Tag Archives: Christmas

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10 Things I’m Looking Forward to in December

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As it is for many people, December is one of my favorite months. Sure, December can get a little stressful as we bounce from activity to activity and try to wrap up the first semester of school, but for the most part, those activities are fun and festive, and so many once-a-year things happen that it’s impossible to not get excited. Here are a few of the ones I’m most excited for this year:

december things

1. Christmas break. Duh, right? (And before you get all snarky about how teachers have it easy with their time off, please remember that I also make literally half as much money as the average person with my level of education, mmkay?)

2. Seeing family. My parents and grandparents live 6+ hours away, so we don’t get to see each other very often. I’m excited for some quality time and catching up.
2010-04-17 14.49.26Here is a picture of my mom and me that is clearly not from Christmas, but this post needed a picture here.

3. Snowshoeing. This one goes with #2, as we generally only snowshoe when we visit my parents. But maybe we can squeeze in another adventure sometime over break. And maybe some of my blogger friends who snowshoe way more often than I do will want to take me other times this winter (hint, hint).

4. Secret Santa at work. This is just a little thing, but I enjoy it so much every year. We do our exchanges the week before finals — the week that we’re desperately trying to get kids to pay attention to anything . They’re grumpy, we’re grumpy… and a little gift from a Secret Santa makes for a nice little pick-me-up.

5. Cookie-baking festivus/90’s music dance party with Sarah. We did this last year, and it was so. much. fun. that we have to do it again!
photo 2

6. Christmas concerts. I love going to the high school band and choir concerts, especially at Christmas. They’re just so festive, and it’s fun to see kids shining in a different setting than I usually see them.

7. College field trip. I arranged a college-tour field trip for my seniors, and I’m excited/nervous to see how it goes. I hope they get something out of it!

8. Christmas movies. Elf, It’s A Wonderful Life, Fred Clause, Peanuts Christmas, Rudolph… from the classics to the not-so-classic, I love all the movies, especially when I watch them with a mug of cocoa in my hand.

9. Christmas music. I know some people hate it, but I like a lot of Christmas music. And if you wondered, this is my all-time favorite Christmas song:
photo (1)

10. Time to write. I feel like my blog posts… when I even post… have been lacking substance since school started. I’m hoping that over Christmas break, I can take the time to sit down and put some thought into what I write and make it worthwhile. I also intend to write a few letters to legislators over break, but this blog is not for politics, so I won’t get into that now.

I could list more things, but 10 is the magic blog number, right?

What are you looking forward to this December?

Favorite Christmas movie? Song?

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Christmas Break Recap (I’m Good At Clever Titles)

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Hi friends!

No, I didn’t fall off the face of the planet; I just spent some time enjoying the holidays and my family. Worth it.

I’m far too lazy to write a detailed recap of everything that happened during my little hiatus (and really, do you care?), so here are some pictures and minimal explanations.

Break started with a cookie-baking/90′ dance party with my friend Sarah.

photo 1(I have an awesome picture of Sarah dancing, too, but she might punch my face if I put it on the interwebs.)

Then, we headed to the Western slope to see my family. Mom and I got pedicures:
photo 3
 photo 4

I wanted to buy this for my brother:
photo 5

And I got in a few runs with a view of Grand Mesa.
photo 1Crappy iPhone picture, but you get the point.

photo 2New CW-X tights! Hooray!

We headed back over the mountains the day after Christmas, and an accident on the interstate caused a detour, which made our usual 6.5-hour drive into about 9 hours. But the scenery was pretty.

photo 3I love you, mountains.

The next day, we headed to see my in-laws for a few days. Friday night, the whole family was together, and then my in-laws were babysitting our nephews for the rest of the weekend. So I got to enjoy a lot of this:

photo 2Sitting on brother’s face is always fun!

photo 1 photo 4Seriously, is this not the cutest human you have ever seen?

And, of course, I had to do a little bit of chilly running.

photo 3

 

We came back home Monday just in time for eye doctor appointments (my eyes are worse again! Stop it, eyes), and we have spent the last couple of days relaxing and enjoying being home. And not doing much work, which I’m sure we’ll regret this weekend. Oh well.

Also, I found out today that I won the last week of Heather’s Better With Veggies MoveHappy Challenge! I’m super excited. One of the prizes is a 5k or 10k training plan, so I need to get a race on the calendar, stat! Any recommendations for a fun Colorado 10k?

That’s my break in a nutshell. I’m trying to catch up on all your posts, but I’ll admit, I’ve hit a few “mark all as read” buttons. So tell me any nifty news in your life that I might have missed!

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Christmas-Themed Random Things

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Hello, friends! Happy Friday!

I’ve been a little MIA this week; life has been busy! Tonight, I’m hiding from the cold (sub-zero cold…gross), drinking hot chocolate (this paleo one…it’s actually pretty good!), and watching Fred Clause…and sharing with you all the random that has been in my brain lately. You’re welcome.

Random Thing 1: 

photo (24)Have you ever seen a cuter sheep in all your life? This lamb has been my favorite ornament for as long as I can remember. That makes sense, since he’s dated 1986 (and not just by the leg warmers), and I was born in ’85. Every year, he’s the first ornament up and the last down. I just love this little dude.

Random Thing 2:

On Wednesday, we took a group of students to see A Christmas Carol at the Denver Center for Performing Arts. It was so, so good. If you live in Denver and can get tickets, do it!

I think my favorite part of the play came from the audience, though. I sat in front of one of our kids — a massive, signed-with-a-D1-football-team senior. At the end of the play, when Tiny Tim came running out on his now-healthy leg, the boy behind me clasped his hands, let out a huge sigh of relief and said, “Oh, thank goodness.” It was adorable.

Random Thing 3:

When most kids are little, they leave cookies for Santa. Some even leave carrots for the reindeer. Not this girl. My brother and I were true country kids, and we knew those reindeer needed good fuel to fly. We set out hay.

Most kids’ parents eat the cookies they leave for Santa and maybe munch the carrots. Not mine. My awesome dad would go out in the cold night, move the hay, and make tracks in the snow with a deer hoof (Dad was a hunter; he’d save a hoof for this purpose). We would get up the next morning and see that Santa had been there and his reindeer had walked around our yard, and it was SO EXCITING.

Random Thing 4:

Today, I had to tell a student to stop sitting on his friend’s face. File that under “Things I thought I’d never say.”

Random Thing 5:

An instance of spell-check failure: A student wrote in his paper that a trip with his dad was “one of the most memorable thongs of my life.” Huh. You and your dad have a very unique relationship, don’t you?

 

Ok, pals, we’re keeping it short tonight. I got a new issue of Runner’s World in the mail today, and I still haven’t finished last month’s, so clearly I have very important things to do tonight. But here’s a whole slew of questions for you to answer:

Do you have a favorite Christmas ornament? Tell me about it. 

Do you like live theater? What’s the best play you’ve seen?

What unusual twists on Christmas traditions did/do you have?

How cold is it where you are?