holiday

December Happenings, Christmas Decorating and Early Presents

December 20, 2021 by Alicia Leave a Comment

I’m not sure where the month of December went but I knew it would go by quickly. Here we are a week from Christmas (as I write this) and I guess I abandoned my blog for over a month, whoops. I have been sharing more on Instagram recently though so look for me over there at BridgesThroughLife. It’s a dreary rainy day here and the weather has been weird for December. It was 60 degrees in Central New York State for a couple days this week. Not sure if there will be snow for Christmas at this rate, but the weather can always surprise you. Friday Dec 17th actually marked 1 year since the 40 inches of snow dumped on us.

stop sign snowstorm — flashback to last year at this time

Last weekend we got our Christmas tree and I decorated it Monday night. We got a nice wide tree and since we cut the tree down ourselves, I always find that there are not too many needles to clean up.

Brian made me drag the tree downhill. I felt like a reindeer and that was my workout for the day.

I was able to wear my new Love Your Melon hat for picking the tree out. I now see the obsession over these hats. It is definitely warm and the material is thicker than I thought it would be. It also look super cute!!

We had an issue with the star not fitting the top, but Brian just got a 3D printer and he was excited to make an attachment for the star so that worked out.

He also made a cute Reindeer.

I hung up a special Christmas stocking, one that my friend Alexa made when I lived in Philadelphia. Since she passed suddenly in April, I wanted to hang this one up instead of my matching one to Brian’s. She was so talented and I loved the little cards and gifts she would surprise me with from time to time. I really miss it.

For Christmas, Brian’s aunt got us tickets to see the Mannheim Steamroller show. It was very good and a wonderful night out, since we don’t go out much.

Throughout December we have been enjoying our second year of the Marshmallow Advent calendar. If you are ever looking for a cute gift for someone who loves sweets, I definitely recommend XO Marshmallow.

I had my holiday book for this year that I just finished last week. The book was really good towards the end as I read the last 100 pages within 2 nights.

To encourage myself to have some fun and do more yoga and stretching, I added Christmas lights around my mat. I did this back in 2014 in my first apartment and when the photos came up I was like, I need to do that again. Here was the first round with mixed lights.

Second round with just white lights after buying more. I also got this top from Alo Yoga as a gift from my sister for Christmas. I’m slowly adjusting to this crop top style these days. I thought the shirt looked a bit longer online, but it works well with the high waited leggings of course. I like how the long sleeves stay put and keep me warmer so I don’t have to turn up the heat in the house too much lol.

I also made my annual gingerbread cookies, a double batch produced so many cookies!! I brought some into work to share, but Brian and I ate the rest. All were delicious!!

I want to wish everyone Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and hope you get time with family and friends.

No Snow Day for Me and Recent Happenings

December 23, 2020 by Alicia 2 Comments

Hello! I miss popping in on here and now that I don’t have school work to worry about for the next month, I hope to pop in more. A week ago we got a crazy snowstorm and while they were calling for 18 inches, we ended up with 40 inches!! The unfortunate side of adjusting to work from home is that I could still work and I had quite the busy day of tasks for Thursday Dec 17^th so I signed onto work quite early. Brian had a snow day though, so he was in charge of shoveling this time which was a nice change since I usually shovel and he just drives right over the snow. This was enough snow that some shoveling and snow blowing had to be done.

snowstorm 2020 — 6am standing next to my car

grill snowstorm 2020 — I’m glad we grilled the night before…

It was actually quite crazy because the plow got stuck on our road too! I’m on a dead end and he was plowing into the big pile at the end and got stuck. It was like 6am when he got stuck and had to wait for another plow to get him out. They were plowing our little street until like 7:30am since he was stuck for nearly an hour.

After I finished up a crazy work day, I walked around the neighborhood and took some photos of the snow with mailboxes needing to be uncovered and everything.

By the time I went out to the grocery store and gym on Saturday, the roads were better, but the plows and industrial snow blowers were out as they were continuously cleaning up the sides of roads and bringing trucks in to dump the snow elsewhere. That’s when you know there is a lot of snow!!

The snow was super light and fluffy so not good for building a snow man, but after a few days of just above freezing temps where the snow was starting to melt a little bit, it has become the perfect snowman building snow. I rolled up a quick snowman during my lunch break the other day.

While we definitely will have our white Christmas, Christmas Eve weather includes rain and 50 degrees for the high so it’s also going to start a big melt before freezing to ice this weekend, which I am not a fan of. Maybe it’s good we don’t have any grand plans for Christmas. We will just be around the house.

Recently, to be in the spirit of the season, I bought 2 Christmas theme books to read this month. I should be done with In a Holidaze before Christmas. I think between the 2, I loved The Twelve Dates of Christmas more, but I eventually got into the In a Holidaze. They were both cute stories.

I also finally got my holiday baking mix I ordered from Yoga Girl’s new Family Foods. I preordered in the beginning of the month and thought it wasn’t going to make it here before Christmas and then what would I do? I got 2 boxes and I made a gingerbread loaf with one. I subbed the yogurt for a vegan buttermilk (aka almond milk and lemon juice). The bread is really gingery and I love to be heavy on the ginger, but wow I was impressed with the spices. Also, when I slice the bread it is kind of crumbly and that could be because I made the one substitute. Anyway, it’s still delicious. I enjoy baking from scratch, but sometimes it’s fun to try a baking mix as well.

Since I am working from home, I have been listening to Christmas music. I enjoy cranking up the Christmas music this time of year, but this year I do feel with the weird year, I wasn’t as into Christmas music as I normally am. It still helps to brighten the mood though.

Throughout the month I have been enjoying my marshmallow a day as well. It’s one of the highlights of my night after dinner to see which marshmallow flavor I get. The advent calendar was a good purchase and I have loved counting down the days until Christmas.

Last weekend I also got to open 1 present early so I can enjoy it a little longer before school starts up again, the new Mario game for the switch. I started playing and it took me a bit to figure out where to begin, but I got 1 star so far. It’s nice to have some down time and have weekends that feel like weekends should with relaxing and meal prepping and not having assignments due.

Now I have a 5 day weekend and who knows what I will do with that kind of time?! There will likely be more reading, Mario time, cooking, writing and relaxing in the hot tub daily. Then it’s back to work for a couple days before the New Year and work will be crazy because it’s month end again. I really feel like December flew on by.

Christmas Traditions 2020

December 14, 2020 by Alicia 1 Comment

Hello and happy Monday!! It’s a good Monday because I took off from work today. I realize I haven’t popped in this month and I wanted to share a few Christmas traditions we have done this month.

The first Saturday of the month, we went to chop down a Christmas tree. This was our 3rd year doing so, since it’s our 3^rd Christmas in our house. I love cutting down our own since it’s fresh and lives longer. It was weird being the first year cutting down the tree without any snow around. Brian actually hosed off the tree when we got home and let it dry in the driveway overnight since it got a bit muddy dragging it down the hill.

The next day, it was time to decorate the tree. We had to get in a special 2020 ornament.

I pretty much had all my Christmas shopping done Black Friday week and I have been wrapping the gifts as soon as they arrive. I was excited when I could finally start putting the gifts under the tree. This month I also have been having a marshmallow a day thanks to the Advent Calendar from XO Marshmallow that I bought. Supporting one of my friend’s small businesses and it has been really fun to have a mystery flavor each day.

This weekend was time to make my annual gingerbread cookies. I made a double batch of dough on Saturday and this is when the Kitchen Aid mixer really comes in handy. I rolled out the cookies on Sunday and they are delicious!! I also attempted to make a gingerbread house but that failed once I put the roof on. The edges were not great to fit together since I freehanded the whole thing. It managed to stay together just long enough to snap a few pictures. It was fun though.

Christmas Tree, Gingerbread and enjoying all the peppermint goodies for the season. I know this Christmas is a lot different than planned and will be pretty low key, but I do enjoy these traditions. Also we might get a foot of snow on Wednesday!! It honestly feels like a weird December as it has been warmer than usual. I have enjoyed many walks around the neighborhood still, without freezing, but it would be nice to have a white Christmas.

Christmas 2018: Part 2 Christmas Day

December 28, 2018 by Alicia Leave a Comment

After a long Christmas Eve of travel, it was nice to go to bed shortly after 9pm and be back in our own house. Catching up on sleep for Christmas day. Another sleep in morning until 8am. I made some protein pancakes for breakfast and then got Brian going so we could head to the gym. I decided to do my arm day workout, but then my shoulder was super sore so I didn’t complete all the exercises, but it was good to get out and go to the gym.

After the gym, Brian and I opened presents from one another. Brian got me custom sapphire earrings and I gave him a Bluetooth speaker (that I am using right now to listen to podcasts) and a game for our Nintendo switch that he wanted. My sister also gave us matching shirts from her work and got me some meal prep glass dishes that I wanted.

In addition to the presents we opened, I had bought myself a few items. I would say the Roll Recovery R8 was the best present I bought myself. I also bought myself another pair of Brooks shoes on black Friday sale and a powerlifting belt.

Mid morning we headed to the other house to have some brunch and open presents. I was super excited to get an Instant Pot. I have already started a Pinterest board for Instant Pot recipes. I can’t wait to try making shredded chicken or a whole chicken in it because it does everything so quickly!!

The afternoon, we had time back at our house. I did a bunch of laundry (not really exciting for Christmas). Brian played his new video game and I tried for a bit before getting bored because I kept dying. We also assembled my desk I bought months ago since Brian did my office floors on Friday. Hopefully by the time my spring classes start, my office will be fully put together.

For dinner, we headed back to the family house and had beef and vegan mac and cheese (which I loved!!) and more. I was definitely stuffed. By the time we got back, I was nearly ready for bed and happy to go to bed earlier to get back to a normal sleeping schedule.

I had Wednesday off from work as well, which is nice, but I know with month end, Thursday and Friday will be stressful and super busy. Wednesday was a more laid back day, though I ran some errands, going to the store and trying out the new car wash. They were even doing free car washes for their grand opening. My car was so gross after the snowy drive. I wish I had taken a photo of my front bumper and license plate that you couldn’t even see due to snow and ice.

Wednesday afternoon I went to the movies to see Mary Poppins Returns with Brian’s mom. That way I didn’t have to drag Brian to see it. I thought it was very good considering it was a sequel 50 years after the first one. Of course, Julie Andrews will always make the first one special, but they did a great job on the production.

And soon Wednesday was nearly over. Brian made pho in the Instant Pot for dinner. I have a feeling we will be using the instant pot for a ton of recipes. It will be fun to experiment with.