From me and mine, to you and yours...

Wishing you a safe, happy, joy-filled holiday season

Today is my last official workday for a bit.

I’ll be working on and off next week, but on a need-to-do basis.

Today is Annie’s last day of school until January 3, 2023, and I’m so looking forward to some mostly low-key quality time together.

This past year was a lot.

A lot of really great stuff. A lot of opportunities. A lot of excitement. A lot of hugs! You know I love hugs.

But as the year winds down, I am really craving stillness. I want to sit quietly by the fire, under the glow of the lights on the Christmas tree (JK, still no lights on the tree over here, and I will spare you that story, because I’m sad about it!), watching a cheesy movie (more on that below), snuggling with my family.

Tomorrow…something about weather? I don’t know. I don’t really check the weather most days, but people keep talking about “the weather,” so I feel like something is happening and I should figure out what that is.

We will spend Christmas Eve at my parents’ house with my parents, my brother and his family, and a few bonus guests this year, most notably my cousin, Jeffrey, who I haven’t seen since 2017. (I had a crush on him when I was little, before I realized you aren’t supposed to have crushes on your relatives! Don’t worry, my family let me know, and they still bring it up far too often. Love is love? I’ve moved on!)

Christmas morning will be Brian, Annie, Ellie, and me, enjoying our first Christmas in our new home.

And then we’ll spend the rest of the day back at my parents’ with the whole crew.

Our next stop is to Rhode Island, where we’ll celebrate with Brian’s family for a few days, and then it’s back to New Hampshire for New Year’s Eve, when I plan to be in bed at my usual time (nowhere close to midnight).

As I’m doing all of my end-of-year stuff, from checking on invoices and outstanding payments to diving into that podcast listener survey (thank you to everyone that filled it out! I appreciate you!), one thing is constant: I felt the love this year. I really did.

Thank you for supporting me, my family, and my work. Thank you for listening to the show. Thank you for reading this newsletter. Thank you for rating and reviewing the Ali on the Run Show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Thank you for showing up. Thank you for coming to my live shows and events. Thank you for saying hi at start lines and finish lines.

I can never adequately express how much this community means to me. But I hope you know. I hope you feel it.

You’ve been with me to celebrate the best days, and you’ve brought me back to life on the lowest ones. You’re the real deal, and I am forever grateful.

This week on the Ali on the Run Show:

• Anoush Arakelian talks about going from a 3:55 to a 3:07 marathoner.

• Tomorrow, Heather MacLean talks about her 2022 in review, and reflects on how life has changed since becoming an Olympian last year.

What I’m watching:

If you follow me on Instagram (I’m @aliontherun1), you know I’ve been making my way through every cheesy holiday rom-com I can find. I don’t like most of them. Whether it’s a predictable romance set in a fictional New Hampshire town, or a predictable romance set in New York City, or a predictable romance set in an impossibly adorable town with a picture-perfect holiday market, I basically watch these movies with rolled eyes, saying how predictable and lame they are, and then inexplicably crying at the end. I really do root for romance, people. I love love! Here’s a recap of the ones I’ve watched this year, ranked in order from “I actually kinda love this one” to “Couldn’t get through it, sorry.” (A mix of classics I will re-watch and the Netflix-and-Hulu variety.)

1. The Holiday: Forever my favorite holiday film. I watch it every year. Mr. Napkinhead is the true reason for the season.

2. Four Christmases: I laugh out loud, start to finish, every time. I will quote lines from the Taboo scene year-round. Buzz!

3. Holidate: Emma Roberts is adorable. I genuinely like this one.

4. A Bad Moms Christmas: So bad it’s good! Justin Hartley strips!

5. Love Hard: Paxton from “Never Have I Ever” is in this one, so…

6. The Princess Switch: Silly, cheese, kinda cute! Vanessa Hudgens x 2! I couldn’t get through the sequel, though.

7. Something From Tiffany’s: Vanessa just doesn’t like slushy sidewalks, OK? Do you blame her? Gary, though? The worst! This one was fun, though I do think baking an expensive diamond ring inside a loaf of bread seems risky. I don’t know. I could be wrong. I’m probably wrong.

8. Single All the Way: I loved the mom. But TBH, I thought the main guy (sorry for not remembering his name, and sorry again for not taking two seconds to look it up) had more chemistry with his blind date (at least at first) than with his roommate!

9. The Noel Diary: Everyone told me to watch this one because it’s “not as bad, cheesy, or predictable as the others!” What? Wrong. It was all those things, which is fine, but I felt like it started slow, and then the ending was rushed, and she was sort of mean in the end? Of note: Justin Hartley didn’t strip in this one.

10. Christmas With You: Yeah, the Freddie Prinze, Jr. one. Meh. Big meh. I did not think they had great chemistry, and the acting was bad, and the plot was bad! It reminded me a bit of that JLo movie Coach Bennett and I each watched recently! I just feel like…this would never happen. A major pop star just walks into an elementary school and it’s not front-page news? I don’t buy it! (Whereas…all the other plot lines are totally plausible? I know, I know!)

11. A California Christmas: I couldn’t get through this one. I powered down after half an hour of wasted time.

But none of this matters, because I’ve jumped holiday movie ship in favor of Emily in Paris, Season 3. Priorities!

(When do I watch all these things, you ask? In the morning, while I’m doing my 10-minute Peloton strength workouts — sorry for muting you, Rad Lopez! — and in bed at night.)

On the run:

Running will be hit-or-miss for the next 10 days. Holiday season, traveling, you know. What I can, when I can. All good!

And so…

Take good care of yourselves. Take good care of each other. Check the weather.

Happy holidays.

Love,

Ali