Merry Christmas

Lots of wonderful things happening on Christmas Eve and Christmas with my family! I began my day yesterday bringing small gifts to those who have ensured my life will continue on for the next 50 years, my oncology family and surgeon. How do you tell the people who have saved your life thank you? Through Bailey's, Starbucks Coffee, some homemade jam and jelly, chocolate, and a very nice Riesling of course. My infusion went as planned and was a great thing to get over with before all of the festivities started. Biking followed and then we were off. I am still an Ironman and days of massive eating do not include no exercise! Christmas eve was beautiful with family galore, nieces and nephews super excited about Santa, some Christmas cookie decorating (Chewbacca was made and I become really good at the yellow smiley face with a Santa Hat), and a little It's A Wonderful Life! Christmas is so much fun when there are children running around and playing. With the background of our day being 24 hrs of A Christmas Story and the random trivia facts that surround it ("You'll shoot your eye out!", tri-Santa arrived at my house bringing me a new pair of pink, rimless Tifosi sunglasses to make me more efficient in aero position and really stylish while I'm racing! While my husband bought me a very special gift - a rock and a starfish necklace. Let me explain... When I was first diagnosed with cancer, I told my husband that it was ok if he wanted out, he didn't sign up for this, I understood. He gave this to me and said "Because you are always my ROCKSTAR!" He's a very special guy - and he's mine! I got changed into my new shirt with bikes on it! I love this shirt and it is something I never would have been able to wear before. Our TEAM LOCO medal holder was opened and we were so happy with the friends we have made this year and the year of racing that was ahead of us.

Sydney and Cooper were excited about all of the toys that Santa had brought them and they got to play with the rocket when we arrived. The 1st rocket only lasted about 5 min into our visit as Joe decided to see how high it would go and the wind took it and it landed on the neighbors roof! Oops. We will always remember this. Sydney danced when we danced and played with her new babies! Cooper played with his light-saber! Jessica got to play with tools to put together all of their things while Sam got to make the egg bake that we all love! I got to listen to some Beiber with Cooper's new headphones! It was a very exciting morning! I was able to run through the newly fallen snow from one house to the next. It was a beautifully quiet and peaceful run through the streets of Albany. Snow was lovely. I was able to run on some of my favorite roads without fear of being hit by a car or verbally accosted by a random stranger. All the people that I saw had a smile on their face or were hugging their family and friends as they arrived at their location. The sun actually came out for the last mile of my run too. It was perfect even though it didn't actually feel perfect. But 4.5 miles done in a nice controlled fashion. When we arrived at my parent's house, Sierra was excited to open presents while my father was trying to figure out new iPod settings. We allowed the children to hand out gifts and there was only one mishap, they thought the gift addressed to my parents as "Mom and Dad" was for their mother, my sister. All were excited about their very nice gifts and I went home with some very nice kitchen baking and cooking implements which I am excited to use. Sierra sang America's "Golden Hair Surprise" while Kaelah sang Michael Jackson's "PYT". Everyone except for my mother got to play with my mother's new iPad. We looked at my father's new Specialized bike and compared it to Joe's bike. My favorite conversation of the night went like this: Me: Did you see what was on my shirt? Kaelah: Bikes - why would you have bikes on your shirt? Me: Have you met me? Kaelah: Did Santa Joey get you that shirt? Me: No, Santa Kelly bought this shirt for herself. Kaelah: Then that's not a Christmas present, that's just going shopping! What a smart girl! Now, it is time for a nice glass of wine with my very wonderful husband! I have a great life and I am surrounded by fabulous people. What a great two days! I hope Santa was as good to all of you as he was to me and my family. As the Night Before Christmas says: "Merry Christmas to all. And to all a good night!"

Happy Holidays

It has been an extremely busy December. I had a slight injury the weekend after Thanksgiving which has prevented any long distance running this month post the 10 miler that I did the day that my knee started to bother me. I ran the Jingle Bell 5K with my friend Mary and in celebration of my friend coming back to running after an injury which was so much fun. It was snowy and icy which is perfect for the season. I ended up with cold number one after this race - I am a teacher and my kids are all sick so I was waiting for this to happen. I was featured on the Key Bank Vermont City Marathon website - I'm a minor celebrity now!!! (haha) Check it out: www.runvermont.org/therundown/why-i-run/why-i-run-kelly-sullivan Then two weeks later I ended up with a big, horrible cold where I lost my voice for three days and couldn't go three feet without blowing my nose. It was horrible. The funny thing was I went for a run while I was not feeling well to loosen things up but it was a great run. It felt easy and effortless. Those are the runs that send people out running again and again. I then went out for a run one night to see the lights in my neighborhood when I fell. I fell hard. There was a very large discrepancy in the sidewalk that I didn't see and hit the ground. I collected myself and got up. Realized I was bleeding but couldn't tell where I was bleeding from so I ran home and had my husband fix me up. I think this was only part of my year since I usually get road rash from falling from my bike at some point during the summer but this year I wasn't on my bike much so it was only appropriate. I feel very hard core!

This brings me to Christmas. I have a Christmas wish. I want all people to live each day to its fullest. Laugh each day. Love each day. Do something good for yourself each day. Do something good for someone else each day. Sing loudly each day. Dance each day - either by yourself or with someone, especially little kids! Do things with the ones you love every chance you get. Let yourself be happy. I am loving my life because of these goals of each day. I dance each day and love every second of it. I sing poorly each day and am extremely happy when I am doing it. With this in mind, I have decided a few years ago that we needed to have a tradition of decorating Christmas cookies! It has grown every year. We had 8 kids and their parents decorating Christmas cookies and talking about Santa and their Elves - Frisbee, Taco, Snowflake, and another I don't remember. It was a blast! All kids seemed to have fun as they all fell fast asleep after leaving the fun. I'm sure this will be at least 3 children bigger next year since we have a few friends expecting little ones! I love being surrounded by the little kids so excited about Christmas and Santa. It makes me extremely happy and I want them to have something fun like this to remember when they get older and do with their children. Children make Christmas fun and since I don't have my own, I get to bring in other people's kids, give them sugar, have fun decorating cookies, and then send home with their parents them all sugared up! It's a perfect situation for me! Isn't that the job of an Aunt!!! If not, I was mis-informed!

I am excited to have time with my husband to enjoy this wonderful time of the year. I love that we get to spend this week together and enjoy the fun of the season. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!! May your heart be bright! Enjoy your family and friends! I know I will!