Merry Christmas from The Boudreaus (dot com)!

Christmas has returned - right on schedule. And once again, it's time to commemorate the Yuletide season with a little slice from your favorite Christmas fruitcakes: The Boudreaus!

We believe traditions make special experiences even more sacred - and a personal tradition of ours is the annual Christmas song and e-card. We hope you enjoy receiving it as much as we enjoy sending it.

Launch the 2006 e-card.

Please feel free to forward to anyone and everyone you know who likes to smile.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

With LOVE,
Stephen and Michelle Boudreau

Lessons from the road

One
I am stronger than I thought I was (both mentally and physically). If someone would have told me a year ago that I would be completing a marathon this December, I would have thought they were crazy. I always thought people who ran marathons were strange. The training makes you sick, you get injured, it's rumored that toenails sometimes fall off . . . all for what? To run a race? No thank you. Truth be told, though, I was a bit envious of those who ran marathons because it was something I thought I could never do.

But then, to my own surprise, I got the bug and I wanted to try.

So I started training . . . slowly. It began with just a couple miles. I remember being so beat down after some of those runs that I couldn't help but doubt the entire process. If I couldn't run 2 miles, how was I ever going to do 26?

I was amazed at how much my mind came into play in something as simple as running. Put one foot in front of the other and repeat . . . how simple is that? And yet my mind made it so complicated. There was constant self-doubt and a temptation to just quit. I had to figure out how to replace "I don't think I can do this" with "I know I can do this".

But then one day 2 miles didn't seem so bad. Then 4 was less nightmare-ish. Then 6. 8. And even 10 and 12 seemed surmountable. In the end, completing the marathon was probably 25 percent physical strength and 75 percent mental endurance.

Two
I have an amazing support system of friends and family. I started off the day surrounded by people I love. My mom and Stephen's parents came out to cheer me on and our great friend Jeremy flew in from Houston just to see me. When I got to the American Airlines Center, we ran into Marshall and Elizabeth…my original inspirations for running who wished me luck and gave me a few last words of encouragement. My wonderful husband and the Poetschkes (some of the best friends anyone could ever have) signed up to do the relay marathon, so that at least for part of the way I would not be alone.

By mile 15 I was on my own . . . or so I thought.

At mile 20, the Poetschkes were waiting with cheers and encouragement.

Half a mile later, Stephen, his parents, my mom and Jeremy were there to rain their cheers down upon me.

Speaking of rain, it was about that time the skies opened up and started pouring down on us all.

Waiting for me at mile 23 was the wonderful Courtney who sprayed me with silly string and trotted along side me for a few hundred yards encouraging me and telling me she was proud.

Then at mile 24, when I felt like I might not be able to keep going, I saw Chris and Melanie (Melanie was my training partner until an injury sidelined her about a month before the race). They ran along side me for a little while and when I told Melanie how much it hurt, she offered to run the last two miles with me . . . in her street clothes . . . in the rain! I know I would have finished without Melanie, but those last two miles would not have been as sweet without her next to me.

With a little over a half a mile to go, we saw Jon and Marianne who also ran to the end with us in their street clothes. My spirits were sky high as I ran with my little group. Just a few miles before I could barely get one foot in front of the other and now I was engulfed by a group of people experiencing this moment with me. Encouraging me. Pushing me through to the end.

Suddenly we were upon the barricades and Marianne asked me if I wanted them to finish with me or if I wanted to do it myself. For a second I couldn't believe what she was asking me . . . was this really the end? I opted to take the last hundred meters myself and I sprinted to the finish line.

All the pain my body felt could not hold a candle to the euphoria of crossing the finish line. I can't even begin to describe the feeling. It was one of the greatest moments of my life. For a brief instant the world stopped. My body didn't hurt. I wasn't cold . . . I was just ecstatic.

At the finish line, in addition to all the other people I'd seen and been encouraged by that day, our cousin Michael and his beautiful fiancé Julia were there to shower me with even more love. It was an amazing moment to get out beyond the finishing gates and be embraced by people that I love so much.

Everyone keeps telling me how proud and inspired they are by the whole event, but I am really the one who left that day completely awed and inspired by how loved I am. My friends and family are beyond compare. It was breathtaking to be confronted with the love of so many and know that there are people who want to be there when I need them most.

It was a great day.

Miracle miles

More to come on the entire experience, but I wanted to let everyone know that Shelley crossed the finish line victorious in more ways than we ever imagined.

What an absolutely amazing day.

Come cheer Shelley on THIS SUNDAY!

Hello everyone! I am writing to invite you out Sunday morning to cheer Shelley on as she runs in her very first marathon! She has been training for the past TEN MONTHS and it has been extremely demanding on her physically, mentally and emotionally. She's very excited, but she is definitely going to need moral support from friends and family. If any of you can come out - even for just a bit - and cheer her on to the finish, it would mean so very much to the both of us.

A few of us will be running the 5-person marathon "relay" so that she will have someone with her every step of the way, but every little bit of encouragement and display of support will help push her across that finish line. The race kicks off Sunday morning at 8 am near the American Airlines Center.

More information - including the route - is available by clicking here.

26.2 miles . . . averaging about 11 minutes a mile . . . It will take her between 4 and 5 hours to complete. That's a pretty wide range of time to drop by - so try and put it in your schedule if possible. Bring your cheers, signs, cowbells, smoke signals . . . anything you want, the most important thing is simply your love. She will feel it and I know it will help.