The flu has hit my household. First Rees then Ainsley now Dylan has it. Great. Now I'm going to get it. Then, if Peter gets it, he will be hospitalized for three days. Otherwise, I will be sick and he will get off without getting sick at all. That's just the way it goes for us. I study health care for a living. It is amazing how much I take my own health for granted while I am running around thinking of everyone else's.

I have a confession. Before yesterday I had done virtually no Christmas shopping. Everyone at work was giving me a hard time last week -- someone even said I was acting like a guy waiting until the last minute.

Well, I went Christmas shopping yesterday. Started out at 8:30 and was able to finish all my Christmas shopping by 4:30. A day's worth of work. Voila! Last year after my daughter was born early, catching me off guard and putting a serious crimp in my Christmas shopping ;-), so I only had one day where I could go shopping because of my husband's finals, travel plans, etc. etc. So I got organized, decided what I was going to get everyone, went shopping and finished in a day. My secret: I bought a lot of gift cards. This strategy worked so well that I decided to do it again this year and every year. Especially for non-nuclear family members - gift cards are the way to go, I'm telling you.

I know it doesn't seem "special" to do this. But everyone in my or my husband's families already has everything they need and no peculiar collections or hobbies - at least none that I can afford to buy anything for. I would just prefer not giving gifts during Christmas time to be honest. I would rather have us all donate a small fortune to some charity, but I know no one is going to go for that. Plus, I am going to get sick with this flu thing my kids have; shipping deadlines are upon us so I had to get something I could easily pop in an envelope and send off; and we are traveling to Kansas City for Christmas and I couldn't buy stuff that was too big to fit in our car. So see, if you can't or won't stop the shopping Tsunami that hits every year, gift cards are the way to go. Okay, I really am starting to sound all practical like a guy. I'll stop now before I ruin your Christmas spirit with thoughts of practicality and functionality.

My baby turned one yesterday. I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by. I have to keep myself from saying, did I really enjoy this past year as much as I should have? Oh well, I know its true. Whenever I get nostalgic about babydom or pregnancy, my husband usually burst in with a dose of reality. "All I remember is how much you complained about how your feet were swollen and you felt like an elephant." Or, "Remember how exhausted you were when you were getting up two or three times a night?"

I am trying to lose weight and get into shape. I decided back in the summer that after I weaned Ainsley I needed to get really serious about becoming more healthy. I am 35, my family has a history of bad heart disease, and I am too young to be fat and too aware that gluttony is a sin to keep this going.

So I am on the Atkins diet. (Yes, I have read all the criticisms of this diet and I do not intend to be on it forever.) I have lost 20 pounds since September and I have not been hungry like I normally am when I am trying to diet. I have also been walking 3 days a week with a friend. Need to do this more frequently but it's a start. My goal is to lose all the weight I have accumulated since I had my children - another 10 pounds to go and then some should just about do it. It is hard to be disciplined over many months, though, and the holidays are a hard time to diet. I gained three pounds after I ate a normal Thanksgiving. Enough to make you positively ungrateful, very depressing outcome, there. But it has come off again.

Well, almost time to go walking...feel the burn!