Nothing says 'Christmas' like faux fur and red streaks!

I love the holidays. They are hard, but I love them. My family has changed so much over the past 5 years, but change is good. Christmas 2011 is when I found out my dad's cancer was not curable. And last week I was told by my step-mom that there is another tumor on my dad's brain. It was unbelievable shock to hear that when she called me because I thought she was calling to finalize Christmas plans. However, the surgery is a good thing because that means we finally know what is causing my father to have so many seizures. The tumor will be gone and my dad will go back to normal.... well as normal as he can be. Thank God for wonderful advances in cancer medication and for the amazing team of doctor's at Duke Medical that take such wonderful care of him.

I went to the doctor on Monday for my B12 injection and I lost 2.5 pounds last week! I am down 16.1 pounds total in the past 28 days!

My Christmas break started Monday at 4:30 PM. I hit the gym for cardio and a weight circuit. As I was leaving, I could not help but snap a picture of the beautiful sunset we had. It rained and rained all day, so the beautiful sunset was welcome!

I then came home to two wonderful packages. I buy ALL of my tops and dresses from Venus and I ordered this amazing new faux fur sweatshirt, I thought it looked perfect for the holidays. I love it!

Christmas Eve morning I woke up early and hit the gym for 45 minutes of cardio. I had to do preventative damage control because my step mom was making my favorite Christmas snack; sausage balls. After I came back to get ready and drive up north to my hometown. 

Oh and I got my red steaks touched up, they are so fabulous!

When I arrived in my hometown, my first stop was to see my best friend Anna and her adorable daughter, Alaina. She is unbelievably adorable and never cries. 

After I left Anna's, it was finally time to go stay with my dad and step-mom, and victory was mine. I finally indulged in my sausage balls!

My sister and her boyfriend were also there with us and we stayed up so late talking and laughing. I had such a great time. I only got 5 hours of sleep!

I loved their beautiful tree!

Christmas morning I was up at 7 AM. It was time to leave my dads and go to my mom's so we could go to my Papa's for our annual Christmas breakfast. I am 24 years old and I have never missed a Christmas breakfast at my Papa's!

My step dad and brothers at Papa's breakfast!

My brother and my nephew at Papa's

Papa handing out gifts!

My step-grandmother Dixie makes this sausage, cheese, and egg casserole each year and I swear it's laced with crack, it is so delicious. I ate way too much of it. 

After breakfast at Papa's, I went to my mom's for the day. Since I only had 5 hours of sleep at my dads and I had a carb overload from breakfast, I napped for a long time at her house. When I woke up, my brother, sister-in-law and nephew came over for Christmas lunch and exchanged gifts.

My mom made her famous mexican dip for lunch, it. is. amazing.

Around 3PM it was time for me to take off for Charlotte. I missed my cat and I wanted to get the drive over with so I would not have to make it today. 

I got back to Charlotte around 6 PM and was lazy for the rest of the night watching my new favorite show, "Total Diva's". I can definitely tell I ate way too much because I went to bed at 9:30 PM and did not get up today until 9:30 AM. I never sleep 12 hours, but after a lot of food and driving, I could not get enough of it.

I was so happy to be off today. I took full advantage of it by getting ahead on cleaning and putting up my Christmas goodies. I also managed to get in a killer leg work out. It felt great to be back in my health grind - clean eating and hard work out's. 

Marty and I were happy to relax once I finished all of that.

I am back at work tomorrow, but at least it is only one day! I have a jam packed weekend ahead and New Year's. My sister is staying with me this weekend and my mom will be staying with me next week! It looks like this new year will be coming in great!