This year in the Pilonaday household we’re celebrating Christmas. Properly. Like…..catalogue-style. We’ve been together for 5 years this month and this is the first year that we’ve done a proper Christmas. Our first year together we put up the tree but that was it and the general atmosphere around the house was not wonderful. We weren’t living together and it was a big change for Ray with his daughter moved out and his son still finding it awkward with me there. It was also the first year that he was supposed to cut the ties with his ex-family (that went poorly). All in all, there were many tears shed, a big fight had and sore feelings overall. Not worth remembering. The next years we didn’t decorate at all, Ray was injured and then we just didn’t feel like it, totally took the lazy route.
THIS year though, we’re putting it on in style! We’ve got the whole upstairs tidied and rearranged and over the weekend the Christmas decorations came out! My mom and my sister came over on Friday night to help decorate and we got all sorts of nice stuff done! Then on Saturday, after a morning of a long dog walk and an even longer coffee time (had while nestled into the sofas listening to Christmas music), we got outside in the sun and decorated the front of the house. Lights on both levels as well as garland & lights on the front porch and adorable light-up snowmen in the front garden. I’ll have a picture to show you however I came up a bit short on the garland so I’ll add the rest tonight and update this tomorrow. The only thing not yet decorated is the tree. It’s up and (pre) lit and fluffed and is waiting for its tree trimming party on Friday (Ray keeps calling it the tree’s dress rehearsal).
Anyway, we’re also hosting Ray’s family for a full Christmas dinner on C’mas Eve and my family for a full Christmas Dinner on C’mas Day as well as a possible C’mas morning get together with just a couple things to munch on and something festive and warm to drink. It’s exciting and nerve wracking at the same time.
Anyway, Christmas preparations aside, I am happy to report that I am finally feeling better. Still have a bit of a cough, but I’m getting things back to normal. Went for 8km worth of sunshiney walks this weekend….which….is a lot on the heels of having done next to nothing for a couple of weeks. And tomorrow I’m going back to the gym. Not sure what I’m going to do there yet, a bit of a treadmill jog to start and then some weights.
I’ve been messing about with weights on and off for the last 8 months or so, trying to follow the New Rules of Lifting program. Every time I’ve been side tracked (and there have been a few), I’ve made myself restart or go back or make adjustments. What I realized today was that I’m not going to be able to do their program, not really. Sidetracked is a way of life, it seems and I can’t keep redoing the same stuff over and over and over like I’ve kept failing a grade. Never really moving forward because every now and then I am “forced” to stop. I keep waiting until I can complete a section perfectly and with no delays. Obviously that is not going to happen. Since I do like the theories behind it though, doing full body movements and increasing weight with every workout, that’s what I’m going to do. A program is a nice idea and definitely gives good guidelines and coaching but just as I do with my diet and every other aspect of my life, I’m going to fit it to me instead of trying to fit myself to it.
So, tomorrow, instead of going “back” to the gym, I’m going “forward” into December and the new year, strong and doing what I love.
A picture before I go:
Grace’s first visit to see Santa….at Harley Davidson! She was such a good girl, so well behaved!
Fitty vs Fatty 