December Coffee Date… er, RUNFESSIONS!
Ha ha… I definitely have “holiday brain” because this whole week I was writing a coffee date post. Luckily I realized that the Ultimate Coffee Date is NEXT Friday- today we’re joining Marcia for Runfessions. I think I can dig up a few, although there might be a “mom-fession” thrown in as well. First, I’d like to issue an apology on behalf of the State of Florida to anyone visiting this week. We are having unusually COLD weather! Not a great week for a beach vacation, but I’ll runfess that it’s paradise for me. Let’s look a little closer at Sunday and Monday mornings… I have BACK-TO-BACK LONG RUNS planned for those days!!! 47 degrees??? Yes, please! I might even have to find a hat and gloves to wear. I’m excited! Next runfession: I have my eye on another 50 mile race, at the end of April. It’s the Skunk Ape Endurance Run in Ocala- the start of the race is the trail I ran on this summer when I was up there. I know, I know- first I need to get through the 50 miler I’m already doing in February. When that’s done I’ll see how I feel- maybe I won’t be up to it, or even want to do another 50 miler. But right now I’m thinking about it. Lastly, my daughter is now in ROME! The high school band does a big trip once every four years, and it happens to fall in her freshman year. They’ll play a concert, march in the New Year’s Day parade, see all the sights, and attend a fancy New Year’s Eve party. It’s an incredible opportunity for her- my son went to London four years ago with the band and it was the highlight of his high school career. She left yesterday in a flurry of excitement and chaos and, well… I’ll ‘mom-fess” that I’m enjoying the peace and quiet! I’m definitely thinking about her, and happy that she’s having so much fun, but I need this break. I think we needed a break from each other. Before she left, I told her if she didn’t want to send us lengthy texts (I know her pretty well), she could just send us photos. So today I got this photo from her: I guess if I wanted photos of INTERESTING VIEWS and people (THAT I KNOW) I should have been more specific. Sigh. That’s it for this week! Anything you want to runfess? How is your weather this week? Is it a busy week for you, or are you enjoying some down time?
It’s Over… Sigh.
Oh, December 26th- it’s typically a hard day for me. Over the years I’ve come up with different coping strategies, but before I get into that, let’s talk about this year’s Christmas tree. We always get a real tree right around Thanksgiving. This year, about a week before Christmas I noticed that our tree seemed VERY dry. And kind of droopy. Basically, any branch that had an ornament on it was drooping down sadly, like the Charlie Brown tree. What the…?????? We suspect that, in addition to selling us a $200 tree, the tree lot also sold us inferior tree food. We usually get some sort of liquid that we add to the tree water, but this time the food they sold us turned into a gel. For the first week after we got the tree I kept trying to add water, but it didn’t need any… which seemed odd. Usually the tree absorbs a LOT of water in the first few days. Hmmm. Anyway, by Festivus the lower branches were so dropped, we couldn’t fit any presents under it, so I asked my son to cut them off. I was making dinner while he was trimming the tree, when suddenly I heard him say “OOPS.” Uh oh… He accidentally cut through the strand of lights- as he said, “Now I know why they make the light wire green- it’s to blend in with the tree branches!” Er, yes! And now our tree was totally dark. But! Remember how I never got the lights up in our bushes? Because of that I had extra strands, which luckily matched our tree lights. I gave my son the task of unwinding the damaged lights and replacing them (again, he said “Now I know why you put the lights on FIRST.”) He had to un-decorate half the tree to re-do the lights. So many life lessons here! In the end, all was well, but we felt that the tree was barely going to make it through Christmas Day before crumbling to the ground. Which brings me to the topic of taking down Christmas… I don’t have a set way of doing it. Sometimes I do it before New Year’s, sometimes I do it after… any way I do it, it makes me sad. But THIS year, I think it will be a relief to get that tree down (maybe that’s a great post-Christmas hack- have a tree that basically self-destructs after Christmas Day.) So I’ll do the tree first, ASAP. I’ll leave everything else up at least through New Year’s. My card display will stay up for a while! Last year I left white lights in the living room through the month of January, and that helped a lot. I’m also going to take out some new mugs (one from San as my Secret Santa gift!) when I put away the holiday mugs, and I have a new candle I’ve been saving as well. I can do all these things, in addition to keeping busy- that definitely helps- but in the end I know I’m going to be sad. But you know what? That’s life. I guess if I didn’t love Christmas as much as I do, and didn’t get so excited about it, I wouldn’t feel as sad when it’s over. So, I wouldn’t change a thing. What’s your schedule for un-decorating the house? Does it make you sad or do you like the way it feels less cluttered? Any other tips for mitigating PCD (Post Christmas Depression?)
Christmas Recap Part 1
Ah… I love Christmas. Have I mentioned that? (ha ha…). This one was really nice, starting with the Christmas Eve festivities. We always have my friend and her two daughters over on Christmas Eve. Our girls have been friends since preschool, when we started this tradition. We decorate cookies, eat dinner, go for a walk, and just hang out. We used to see each other all the time, but now our girls go to different schools and sometimes the WHOLE YEAR goes by without getting together… until Christmas Eve rolls around again. It’s actually amazing we’ve been able to keep this tradition going for twelve years. The cookies were interesting, as usual! After they left, my daughter went to bed (my husband and son were out playing a church gig together) and I got busy with the Santa magic! I filled stockings, hung candy canes on the tree, and put out all the presents. When I was done, I felt like I should throw my elf cap up in the air, like they do in Polar Express when Santa’s sleigh takes off. I crawled into bed at 1 am. In a true Christmas miracle, I slept SOUNDLY until almost 8:00! I didn’t even get up for the bathroom! Boy, did I need that. At 8 my daughter couldn’t wait any longer, and we all got up to open presents. But wait! There’s something new under the tree… It was my Christmas Book Flood! Now, let me just mention that my husband HATES wrapping presents. He mentioned to a friend that he got me a bunch of books for Christmas, and she said “I would just put them in a basket with some tea and chocolate.” When I heard that, I laughed so hard. I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean an EASTER BASKET (it’s an old one he found in the garage.) But hey- our family is quirky. We can have an Easter Basket under our Christmas tree. In addition to the Santa presents under the tree, these are the presents my husband and I got for each other, and that the kids got for us and each other. We had a lot of opening to do! I had one big present that I saved for last… Here’s my haul (except I left out one thing- a nice serving bowl that I used for Christmas dinner.). Yes, the big present was an air fryer!!! That little green thing at the bottom is some powdered greens I’ve been wanting to try- I’m looking for something like Athletic Greens, but not as expensive. Everyone was happy with their presents, although my daughter had a few fails: the jeans I got her were an “ugly” color, the Hello Kitty t-shirt was “too minimalistic,” the Crocs were the wrong size, and the blazer had no inside pocket (a fatal flaw, apparently.) But don’t feel too sorry for her! She still got plenty of loot- two Switch games, a couple plushies (characters from games she likes) a rat charm bracelet, and various other odds and ends… plus the gift of the day, a Juicy Couture hoodie. She LOVES that, and fun fact- it arrived at the last minute on Christmas Eve. Phew! My son got new clothes, a big Lego (the “Jazz Club”), some shoes, cologne, and oh yes, his stocking was pretty okay. He got socks, and Pokemon cards, some chocolate bars, air freshener for his car… I managed to fill it. The fam had cinnamon rolls for breakfast… and I had gingerbread oatmeal, with a little “breakfast dessert.” And then I hunkered down on the couch to catch up on blogs and sip tea. We had Christmas music playing all day, and it was so peaceful! My cat came over, so that means I had to take a nap. For lunch we had a charcuterie board… And after lunch I started Dover One, which I am loving so far… I had to take nap #2, and then it was time to start dinner. Dessert was a cookie platter. And now… it’s over. Sob! My usual pattern is to get sad on the night of the 25th, perk up a little on the 26th- it’s still the holidays!- and then get really down around New Year’s. But let’s not go there yet. This is a holiday week (“Between the Years,” according to San) and there’s still delicious food, twinkle lights, and new books to read. And my daughter leaves for Rome on Wednesday, so there’s a lot to do to get ready for that. Onward! Coming up tomorrow: Further Christmas thoughts, and dealing with taking it all down (noooooooo!) How was your day? If you have Christmas traditions, what are your favorites? Do you get sad when holidays end?
Weekly Rundown-Feeling Rundown
Oof. I just want to curl up under the tree like my cat and go to sleep. WHY is the week of Christmas so exhausting??? Every year I swear I’m going to get things done early, but it’s always a crunch. There were still workouts, of course! Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Let’s dive right into the festivities. Monday We have had the most beautiful weather this month! I think we’ve slept with windows open more nights in December than we did all of last winter. It was low 50s for this run- 4 miles in the nice, cool sunshine. Tuesday Strength workout at home- Runner’s Touch, dead bugs, crunches on the stability ball and work on the pull up bar. Notice how I never say “I did pull ups” because I CAN’T do pull ups- but I do negatives and assisted pull ups with the band. Pull up negative are always hard for me, but this felt like a good workout. At the time. More on that coming up… Wednesday Long run on the trail! It was in the 60s, cloudy and breezy for this run. Yes, please! I’ll take this weather on race day! Everything about this run felt phenomenal except… my left arm. About halfway through the run I felt discomfort in that shoulder, and it got worse and worse until the last 4 miles, it was all I could think about. When I hit 24 miles, I was SO RELIEVED to be able to stop- because my arm was killing me. Everything else felt great. I have no idea why that happened- all I can think of was, I tweaked it doing pull up negatives the day before. Although if that’s the case, I’m baffled as to why it didn’t hurt while I was doing them, or afterwards, or when I woke up on Wednesday, or why it felt fine until halfway through my run??? For the rest of the day, my arm was killing me. I was shopping at the mall, and I couldn’t hold anything with that arm! Did you know that four three-wick candles from Bath and Body Works are HEAVY? I couldn’t hold the bag with my left arm, so I had to hold that bag, and everything else I bought, with my right arm. It was really difficult. Of course my thoughts were along this line: “Did I dislocate my shoulder? Maybe it’s a torn rotator cuff! How am I going to be able to work tomorrow? What if I need surgery? I don’t want to have surgery!” It was crazy. Thursday Okay. The arm is still sore… I’m able to pinpoint the pain as being in the deltoid. I can swing the arm gently back and forth, but I don’t want to risk running. Usually I do a short run the day after my long run, but I didn’t want to stress the arm. Instead I went to the gym, walked a mile on the treadmill, and then did 30 minutes on the stair climber. Sigh. Then I went to work, where I discovered that my arm is still functional. It’s only certain movements that hurt it (moving it up and to the side) so I’m able to give massages. Phew. Maybe I won’t need surgery after all. Friday Off! It was a weird day to take off, but it just worked for this week. My daughter didn’t have school, so I was able to sleep in a little. Saturday Okay, I need to run. And I can! I can pump my arm back and forth just fine- the only thing that really hurts is if I try to lift it to look at my watch. That’s okay- I don’t need to look at my watch! Or, I could wear it on the other hand (that would feel sooo weird.) I went to work and then of course we celebrated Festivus! We went out for bagels, aired our grievances, and watched “The Strike”- the Seinfelt Festivus episode. It’s funny that it’s called “The Strike” (one of the stories is that Kramer works at H&H Bagels, goes on strike, and is carrying a sign that says “Festivus Yes! Bagels No!”) Most people think of Festivus as the main story of that episode. Sunday On tap for today… the gym. I don’t want to go! I have so much to do. We’re having people over later in the day for cookie decorating and dinner. But I haven’t been to the gym all week, and my strength work has been… pretty lame. I’ll go first thing, get it over with, and then get ready for Christmas Eve festivities. Christmas Day I want to collapse on the couch with my “book flood” and read all day. There might be a short run later in the day… we’ll see. Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating! If you’re not celebrating, I wish you a peaceful and joyful day.