I had the perfect balance of fun and adulting this weekend.  Even though it was -6 when I woke up, I still got my ass out of bed to Weight Watchers.  I lost 1.2, but I think it was a bit more.  You see the scale will never show up the exact amount of your effort exactly on day 7 of your weigh in day.  Last week I only gained .6 pounds, so I knew I had what I call “residual holiday weight” that hadn’t show up yet on the scale.  I am happy with the loss!  And um, I am on Day 8 of no wine.  I want to thank a lot of my WW connect members who gave up pop or wine too this month – we’ve got this!

I thought I had mentioned it to my sister that I was doing dry January, but when I got to her house on Saturday night to celebrate our family Christmas with our Mom, she said “we have red wine, pinot grigio and your favorite beer Blue Moon – what would you like?  For a split second I thought “it’s our family Christmas, go ahead and just have one glass of wine, but I stuck to my guns and opted for water.  But all throughout the night I’d ask me sister or Mom, so how does that wine taste?!”

I hope this video comes though – my sister got me this oven mitt, and I had to laugh because so many people tagged me on Instagram and Facebook when they saw this line of oven mitts and were like “Biz, these are so you!!”  Love.

When I as at my nieces wedding in November, her maid of honor has Type I diabetes and was wearing this shirt, and I blurted out “I need that!”  My Mom bought it after that weekend – I love it.  Thanks Momma!

Sunday I went to the gym, um turns out I haven’t been there in over 100 days!!! And turns out I have a bit of work to do – my muffin top is no longer wanted and it’s my goal to get rid of it this year.  

I got my Christmas Box from my brothers family – thank you for all the goodies!  But what I was most happy to get was a copy of my brother’s new book.  A memoir about the year he had cancer.

I read the book for about an hour before going to bed on Saturday, and then finished it sitting comfy on the couch with a cup of tea.  It’s an amazing read – if you have read my brother’s blog, then you know what an awesome writer he is.  While the subject is cancer, he manages to make parts of it humorous, and I laughed out loud and I cried too. 

I don’t think I was a very good sister during that time – I don’t remember jumping on a plane to be with him (that’s because I didn’t) but I will never forget that I was in Virginia for my Uncle’s memorial when my brother called my Mom to let her know if the cancer was cured or if he needed more chemo.  She left the room and left us all in the living room of my Aunt’s house, which I took as not a good sign.

She walked back into the room crying, which of course made all of us cry, but then blurted out “he’s going to be fine!”   Best.news.ever.

Charlie has generously offered up an AUTOGRAPHED copy of his book to one lucky reader of mine.  There are so many sad stories about cancer (i.e. my Dad, my Uncle, my cousin Pam), but I’d love for you to leave a comment with a good outcome of someone you know and love who kicked cancers butt.  If you don’t have such a story, you can leave a simple comment of “In Loving Memory of . . .” 

I’ll pick a winner on Friday’s post.   I’d like to say that this cancer scare made my brother slow down, and smell the roses, but I think he’s busier at work than he ever has been.  Back in 2012 he was working for a Korean gaming company with insane deadlines, and now he’s working at Apple headquarters with equally demanding deadlines.

All I know is that I have to do better about not getting stuck in the routine of getting up, going to work, coming home, eat dinner, go to bed – lather, rinse and repeat.  I need to do a better job of making plans with friends this years and creating memories.  

Happy Monday my dear friends – now go make it a great day!