Happy New Year (11 days late)

Hello!

Happy New Year! Our holiday was absolutely perfect. I really could not have asked for a better time with my friends and family. December was a stressful month for me at work because I was trying to get as much as I possibly could done before the break. I did accomplish a lot and on my last day of work I had finished most things on my to-do list which was a really nice way to start my holiday. On the last night of work we had our staff holiday party. We decided to do an organized fancy pot luck and it worked out really well. The food was amazingggg and just like the entire holiday season I ate too much food! It was all SO good though and really hard to pick just one thing - even though my intentions were good ;). The next day I started off my break with a 90 minute relaxation message and it was amazing it was so nice and relaxing and the perfect way to start a two week break (after a night of laughter and great food of course). So after that I had two weeks of holidays and my main goal for the holiday was to relax. I had not taken a break really (other than a few days here and there) since I had returned to work from mat leave in March. And let me tell you, being full time mom, full time work, doing the house stuff, running errands, getting in my workouts etc. is exhausting (even though I have a supper hubby who helps me SO much). So I spent a lot of the holidays just relaxing. The first few days I still sent Rylee to daycare full time so I could finish up Christmas stuff, get my gym time in, run some errands, and just plain relax. I am guilty of sleeping in a bit a few days (usually until 8) and taking some mid afternoon naps a few times. It was wonderful.

Sean’s work schedule was really nice too – because of the way that the holidays were it allowed us to spend a lot of family time and since Rylee was home with us all day I got to see her a lot too. It was just all around perfect. Christmas eve we had a nice dinner at home and then went to our church service. Christmas day we had time with just Sean, Rylee, and I, and then my family came over for the afternoon to open gifts and have a traditional big turkey dinner. On Boxing Day we went to see Sean’s grandmother in the morning and then we went to Kitchener to spend the day with Sean’s family. We had a really lovely time. The rest of the holidays were filled with more relaxing and doing a few things here and there but I definitely went back to work feeling very refreshed which was my main goal of the holiday so it was a complete success.

In the New Year I switched up my work out to be more challenging. I am also recording my session on paper now so that I can go back and see what progress I have made and try to do something better (more reps, more sets, higher weights etc.) over the course of the program. So far it has been really good and I am quite enjoying it! Some of the activities are quite hard which is a nice challenge and some of them are easier to create a nice balance. I have also returned to taking the stairs up at work. I aim to do it at least twice a day and they are 8 flights each time. Sometimes I get a few more sets it, depends on the day and how busy/tired I am.

Our next exciting thing is in less than a month now – we are going to Florida and the Bahamas! I am really looking forward to getting away in the middle of a cold month to somewhere that is much warmer than where I live! Rylee and I are gone for a total of two weeks. We are doing a week and a half in Florida and then ½ a week in Bahamas. Sean will be there for our first week in Florida. I am really looking forward to spending time with family, swimming, relaxing, and of course shopping!