Bridges Through Life

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.

 

On Friday Dec 21^st, it was in the 60s and actually SUNNY outside. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get out for a walk/run when I got home early from work. Still loving my Brooks shoes.

              Saturday morning Brian and I headed out to the gym, before getting in the car for a drive to Ohio.

              We got a bit of a later start, but stopped by my aunt’s house to see my grandma and then continued on to my friend’s house another hour and a half drive for the night. After grabbing some Mexican food for dinner, we headed back to my friend’s house and she had some friends come over and we played Relative Insanity with them.

 

              It was a lot of fun and we talked until midnight before finally calling it a night.

              Sunday was a good morning to sleep in. I was still up at 8am and let Brian sleep. I played with Ashley’s cat, Dill, for a bit and ate some breakfast while I waited for the others to get up. Once Brian was up, we were talking with Ashley for a while and losing track of time. We had an hour and a half drive to my aunt’s to meet up with my parents who drove from Illinois. Ohio is a good meeting place between Illinois and New York.

              We stopped for lunch at Panera which was delicious because for breakfast we munched on gingerbread cookies.

 

              We arrived at my aunt’s after 1pm and talked until dinner at 4:30. We had a ton of food including ham, veggies, potatoes and bread. For dessert, we had giant pieces of carrot cake as well. We were stuffed.

              At 6pm, we headed to a park to drive through and see Christmas lights. We did a similar thing in Daytona Beach, Florida last year, but it was nice to have the windows down there and take pictures. In Ohio, it was a bit chilly with the windows down, but it was a short drive through and nice to take some photos of the lights.

              From there, we went back to Ashley’s house for the night, arriving around 9pm. We decided to watch A Christmas Carol. I’m not sure of the last time I saw that movie all the way through. It was hard for me to stay awake this time too, but we went to bed a bit earlier, at 11pm.

              Christmas Eve morning, I slept until 8 again. I ate some breakfast and showered before getting Brian up. We had a long drive ahead of us, so we tried to keep the morning chit chat short. Dill (the kitty) was wild in the morning and having fun with me while I did some brief stretching and yoga in the living room.

              Leaving around 10:30 am, we planned a stop to Chick Fil A for lunch. I missed their diet lemonade.

              Once we hit Erie, PA, we knew to expect some lake effect snow. However, we did not know exactly how much we were in for on the drive. In Erie, we stopped at a gas station and switched driving. Brian was now driving through the worst of the snow. In retrospect, the snow was not that bad and there were not too many cars on the road, but it did slow us down.

              The plows eventually showed in PA as we got onto I 86 from I 90. We figured the snow would slowly stop, but instead it seemed we followed the snow squalls. It was a very long drive. What we thought was only a few miles turned into 200 miles of snow off and on. I drove a bit before dark and as the sun set, but in the end, I had to have Brian drive, because the wind and horizontal snow spiraling in the dark was so bad that I was starting to get motion sick trying to drive.

              Arriving about 2 hours later than expected, we arrived to everyone at the house and had a few appetizers for dinner and did the gift card exchange. Everyone brings a $30 gift card and it’s played like a white elephant where you draw a number and can steal from the previous person. I ended up with a Boscov’s gift card that I later used to buy a salt lamp and purse.