The holidays are joyous — and stressful. For me, they were more of the former, but yes, some of the latter. I guess that’s how it is with family and holidays!

Oh, in case you didn’t see our goofy Christmas card that my goofy husband made:

We split the week between Rick’s family and my family — which isn’t too hard since they only live about an hour apart.

Favorite Moments of Christmas 2014

• Girls’ day and manicures with Emily and Caitlin
• Watching Rick have a blast with all of his nieces and nephews, camping, making fire and all kinds of playing.
• Hugging and carrying and kissing on sweet baby Gunner
• Slumber party and “scary stories” with Giovanna, just the two of us
• Sub-Zero ice cream and seeing Pacers player Donald Sloan
• Seeing “Unbroken” with my Grandpa
• Feeling Lindsey’s baby move in her belly
• Magical Christmas morning at the Walkers
• Hanging out at “The Tap” and seeing some old friends
• The 10-hour road trip to Indiana with Rick
• Two great workouts at CrossFit Notch 8
• Everyone’s reaction to Rick’s epic Christmas gift for his sister (see below — his senior high school photo printed on a blanket

There were many wonderful moments this Christmas — and I’m reminded of how blessed I am to have such a great family. It is a double blessing to have a second family in my life now — to see their traditions and Christmas spirit. I am learning a lot from them about how I want to do things when I have a family — and it makes me excited to create our own Christmas traditions.

What else did I do this Christmas?

• Decorate Christmas cookies
• Run 20 miles (broken up)
• Watch “Elf” & “National Lampoon’s”
• Think about my Grandma and miss her a lot
• Hang out with my Florida family — who I always miss!
• Drink morning coffee with my family
• Write a couple stories for Daily Signal and keep the social media running
• Study, study, study for NASM
• Visit the mall I worked at as a teenager and eat Chick Fil A, where I worked for 3 years in high school!

I really loved watching Rick play with the kids this week. He is really the world’s best uncle and is able to relate to kids of all ages — from baby Gunner to teenagers! He has a real gift with children that makes me so happy.

I think his favorite part was making a fire with Nick and Caitlin and then camping outside in the backyard with all three of the kids!

I also happened to dig up an old Christmas photo of me and my sisters from the…late 80s!

Sometimes I have a hard time getting motivated to work out when I’m home on vacation but we had a lot of downtime this trip and it felt great to work up a sweat everyday.

My parents have the Boston Treadmill I won last year and it is SO nice. I use it a lot when I’m home and can’t believe I actually WON this thing. It’s technically mine so maybe someday I’ll get to have it but it doesn’t look like I’ll have a big house anytime soon considering where we live!

Overall, it’s been a great weak though getting back to “real life” is in the cards now. I’m home tomorrow and back to work the next day. Of course New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are still looming 🙂

Of course this year we were also missing Grandma a whole lot…it was like we kept expecting her to walk in the door with Grandpa. At Christmas Eve service, they sang a song by Bill Gaither, my Grandma’s favorite singer. I couldn’t help but tear up…but I just have to remember she’s in the perfect place for Christmas.

I forgot to bring my nice camera so these photos are kind of all over the place but I wanted to share my holiday with you! I hope you had a great Christmas and are ready for 2015!