Domo-Santa wishes you a Merry Christmas and so do I! Christmas around my house is totally nerdy and a little bit quirky. This holiday, I am so very grateful for a year full of challenge and blessings.
My trip home to be with family is going to be a crazy week of working remote, driving from house to house, eating lots of good food and perhaps- just perhaps I will squeeze in a run or two while I’m in warmer climates visiting loved ones. I haven’t been running lately, the last two times I’ve been out, I’d get about a mile and a half in and would pretty much be like “alright I’m done.” I want to get back into running (I have enough gear) but have found I much prefer strength training (I love the 21 Day Fix that my blogger friend Kat introduced me to & Blogilates)..but am a bit worried the jumping around will annoy my downstairs neighbors.
Let’s hope though, I balance my consumption of eggnog and bacon-wrapped-everything with some good ol, heart pumping cardio…because lord knows, it’s been a delicious season and I haven’t been fighting back to preserve the elasticity levels of my stretchy pants.
I am already brainstorming for 2015- but for today, I’m going to take some time to be with loved ones (as I hope you are too), and simply count my blessings. Even if we aren’t where we’d like to be- there are many little blessings in our health we have, the wealth we have, the love we have, and of course- the hope that there is more out there along the way.
I want to thank each of you for supporting my blog this year. Because of you, I recently got to get a very, very special piece of mail ready to send along to a special organization that helps pugs in need….
Matilda was a great help in adding up all the numbers for the fundraiser totals from the Virtual Pug Run so we could write a big ol’ check in time for Christmas to benefit the Northern Illinois Pug Rescue…
It took some time to put it all together, she was just so excited to help me get a check ready to help other rescue pugs like herself, but she waited patiently….
With over 300 runners from all over the world- I spent days upon days packing up all of the glittery medals and shipping them out to Australia, Scotland, England, Canada and so many of the 50 states. It was one of the craziest undertakings I’ve embarked on to reach our initial goal of $7,860 in just 5 weeks of fundraising- and I’m so grateful we exceed it!
I hope you’ve taken some time to unplug and appreciate how truly enough you are this season. You are enough. If you’ve been catching yourself staring at too many shiny Facebook pages and all-to-perfect Instagrams and feeling like you aren’t enough, well I hope you’ll take a deep breath, look around you and go, “yup. Enough.” Then, take a minute to look inward, and smile and say, “yup, enough.”
“Thank you” does not even begin to describe how grateful everyone at NIPRA is for the donation and for your hard work on the virtual run fundraiser!! We had a medical emergency come up with Bo, one of our foster pugs, over the Christmas holiday so this will be a huge help. You are a a pug angel! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Aww, thank you so much Brenda and thank you for the amazing work you do! I hope Bo is okay and thank you so much for bringing Ralph, Max and now Matilda into my life….it was made possible by people who care!
If y’all need a foster parent let me know!
I agree. Thank you so much. I returned from Florida to see this amazing donation to the rescue and I too want to thank you. The results came at a great time!
I also want to thank you for your fundraising efforts. I foster Bo, the pug who had three Emergency Vet visits on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. He’s been at U of I veterinary hospital since Christmas Day. He is just the sweetest little thing and was able to receive exceptional care because of kind people like you. I am personally grateful and I’m sure he is too 🙂
As a runner, I will be looking for more future virtual runs that you conduct. If you’d like to see pictures of the little Bo, you can find them here: https://www.facebook.com/tina.swanson1/media_set?set=a.10205300950621074.1073741833.1166870742&type=3
Aww thank you so much for sharing Tina! I hope little Bo is ok!!