter, but somehow she was always my responsibility which made her mine in some way so it felt wrong for me to not go with her, but too many is too many and it was definitely my parents place to be there.

After more gifts and food, we headed home. The next day we began my 29th birthday celebration! Kier, Sri and Sar made Kiran's famous Gumbo for dinner and the next night Mom and Sri made Indian food with Sara's help. Then we had a wonderful cake complete with candles and presents from my family. Besides all the awesome Wii stuff, Kiran gave me a GPS watch to keep mileage when I run so I don't have to jump in my car and drive around like crazy keeping track of the odometer.

While the celebrations have been wonderful, today Kiran was the last to go. Sara and Sri took off yesterday after a fancy Sunday brunch (complete with mimosas) and I'll be home through the New Year. It's never the same when they leave. Before Kier departed, we celebrated my birthday for the third night in a row last night by going to see the movie Gran Tarino with Clint Eastwood (very sad...and everyone, including Fi, said the same thing: Why does Clint Eastwood make all these sad/serious movies all the time now?). Usually, we celebrate my birthday for days and, thanks to Kiran saying he couldn't imagine celebrating for just one day, we did it again this year. Can you imagine what next year will be like?

Today, I spent two hours in the DMV renewing my dad's registration for his car and had way more close proximity to people than I feel comfortable with (they were all touchy and unaware of how much they'd invade personal space by hitting into me or rubbing their hand against my hair...etc.). Hated it.  Then I went to the jewelry store to try and pick up my wedding ring (it's my mom's, but way too small for my enormous fingers so it had to be adjusted), but it's closed on Mondays...then back to my Wii Fit extravaganza. We've come full circle now, my loves, and I promise my next blog won't be so long to get through OR so full of stuff!

Hope your holiday has been wonderful and unforgettable. Tell us your favorite holiday stories or gifts! We can't call you all individually...please, please share with us cus, really, we miss you! :)

xoxo

N

P.S.-Mrs. A. Parker...if you're reading...Thanks for liking our blog! We hope you keep reading!