Ah the last weekend before Christmas, how did that come up so quickly? There were not enough hours in the days this weekend. It went by quickly. Despite not having any real plans other than my workouts, I came up with a project Saturday afternoon and the day flew by. Sunday was more relaxing, as always, but still seemed to go by way to fast. I am excited for a long weekend for Christmas. Now getting back to this past marvelous weekend.
Friday afternoon, my work had a holiday reception from 2-4. Last year we had a sit down lunch and we got gifts of chips and salsa and a beautiful chip tray. This year was a bit on the cheaper side with basically a mid day happy hour (no complaints when you get to leave work early though). I don’t drink and we had probably 30-40 people crowded in this little bar. I was mentioning to some other people how we should have done that plus bowling or even if we had a bigger place with a pool table. Instead the place was packed with our group. I did have some regular iced tea and happily dug into the chips and guacamole on the table. That was pretty delicious. I made my way around talking to different co workers about holidays and such and then started to talk to one of our newer employees who didn’t know many people. We actually had a great time getting to know each other. We didn’t talk about work once, just our families and decisions we made in life and such. It was really great and before we knew it, it was 4:30. What?!? Time flew and I wanted to catch my usual train home.
I think the best thing was that I didn’t look at my phone for like 3 hours on Friday and really enjoyed the present moment the best I could. Because honestly, I am uncomfortable in bar settings and it is really hard to have conversations when it is so loud. Talking in a back corner away from the crowd was great and talking about topics other than work with your co workers to get to know them, even better.
I arrived home at my usual time and decided to catch up with my dad and sister as they were just about arriving back in Chicago after my dad went to pick my sister up from school in Iowa. Only my dad leaves at a crazy early hour in the morning for a 5 hour drive and then drives back the same day. He said he got a nap though while my sister drove for about half the trip.
I ate a light lunch thinking I would eat more at our holiday reception, so I was kinda hungry and decided to make some chicken nuggets I had in the freezer for dinner and then ate a bowl of cereal, while winding down the night with a movie. Though it was hard for me to wind down Friday night. I seem to get a social high and come home a ball of energy after events. I mean it could have been the 3 cookies I ate earlier…or the fact that I usually have more energy at home, but it was hard to relax Friday night and took me a while to get to sleep.
Saturday I was in and out of my car too many times, but that is what happens when you do all your shopping on one day. I got in a swim around noon and made it 2 miles. I didn’t push for 2.5 this time as I had planned to work on a yoga sequence and wanted to still have some energy afterwards. I say “planned” but that didn’t actually happen. Instead I came home after swimming, ate a snack and then had the idea of making jar mixes for my co workers. I wanted to give a gift to my boss since he kindly gave me one last year. I also thought it would be nice to give a little something to the co workers I sit by and always make me laugh. Conveniently, Davida and Lee came up with DIY jars for holiday gifts. I loved that I could easily look back at their combined post of all the jars. I decided to use Lee’s Snickerdoodle pancake recipe and then my own cookie recipe for a jar. Since I had most of those ingredients, it was easy. I just needed to get the right size jar and then a few extra baking things I was running low on.
I bought a jar half the size that Lee mentioned in her post so that it would easily be 1 batch of pancakes instead of a double. I was totally experimenting when it came to putting my cookie recipe in a jar. I didn’t know if it would fit as the flour took up so much of it, but in the end I got it to fit with 1 cup of chocolate chips instead of 2 and wrote up the directions of what to add.
I bought ribbon to wrap around the jars and tie the recipe to the jar and a Happy Holidays message from me.
Of course while shopping at a craft store I wanted like everything and picked up some $1 tins for some peppermint bark I wanted to make as well.
Seriously so cute for some co workers! Oh and I am sure that Brian’s intention for buying me a hammer was to crush candy canes right?! So that was my fun little project Saturday and by the time I was done, I warmed up some dinner and checked out the new Lifetime Christmas movie, but wasn’t really into that one and ended up Skyping with Brian instead.
Sunday morning I slept in and then had some breakfast before heading to the gym. I love Sunday morning gym sessions! Even when I get to the gym around 9am, the roads are still pretty empty and the gym seems to be becoming more empty as the holidays approach. I got in some weight lifting and abs. Then I came home and did some laundry and cooking. It may sound boring, but I enjoyed it. I made Jenn’s quinoa recipe for my lunches and dinners on this short week.
I had to taste it for lunch on Sunday of course and it was so good!! I love red quinoa more than the original tan one. Anyone else have a favorite quinoa?
Finally on Sunday afternoon I got to work on my yoga sequence. I actually have a yoga teacher interview in a week, so I need a 15 min demo. Not sure how to do a warm up, class and cool down in 15 min but I guess 5 min for each will be good. Wish me luck!
Are you ready for Christmas?
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I’m doing all my baking this week and I’m so excited!! I love the jarred mixes, they’re always such a thoughtful gift!
The jar mixes were such a hit. Definitely will be making them again in the future as they were so much fun to make. Good luck with all your baking