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.
Just a Few Grievances…
Happy Festivus to all who celebrate! I’ll be pulling out my Festivus mug (yes, I really have one) and airing a few grievances today. Let’s get right into it. I was at Target on Wednesday and saw this: No, no, no! We should NOT be subjected to Valentine’s merchandise on December 20th!!! Halloween in August… okay. Christmas in October… bring it on! But Valentine’s Day in December- absolutely not. It hurt my soul to see that. Second grievance: have I mentioned my daughter is going to ROME? The high school band is going to Rome on December 27th to march in the New Year’s Day parade there. I know- what an incredible experience for her. The thing is, in addition to making cookies and wrapping presents, I’m also following the weather in Rome and trying to make sure my daughter has a warm jacket, an outlet converter, gloves, and all sorts of other things I wouldn’t normally think about right before Christmas. Today I waltzed into my bank to get Euros, which I planned to put in her stocking. Did you know you have to order them? Did I know that??? When my son went to London four years ago, I thought I just walked in and changed dollars to pounds. It takes two business days, so not only would I not have them for Christmas, but we would not even get them by the 27th. Ack! So today I’m sending my husband on a “fun” errand to the mall, where I believe they have a money exchange kiosk (for a small fee, of course) He may have a few grievances of his own to air after that outing. Lastly, I hated Love Actually. Yes, I watched it to fulfill my Friday Christmas Challenge (to watch a Christmas movie I’ve never seen.) Now, I will admit that maybe I didn’t give it a fair chance. I was wrapping presents while I watched it, so I wasn’t giving it my full attention. But I thought the plot lines were cheesy and predictable, and I didn’t care about any of the characters. My husband didn’t really want to watch it. He kept saying things like “Why don’t we watch It’s a Wonderful Life?” I’VE SEEN THAT. “How about Hannah and Her Sisters?” THAT’S NOT A CHRISTMAS MOVIE. Finally he agreed to Love Actually. Then when I suggested turning it off halfway through, he said he wanted to see how it ended. Yes, he liked it! So I guess the evening wasn’t wasted? Plus, I’ve always felt like I missed out on something by not seeing that movie- so at least I have no more Love Actually FOMO. That’s it! We’ll be going out for our Festivus bagels today, wrapping presents, and watching Polar Express. The usual activities for December 23rd. Are you off of work now? – I have to work Festivus morning, but only until 1. Then I don’t work again till Tuesday- the holidays can begin! Do you like Love Actually? – I hope this isn’t going to turn into another “Last Christmas” situation, where everyone likes it but me. Do you have any grievances to air?
Christmas Challenge Check-In #2
Well, I’ve been plugging along at my 12 Days of Christmas Challenge, inspired by Kae. The first several days were… interesting… but the next three days perked up a little. Tuesday- The activity for today was more cookie baking! I made my annual orange-chocolate chip biscotti… They came out great, and I was able to include some with my daughter’s guitar teacher’s present. But when I looked back on my original post, I noticed I said I was also going to make the dough for gingerbread cookies and sugar cookies. Oops. Wednesday- Long run with a Christmas playlist! This was GREAT. The weather was amazing (60s, cloudy, breezy) and my playlist was fun. The only weird glitch was that I hurt my ARM. Yes, I managed to injure my arm while running- this is a new one. More on that coming up in the Weekly Rundown. But overall I considered it a success. Thursday-Wrap Christmas presents with kids while watching Christmas movies. Well- we watched an old favorite from when my daughter was little, the Curious George Christmas Movie. And we wrapped the presents we had, which wasn’t a lot. It turns out that their presents to each other and to my husband and me, are all arriving tomorrow and Saturday. Coming up: Friday- By an amazing twist of fate, my daughter AND son will be out of the house for a few hours this evening, so I’m going to finish wrapping the Santa presents! The activity for this day was to watch a Christmas movie I’ve never seen so I’ll see if my husband wants to watch Love, Actually with me. And, I DEFINITELY have to make the dough for the cutout cookies this day. That leaves Festivus and Christmas Eve, and those days a chock-full of activities. Oh, I want time to slow down! I love the days leading up to Christmas so much, and I don’t want it to be over. How’s your Christmas prep going? Have you made cookies this week? Are you done wrapping presents? Header photo by Deidre Schlabs on Unsplash