Not a Wasted Word

Another Christmas tradition that I cherish (even though every year I’m so relieved to be done with it) is our Elf on a Shelf. Her name is Heart, and she has a reindeer named Toots (both names given by my children), and she has never been some snitch sent by Santa to spy on my kids. Instead, she is the distributor of advent calendars. Every day she is found in a new spot, with Toots and two little stockings with small surprises.

The little presents aren’t much. Each kid gets an advent calendar for the year and each day they get that present in Heart’s stocking. On the weekends they get a little something extra, like lip gloss or hand cream for the 14yo or a sweet treat for the 11yo.

As the weeks pass, Heart puts on different shirts. On the weekends she usually wears her robe. She also has a sled and an airplane that make appearances.

Last year I was worried I was deceiving my children, and while I made sure they now-14yo knows I’m Heart, I’m not sure the 11yo does. (When I was looking for a post with pictures of where I place Heart and Toots, I couldn’t find one, but I did find a post from 2017 where I lamented the fact that it was probably the last year my daughter would be believe in here. HAHAHAHAHAH!)

I even took Heart and Toots to the cabin with us this year. It felt too sad to miss the final three days with them, and I hadn’t unveiled her cute new monster sweatshirt yet.

Merry Christmas Eve to all who celebrate. I hope everyone has a wonderful day today, no matter what you celebrate.

No Weekend + Workout Recap today, because I need to get a quick post up about our trip to the snow (which took up the weekend). I think I’ll post a “Winter Break Workouts” at the end of the break, to see how I did while I was off.

The snow trip has been… fine to good. Probably a 3.5/5 stars. Instead of doing a day by day. I’ll do some highs and lows for the trip.

LOWS

We hit a lot of traffic on the way up and it took a couple hours longer than anticipated.

The 11yo was sick the first night. He threw up multiple times, looked awful and was running a low fever. I was worried for him, the trip, and all of us (possibly getting what he had).

The 11yo felt better on Sunday, but not great. He went to the sno-park with us, but spent most of the time just lying in the snow where we were playing.

Our sled kept deflating and the snow tube I got from the Stockton Costco on the way up wouldn’t inflate with our pump. I was super bummed about the snow tube. I really wanted to try it.

The 14yo ran the sled into a tree, but luckily bailed out to the side into the branches instead of plummeting head first into the trunk. She was fine, but her face got scratched up pretty badly.

HIGHS

There was plenty of snow. I was worried there wouldn’t be much snow at the parks because December is early in the season, but there was plenty.

The 11yo stopped puking and no one else started. All the appendages crossed that the not-puking holds.

The cabin we’re staying in is cute. There are two twin beds for the kids (instead of a bigger bed they have to share). Four logs in the fire stove keep it warm all night long.

We built a snowman, well actually a snow bunny (a la Hundreds of Beavers, the super random movie my son and husband love).we also had a snowball fight.

Yes. She has boobs. It’s from a movie. We were going for this…

The weather was beautiful. It was never too cold or too warm. It never snowed during the day and we didn’t have to put chains on the tires.

I finished a book I just got from the library. It was short, but still, I had a lot of time to read.

I packed everyone and didn’t forget a thing! Everyone had what they needed and all the snow clothes fit and did what they were supposed to do.

We had fun sledding in two different spots. We found a spot to catch air at the bottom and that was fun.

All in all it was a fine trip. It could have gone so much worse! And it distracted the kids for the days before Christmas, which was the whole point. The price of the cabin was also lower because we came right before Christmas. The kids had fun and scratched their “snow” itch. I think I’ll round my original rating up to a 4/5. The kids had fun and we made some fun memories. Also, I’m ready to go home and start celebrating Christmas tomorrow.

While the photo ornaments are very special, I also treasure the “stuff they’re into” ornaments too. Every year I get each kid at least one ornament based on something they were into that year. Some years they get more than one! At this point the vast majority of ornaments on the tree are ones I gave them in the past.

Here are some of the ornaments I’ve given them in the past.

My daughter was SO into My Little Pony for so long. And my son still loves all things Mario, including Yoshi. You’ll also notice an Elf ornament, because that is one of our favorite Christmas movies.

They were both so into the Garfield comics for so long. My in-laws kept all my husband’s Garfield books and both kids read them until they literally fell apart.

Oh my god my son was SOOO into Pokemon. He still has so many cards in his room. I wonder how old he’ll be when he’s willing to part with them. I’ve spent many an hour playing Pokemon. I’m actually pretty good when I’m allowed to play a decent deck.

The 14yo was very into Pusheen. He’s still a family favorite.

The 11yo was a big LEGO builder for many years. We have probably thousands of dollars of LEGOs under the couch, let alone in his room. When I saw these ornaments you could build and put in the globe ornaments I bought everyone I could find. We have five on our tree each year. Their red ribbons fill out the tree.

Our family was so obsessed with Shaun the Sheep, but I could not find any ornmanets of them, so I bought a set of figurines and made ornaments. I wrote a whole post on how I used to do this all the time, when the kids were young.

This year the 11yo got a Fortnite llama, because he’s obsessed with Fortnite.

The 14yo got a Hello Kitty ornament, because I desperately wanted to get her one last year, but I couldn’t find one anywhere. This year I came across one randomly and snatched it up!

This year I got my husband his first ornament, a Luchador mask to represent our trip to Ciudad de Mexico last year.

Which reminds me that I try to get ornaments from places we visit, but I’m not always able to (like in CDMX). But I have managed it on occasion.

But it’s the ornaments for the kids, that represent what they are into that year, that I love the most. Tomorrow they are both getting one more ornament from Heart, our Elf on the Shelf, because I saw them on sale at CVS and couldn’t help myself. The 11yo is getting Homer Simpson in a Santa suit and the 14yo is getting a Minecraft axolotl, because when she was younger we had to hear about how cool the axolotl update in Minecraft was going to be for a full year.

More on Heart for the next Christmas Tradition post.

I think one of the reasons I love Christmas is that we have some lovely traditions attached to the holiday. We’re not always great about traditions, but Christmas is full of them! I’m hoping to write about a couple of our Christmas traditions, but now that we’re leaving on Saturday, I’m not sure I’ll get them up. I really wanted to do this one though, so I’m making it happen!

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is ordering a new photo ornament. I have one for every year since the 14yo was born. Sometimes it’s just a random photo I use, other times the ornament memorializes a trip we took that year. For two years, I used our Halloween photo! Here are all the yearly photo ornaments I’ve made so far. Enjoy seeing our faces for once! (I don’t know what I’m okay posting photos of photos, it makes no sense, but I’m going to do it anyway).

We also have some photo ornaments of the pets. Our bearded dragon lets us put outfits on him, so we dressed him up for his ornament. We made a remembrance ornament of our cat who died two years ago, and that same year we got an ornament of our new kittens (whose real names you’ll see on the ornament!)

Every year I get to put out these ornaments and remember the special moments shown on them. Also, their red ribbons are an important addition to our tree!

All of these ornaments are from Shutterfly. I think there is one kind of ornament I have not ordered from them. I looked this year at other sites to find something new and different and nothing I saw looked very good. If you know of a site I can order photo ornaments, I’d love to know what it is! I also give the ornament I make to both sets of grandparents, so I definitely want them to be good quality.

Anyway, photo ornaments is one Christmas tradition I love. I hope to share more in the coming days.

CHRISTMAS: ALL the presents are wrapped and sorted, the ones going to my parents’ house and the ones going to my in-laws’ house. I cannot believe I got them all wrapped and sorted by Wednesday night!

SNOW TRIP: The snow pants I ordered (on deep discount) for the 11yo came early and they fit! So do the gloves I got both the kids. The pants my mom had fit my daughter and one of her jackets fits my son well enough. Also, the snow boots that were passed down to us, and that I’ve been holding on to for YEARS fit the 11yo perfectly! I cleaned out the car and charged it fully and handed it off to my parents today. My mom just got new tires on her car and she has chains for them too. Finally, a book I hoped we could listen to came off my holds list on Boundless.

WORK: All the students who were absent last week took their assessments. The two 1B classes are pretty much done filming their trailers and no one did anything egregious while they were all over campus filming. I made all the copies I need for the week we come back in January. Two students came back to visit me after their Spanish 2 final and told me they were doing really well in the class, even though it’s hard. I always appreciate hearing that. Also, yesterday was my last day of work in 2024! Woot!

HOME: The house is a dumpster fire but I’m okay with it because we spend no part of Christmas Day at our house and no one will see it in its current state except my in-laws when they feed the cats. I have to do big cleans on the cat boxes and set up the dry food feeders tomorrow. I’m not even trying to do any other kind of clean up. I’m just going to focus on packing us all up tomorrow.

TODAY: I don’t have school but the kids do. I want to be excited about it, but I know the time will be over before I know it. I have packed the kids’ cabin clothes and have a pile of my own I want to pack, so hopefully there will be some down time tomorrow. We’ll see. I hope to go for a run, but those haven’t been so fun lately. As long as I get everything done so I can go to bed at a reasonable hour, I’ll be happy.

I keep saying that to myself as the realization of all I have to get done before Saturday piles up in my brain. I literally considered bringing presents to school to wrap on during my prep period today!

Things I need to do before our impromptu trip to the snow on Saturday:

• Wrap all the presents going to my parents’ house (by Thursday actually because that is when I’m trading cars with my parents)
• Wrap all the presents going to my in-laws house
• Pack the kids
• Pack me + toiletries
• Pack snow clothes + boots
• Get sno park parking pass
• Decide on meals
• Pack food
• Find a book for us to listen to (any recommendations?)

It’s really the wrapping of the presents by Thursday morning that is stressing me out. Tomorrow is my staff holiday party so I’ll be home later than usually. I get off at 1pm on Thursday and Friday I have off, so I can do the rest then. Tomorrow I just need to lock in.

I really hope this was a good idea. I think it was, I just got to get to the good part.

I have been writing this post for THREE DAYS! How does that happen? Things are busy and, and it has honestly been a little hard to find positive things to write about, but here we are! At least I made an attempt.

AVOIDING CONSEQUENCES. I dropped one of my (relatively new) AirPods Pro into a bucket of water earlier this week, but after 24 hours of drying time it still works! I also got pulled over on Wednesday, but they let me go without a ticket. (I got pulled over for doing something dumb even though I KNEW a sheriff was in front of me! I had just gotten off the phone with my husband about the bad thing that happened Monday, so I was super distracted.) I am VERY THANKFUL for avoiding serious financial repercussions both times.

PRESENTS. I believe I’m done buying presents. I got a couple of stocking stuffers this week and I feel pretty good about where I am. I still need to wrap everything, but I always do that a couple days before Xmas. I even thought of something I actually want for my parents to get us. They will get us something regardless, so I appreciate having them get something I would have gotten anyway.

WORK: Last week was my last five day week of work in 2024. Thursday was the last horrible Thursday (and boy was it a doozy). All my 7/8th grade classes took assessments and I ALREADY SCORED THEM! The 8th grade classes actually got their group books read and are planning their movie trailers and should be able to film them next week. It’s only supposed to rain on Monday, so they should be able to be outside to film. I got all the classes to where they need to be before the break, despite losing a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I really appreciate when my plans at work aren’t totally thwarted.

MARRIAGE: My marriage has been a pretty lonely place to be lately. My husband is very unhappy at work, exhausted all the time, and going to bed early most nights. I feel like I have been walking around on eggshells lately, and it’s hard to give myself permission to ask for what I want and need when he’s struggling to much. But I’ve kept asking! And this past week we’ve had some talks and things seem to be getting better. Last night we actually hung out!

KIDS: The other day my husband remarked that it feels like the kids are demanding a lot more than they are giving right now and I couldn’t agree more. We took them to see Let’s Glow on Friday night and they spent most of the outing complaining for various reasons. By the end they decided they had had fun, and I’m sure their memories will reflect that, but it didn’t leave a lot of room for anyone else to have fun. And yet, watching Silo with the 14yo has been so great. And having the 11yo at sparring has been awesome too. I think at this age the highs are so high and lows can be frustratingly low. But I’m trying hard to focus on the highs.

CHECKING BOXES: Getting things done on Sunday still counts as getting them done, right? And that is what I’m doing today. I FINALLY took the three heaping bags of clothes to the Salvation Army drop off center. Tomorrow night we’re putting the fridge out for pick up on Tuesday morning. I downloaded the three receipts I need to put in my last child care reimbursement. I’m feeling pretty good about December’s goals. Which is good because…

MAKING PLANS. We just (like two hours ago), rented a cabin near the snow to take the kids for a couple days before Christmas. So now we’re leaving Saturday and getting home Christmas Eve. This may seem insane, and sometimes it feels like it’s a nuts idea, but I think it will ultimately be good. Cons: We lose days with our decorations before Xmas; I need to have all the presents wrapped before we go; the 14yo won’t go to physical therapy until the end of break, instead of the beginning of it (I’m hoping to fix that tomorrow when I call to see if anyone else is available before Jan 2nd); someone has to cover my Teens class on Saturday. Pros: I have Friday off and no one else does, so I can wrap all the presents and pack us up before we go (this is the only reason I even considered this); the final days before Christmas can be interminable and this will definitely help distract the kids; the 11yo is getting a PS5 (lord helps us all) and we’d rather he be away from home before he gets it, rather than afterward; I won’t have an opportunity to do any last minute shopping for presents I absolutely do NOT need to buy.

I really am happy we made these last minute plans. I had been wanting to go somewhere, since we had A LOT of days to burn, and we wanted to go to the snow this year, so now we’re killing two bird with one stone. We just go to play in the snow, and should be enough up there for our needs. The kids are excited by the proposition, and I think we’ll have a good time.

Full disclosure, I’m kinda struggling right now. Everything is fine, or at least it will be, but I’m in a funky headspace and I’m just trying to get through it.

Something deeply upsetting happened on Monday. The situation will eventually be resolved, and I will write about it when that happens, but the in between space between the conflict and resolution is wearing on me. I hate waiting.

The husband has been in a way lately and that puts me in a way.

The 14yo has finals and is stressed out about it. Managing her stress give me stress.

The 11yo is becoming very much a tweenager and it’s just another transition we’re all transitioning through.

A couple of my classes are DRIVING ME CRAZY. I hate that I still can’t approach some groups for students with equanimity.

I’m tired of feeling like shit when I run. I want running to feel good again and I have no idea why I’ve been in such a rut for so long.

I’m hitting a plateau at the dojo. It was bound to happen, and I know I’ll eventually push through it, but man I’m not looking forward to feeling like I’m not progressing. I hope it doesn’t last too long.

I’m spending too much money. This is always the case before Christmas, but I’m still disappointed in myself about it.

The winter break is looming. On the one hand I can’t wait to get away from my classroom (even though I just got away from it for a week!) and one the other hand 16 days is a looooong time to spend with my kids! I love them, but they can be a lot!

There are plenty of bright spots right now, and I am focusing on them, but right now I just need to vent about the grimy splotches that are making it hard to see the bright spots.

Wow. I thought I posted this HOURS ago. Boo. Better late than never I suppose.

This weekend was… a lot. Saturday was a lot of fun, and Sunday was a lot of obligation. Together they were a lot.

Saturday

My husband and I talked presents when we woke up. This took longer than expected, but I think we covered everything and feel confident that we’re done buying presents this year.

The 11yo came with me to the dojo, attended the Teens class I was teaching (I had no idea what I was doing 10 mins before we started and the class still ended up okay! It’s getting easier!) Then the 11yo went to sparring with me! The teen class ends 15 minutes after Sparring begins, so we were only sparring for 30 minutes, but he was clearly wiped afterward. He did a great job, and had a lot of fun, and I’m really hoping that sparring helps renew his love of martial arts and his desire to be at the dojo.

My husband picked him up from the dojo and I stayed for Forms and High Belt. Two red belts were in town and every other red belt was in class to see them so both classes were really fun. I’ve never seen so many red belts on the mat before.

I got home at 3:30pm, took a shower, then took the 11yo and his friend to play mini-golf at Stagecoach Greens. It was fun, and it killed some time, which was the whole reason we went.

After dropping the friend off, I grabbed hummus to bring to the dojo holiday party, then went home and got ready. The party was a lot of fun. I really appreciate the dojo community, and love the opportunity to get to know people better. It was a really fun night.

Sunday

I had big plans to run early on Sunday, but the air quality index was super high! We rarely have air quality in the absence of a fire, but I guess there hasn’t been much windy? I’m not quite sure what was happening. Needless to say I did not go run, but instead did several loads of laundry (I was so busy on Saturday I didn’t do any!) and other chores around the house. I pulled some of the kids’ clothes that they don’t wear anymore and put them in a bag to donate. I helped the 14yo get started on an essay, and then made sure she started writing it. I basically just did stuff around the house all morning.

At 3pm the air quality was a lot better, so I took the kids to the Great Highway, where I ran and they rode their bikes. My run felt awful, just like every other run of late, which was disappointing, but I had save the most recent If Books Could Kill episode to listen while I ran, and that was nice. At home I did the Caroline Gervis Dead Bug video, then showered. I made two boxes of pancakes for the 11yos lunches, then we all watched an episode of Parks & Rec.

Right now I’m trying to get this post written before I make a worksheet for a speaking activity that I hope to do tomorrow. I need to schedule the fridge pick up because that is the spot in the hallway where I usually hid the Christmas presents and I need the space. Last week felt long and I think this week will feel longer. I’m just keeping my eye on the prize… December 20th, the first day of my break.

Workouts

M: Taught Forms + Basics

Tu: Sparring concepts + Sparring

W: 10 min Core w/ Tunde (11/3/24) + 10 min Glutes & Legs w/ Jess Sims (11/6/24) + 10 min Arms & Shoulders w/ Rebecca Kennedy11

Th: Rest

F: 45 min Bootcamp 50/50 w/ Tunder (11/21/24) – this was brutal!

Sa: Sparring + Forms + High Belt

Su: 4 mile run + CG’s Dead Bug workout (Another rough run. When will it feel good to run again?!)

I’ve been thinking of San today! I can’t wait to hear how she crushed her first marathon!