I realized last night that I forgot to do my normal Five Things Friday post yesterday.
I am telling you this week has been so crazy. I forget what day of the week it is!
Anyways. I will be back to normal posts next Friday I guess. I’ll take a hiatus this week!
I went to the gym this morning mostly to get a break from the house. I’d been working all morning and needed a break.
I started off with a warm up of:
500 meters rowing
20 push ups
20 situps
I wanted to sweat so I decided to do some on the arc trainer.
Just over 30 minutes and it really got my heart rate up! Just what I was looking for.
I finished up with some bicep and tricep work. Friday mornings are the best time to be at the gym because it usually completely empty and I am not competing for anything.
Wes ran to the gym to meet me again. We had to get back so he could study but it was a nice little break.
This is me trying to take a picture in the car at a stop light. Yeah – turned out real well right!?
The holiday’s are quickly approaching. It is officially only a week until Thanksgiving and then Christmas is fast approaching.
Our thanksgiving is shaping up to be a quiet one, but in all honesty I am very excited for it.
Between the stress of the past week and traveling it will be nice to hang at home with our little family.
My favorite holiday by far is Christmas. I love every single thing about it. I even love the snow that comes in December because it reminds me of Christmas.
Don’t get your hopes up snow – I hate you the rest of the 4-5 months you stick around.
We are on a pretty strict budget so Christmas decorating is limited, but I’m trying to do the best I can.
This is what I have so far. I need some stockings to complete it. Though you can’t tell this is our fireplace that we don’t use.
I know it’s not Pinterest worthy, but it’s something!
One of my favorite things about Christmas are the traditions.
My favorite traditions are:
1. Christmas Light Touring
Every Christmas Eve growing up my parents, brother, and I would go look at Christmas lights around the city. We always had our favorite houses to go to and I always looked forward to it.
2. Candle Light Church Service
We also would go to a candle light church service every Christmas Eve and it was so beautiful.
It really put me in the Christmas spirit.
3. Christmas Movies
1. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
2. Love Actually
3. A Charlie Brown Christmas
4. A Christmas Story
Just a few of my favorites. Quite the variety isn’t it? I will watch just about every movie if it is Christmas related.
4. Picking Out and Decorating the Christmas Tree
I remember it was always such an event in our household to go pick out the Christmas tree each year.
The husband and I still try to make it an event and it is my favorite day!
I usually will put the lights on and then Wes will help me add the ornaments. One of my favorite things to do in December is to sit downstairs with the tree on, warm drink and a good book in hand, and the snow coming down outside. It is so relaxing.
Tell me, what are some of your favorite Christmas Traditions? Have they changed as you’ve gotten older?
While I miss getting a real tree (we have some great tree-shopping pics from when the kids were little, and the farm in our area of Mass made it an event every year), my wife and younger son have such severe tree allergies that going artificial was the best thing ever. Some of the ornaments still have resin and it tweaks their allergies when we decorate!
Christmas Story is our fave – it will be 30 years I’ve watched that movie this year (hard to believe), and we enjoy it every year!
As a kid I loved Miracle on 34th Street (the REAL one), Scrooge (1951 version) … but what I REALLY loved was all of the Rudolph, Frosty, and other Rankin & Bass stop-animation classics of the 60s and 70s.
Charlie Brown I think I mentioned around Halloween … worst messages ever. Mean-ness, bullying, cruelty – but we excuse it all because of after 29 depressing minutes we get a speech on the ‘true meaning of Christmas’. How about rather than non-materialism, we try some nice-ness?
I have never thought about that with Charlie Brown. I just remember watching it growing up. I guess you don’t see those things when you are that age.
I do remember all the animation classics as well! They used to have a whole channel dedicated too it!
A Christmas Story is definitely a favorite and we try to at least catch the entire thing ONCE during the 24 hours of a Christmas Story on Christmas Eve. I think I could recite the whole thing by heart!
My family has about 10 different cookies that we always make around Christmas time! We always have so many that we make plates for the neighbors and bring them around and sing Christmas carols. I loved it when I was little, went through a phase in middle school and high school when I was always embarrassed, and now LOVE it again!
Oh wow!! I don’t know if I could have that many cookies in our house 🙂 I think I would end up eating them all!
I love your Christmas lights!!! My husband’s family always watches Christmas movies and eats Chinese food (what?!?) on Christmas Eve … such a funny tradition! Warm drink + fireplace + book + snow outside sounds so wonderful right now!
Haha I love that tradition! I would be just fine with Christmas movies and Chinese food 🙂
My favorite things about the Christmas season are baking cookies, decorating the tree, Christmas songs and Christmas movies. I also like opening gifts with my husband. We usually pick a day before Christmas and exchange our gifts between the two of us before seeing the rest of our families.
My husband and I do the same thing! Since we travel a lot for Christmas usually we tend to have our own small Christmas before we head every time. It is nice to have our own private thing before the craziness begins.
Love Christmas music too but I make myself wait until at least Thanksgiving is over to listen to it or else I get tired of it!
Yes I do the same thing! I still am usually done with it by the time Christmas comes around.
The tree is always always always my favorite part. We get ours the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so 7 day countdown has begun! I also love baking Christmas treats and drinking hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream.
And for Thanksgiving, looking forward to our town’s annual “Gobble Wobble” 5K!
Whipped cream is a much on hot chocolate! It is just not the same without it 🙂
Wish I could run a 5k but I may be watching my husband do one and that will be fun too 🙂 Can’t wait to get our tree! We will probably get it next weekend as well!
We are on a tight budget as well…The Dollar Tree actually has some really great stuff for $1, hahaha. When you mix it in with the “normal” stuff you have it actually works really well.
We are still trying to figure out what our tradition’s are. Our daughter is 2 1/2 and is way more aware, so this year we are trying to set the tone for what we want Christmas to be about/what we are willing to do every year. Elf On A Shelf will be part of it this year for sure. We haven’t gotten much past that with tradition yet. 🙂
Awww that should be a lot of a fun now that your daughter is more aware of Christmas!
I will have to go Check out Dollar Tree because I do want to get a few simple things to help decorate and that seems like the perfect place!
This post makes me so happy! Christmas Vacation and Love Actually are my two favorite Christmas movies – especially Love Actually!!! Getting a Christmas tree was always a big event in my family growing up and something I still look forward to. I try to decorate my house, but my Mom decorates my parents house so pretty and that really always reminds me of the holidays when I was little. It snowed here yesterday so it officially looks like the holiday season!
We have snow now as well! I don’t know if I am ready for full fledge winter but snow on the ground around this time of year definitely gets me in the holiday season!
I love going home to a decorated house. My mom always does such a good job (usually looks a lot better than mine!) and it makes me feel right at home!
Our family has an elf named Henry that comes to stay with up in December. Santa sends him here to keep an eye on the family and report back if we have been naughty or nice however elves tend to get into mischief when they think Santa is not watching them and we have woken up to some messes.
I can’t believe you don’t have Elf on your movie list!
I can’t believe I forgot that one!!! Elf is also one of my favorites 🙂
I am so going to do that when I have children 🙂 It sounds like so much fun!
Your fireplace looks so festive and fun, love it!
We always go see Christmas lights – multiple times since my son LOVES seeing them! And holiday movies are my favorite…I think I can recite the entire Christmas Vacation by heart – I’ve seen it easily 100x!
– Sammy
Yep me too! That and A Christmas Story I have seen SO many times! 🙂
I can’t wait to have children to enjoy the holidays with one day and be able to continue some of these traditions!