Things I am grateful for today...

Round 3 of Christmas baking (peanut butter cookies) is done!  Rounds 1 & 2 were chocolate chip cookies and peppermint brownies...and yes, I'm already aware of how innovative and unique my baking is.  Rounds 4 & 5 will be banana bread and chocolate dipped pretzels, two other things I'm sure no one else has ever done before.

[Side note: One thing I really am proud of...ALL of our baked goods containers were recycled/upcycled this year!  First time ever!]

• To the wonderfully kind woman (from my son's preschool) who had me slather her lavender oil all over my chest and the back of my neck after puking on the boat yesterday...it may have been a coincidence, but I felt better immediately afterward.  Thank you for caring and sharing.
• Getting to spend part of the last two days with such an incredibly awesome friend...the older I get, the more I love, love, love hanging out with positive people! 
• My husband watching Ryan all morning so I could get my long run in (& never making me feel guilty about  it)!
• My husband working tonight...he's tired, I'm tired, but he's doing it so the three of us can live a better life. Thanks for taking one for the team, Rich...over and over again.
• Doing my first ever run with a friend (it's taken five years!) this morning...it was AWESOME.  Karen and I have completely opposite body types (she's tall, slender and lithe, I'm short, stumpy and Jackie Chan-like), but somehow, we manage to run comfortably together at the same pace.  Loved our conversation today, her wonderful sense of humor and am soooo excited to be doing the same race together in a few months!  :-)  It will be nice to root for someone else out there that day and know that she's pulling for me too.
• For having finished my Christmas cards and wrapping already...please don't hate me.  It's because I'm anal retentive.  If it makes you feel better, I pay dearly for this productivity in the form of hypersensitivity, severe anxiety and horrific insomnia (I'd much rather be late with this stuff and sleep more).
• Twinkling Christmas lights...whether they're on my tree or someone's house, they just put a smile on your face and in your heart.  Huge kudos to the folks who climb up on their house each year to string lights and light up the sky for others...
• Caffeine.  I don't drink soda. tea or coffee, but without caffeinated gels on runs I would never, ever in a million years run farther than a 5k.  ;-)
• Finishing my long run today (longest training run ever...24 miles)!  Hollah atcha girl!  (Thanks.)
• Wireless internet.  It's why I can type this while laying in my bed next to Ryan while naps.  
• And along that note...there is nothing finer than the sound of my son slurping noisily on his thumb while he's fast asleep ;-)  
• My mother for always doing arts and crafts projects for Ryan.  If it were up to me, Ryan would enter kindergarten not knowing a cotton ball from a pipe cleaner, but sadly, he would know how to neurotically/neatly line up his shoes, create a basic Excel spreadsheet and count calories.  Oy.