Chocolate and Cheese Sweats

Alright!

What is it about Christmas time that instills in people free range to eat anything and everything in sight?

Or is it just me who does that?

This year leading into Christmas I was really good. I was sticking to my new eating style, working-out like a mad-dog and using self-control beautifully. In fact, (excuse me whilst I brag a little) I lost 2% body fat and 2lbs in 2 months. Now, I realize I don't have a lot of weight to lose but body fat is something totally different so I was very pleased with this. I have seen a noticeable change in how my body looks (leaner) and feels (stronger) because of this.

I promised myself I would stick it out entirely through Christmas allowing myself a couple of splurge days on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Because everyone deserves to splurge now and then.

Christmas Eve we had a lovely potluck appetizer gathering at my bro-in-law's house. I hadn't been eating much cheese (I did eat about 8lbs of cheese at another family gathering the week before) or bread so seeing all the delightful food on the table had me salivating more than Pavlov's dog.

I dug in!

I dug in hard!

It was good! Well, it tasted good anyways. The eating always feels different than the digesting. Typically after I have eaten certain foods, and an over abundance of them, the after result is uncomfortable and not so pleasant for my husband (think lactose intolerant symptoms). I know you've all been there. (Well maybe not the lactose intolerant symptoms.)

Then we headed back to our house (we live next door) for some dessert. The box(es) of chocolate were opened and it was game over.

Seeing all of those delicious dark chocolates nestled in their tiny, little beds inside the glittery, gold box with a pretty bow on top melted my heart like a fondue pot! I began to eat one, then another and another and....well you get the picture.

The gluttony fest had begun. My wall of will power came crumbling down and visions of hamburgers, sweet potato fries, apple pie, potato chips, waffles with whipped cream and chocolate cake danced through my head.

Over the next week I ate myself silly. It's almost as if once I started my brain (re stomach) said "Well, you've started now you might as well keep on going." By New Year's Day night my stomach and digestive system had, had enough of the junk food.

I pulled our last organic chicken out of the freezer on New Year's Day and so it was ready for the next day. Monday I roasted the chicken in the oven, made some sweet potatoes and corn to accompany the chicken and we sat down to a delicious, healthy meal.

It tasted good!

Yesterday we returned to the gym for the first time since the day before Christmas Eve. Oh my! What a week off and non-stop eating can do to a person when they go back to their regularly scheduled program.

I felt sluggish and slow, heavy and thick!

And the sweat! It was not a good sweat!

There is the healthy, salty, "I've just worked out really hard" sweat you get from a work out.

But this sweat...it was full of everything I had eaten over the last week. Mostly, Chocolate and Cheese!I could feel the chocolate oozing from my forehead as I did my row, box jumps and knees-to-elbows.

Today, it was the cheese sweats! Trickling, thickly down my face as I did back squats.

Blech!

While I love Christmas and all the glad tidings it brings, I am definitely happy it has come and now gone and we can get back to life as we know it.

Sans chocolate and cheese sweats.

And so 2012 begins....

....and I am already exhausted!

I should be well rested from our Christmas holidays. Alas, this is not the case.

A week off with Yvan home is something which rarely happens (maybe once a year) and try as we might to have some down time we found ourselves flitting about here and there visiting and eating with friends and family.

Couple that with a New Year's Eve spent with delightful friends where we stayed up until (wait for it....) 2:30 in the AM!!!!

Ade woke up punctually at 7:15AM giving us less than 5 hours sleep. Yes, we did this to ourselves...and spent much of New Year's Day laying on the couch in our pajamas watching Ade run hither and thither through the house. It's ok...he survived the less-than-attentive parenting we offered. It's amazing how a child can just play, and play, and play and play....

My little Grandma, who is 88, has been sick on and off for months now. It started back in September and she is progressively getting worse. This weighs on my mind and my heart. We have always been very close and she helped raise me for a good chunk of my life. Seeing her become weaker by the day is heartbreaking and watching as she slides deeper into depression because she can't do the things she used to dreadful.

She often tells me these days, that "getting old is no fun" and I believe for her now that she is sick and her frail body is failing here it isn't any fun at all. She has always been a very active woman who bowled, went for walks, played shuffle board and managed to go shopping every single day. She would like to continue the robust, active life she held but finds it to strenous and being confined to her tiny apartment has been awful for her.

Seeing my sweet grandma like this is saddening and emotionally draining because as much as I want to make her better and for her to live for ever.....I can't.

Starting back to work right after Christmas holidays is harder than I thought. Being in a laid-back, carefee, wear pajama's until noon, no need to rush to get Yvan out the door, or Ade ready for activities mode got to be quite routine. (Funny how that can happen in a week) and so this morning when we heard Ade wake up and looked up at the clock and realized it was 8AM we both jumped out of bed in bleary-eyed wonderment at having slept in on the first day back to work.

That made me tired too.

I read post a while back about being in the moment...and I am trying. But I keep getting ahead of myself and find that I am living 4 months down the road or planning our summer holidays...for crying out loud it is only January 3rd! That can wait right?! My brain is whirring with the sound of my inner voice saying "What adventures can we get up to this year?" and "You SHOULD book some stuff now so you don't leave it until the last minute and then don't get to do it!"

I am making my self tired.

We are also building a new house. I have been very hush, hush on the subject, mainly because Yvan wanted me to, but it isn't something I can keep quiet about anymore. It is stressing me out. We are building our dream home. I am very thankful that we are able to do this. But I am a girl who likes everything in their place and the creature comforts of a well established home (I moved A LOT when I was kid). Our home now has fully and completely wrapped its arms around me in a homey embrace and I don't want to let go. I know that I house is just a house and you make it a home but right now...after all the changes and ups and downs of the last few years...my home is my safe haven and I will be so sad to leave it.

Building a new home is very tiring (but exciting).

There is also a niggling in my brain. The niggling is much to do with how I can do more to help others. I would like to volunteer more this year but not quite sure at what. Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Alright, this post is fast just becoming me vomitting random stuff all over my keyboard and likely you have stopped reading this post by now.

That is if anyone is still reading my blog. I have NOT been the best bloggers as of late.

I will leave you with some things I would like to better myself with in the year 2012. Not resolutions because really do those ever work but small goals or minor achievements I would like to see myself hit.

Get more rest.

Worry less.

See friends more.

Get on my yoga mat.

Meditate.

Crossfit without fear of failure.

Spend more time with my husband.

Travel with my wee family to some fun destinations (at least one or two trips somewhere in Canada)

Complain less.

Smile more.

Stop to smell the roses.

Volunteer.

Stop being so damn hard on myself.

Laugh more.

Hug people more.

Dance more.

Tell me some of your goals for the New Year!

Happy 2012 :)

Merry Christmas To All!!!!!!!

From our family to yours!

22 Days!

That is when I go back to work.

22 days!

I'm still processing the fact we have had Ade with us for almost a year. The year flew by. There were days and weeks at the beginning that were loooooooong but now time whizzes by!

People ask me how I feel about going back to work.

I'm a little bit sad to have to go back to a scheduled work day and not have the time to just go out with Ade and do whatever might strike our fancy.

But, I have come to the realization that I am not a stay-at-home Momma! It is not what I want to do. I want to work some days and be at home some days. So, that is what I am going to do.

I tip my hat to all the Moms who make the choice to stay at home because it is HARD WORK!!! The hardest work of all I think. It is overwhelming for me some days. I find it can be lonely and isolating at times. I'm pretty social so work is also a bit of a social outlet for me. I like to go on adult lunch dates etc. Plus, I actually like working!

Who knew! I like feeling like I am contributing my ideas and abilities to our business. I like watching our business grow, change and prosper. I like to think my ideas, thoughts and creative juices are part of that growth.

This all sounds so selfish. What about Ade? What does he need?

He needs us! He definitely is the happiest when it is the 3 of us together.

However, he LOVES his daycare. We call it school since in essence that is what our daycare is like. He loves the predictability of going to school with Daddy in the mornings. He has been going 3 days a week for a while now to get him ready and he has transitioned really well. Where else can you go about the busy work of playing all day long, with like-minded other little people who truly get you! He has made some wee, little friends - Hannah (whose parents are from Ethiopia), Brooklyn, Oakland, Lucas, and his favourite friend of all, Brett!

Brett is a little girl who is a month older than Ade and they are kindred spirits. They play together all the time and have been known to hold hands all day long. Too cute!

So, Momma gets her adult play on and Ade gets his kidlet play on and then the days we spend together are so much better for it because we miss each other. We always make sure to plan something fun for just the 2 of us!

I am glad I took the full year of work off instead of just the paid Paternity leave of 8 months. We get to experience the Christmas season together fully!

This Christmas is certainly much different from last year and the year before. We are so excited to Ade home and to be able to celebrate with him. No more tears of wanting, anguish and sadness.

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas has Arrived!

Sunday we ushered in the Christmas season to our home.

Generally, the cardinal rule is we don't decorate until December 1.

But since this is Ade's first Christmas home with us I decided to do it a little early much to Yvan's chagrin. I told him to 'suck it up' as it was only 4 days early! Ha ha!

Down to the basement I trudged to dig out the holiday decorations. (This is the part I dislike the most. Going through all the boxes trying to find the right stuff. I really need to organize better)

With Ade's help, we hauled up all the necessary items and began unpacking. I worked methodically setting up the tree (we don't DO real trees in our house because of the environmental impact of cutting them down - ask Yvan) and so I worked tirelessly branch by branch doing the "fluff" and "flounce" to get the tree to look as real as possible.

It should be noted here that Yvan was nowhere to be seen. As we were doing this 4 days early, he made sure to leave the house "to do something urgent" leaving Ade and me up to the hard stuff. He did return in time to string the lights up because that is a job he is very good at. If I did it, all the lights would end up clumped right at the front, near the top of the tree.

OK. So tree is ready and the lights are on! Next step, bring out the decorations. Now I must tell you these decorations are OLD. In fact, they are probably close to 40 years old. Passed down to me from my mom. I clearly remember them from when I was a little girl. So this part is fun as I relive some childood memories. Yvan also has some decorations from when he was young too. A stylish tree it isn't, like those decorated ones you see in the stores or in catalogues these days. There is no color scheme or themes just random pops of color here and there but we like it.

The thing is these decorations are on their last leg and likely to crumble in your hand as you hang them on the tree so there was lots of "Oh Ade! Be careful with that one!" and "Oh Ade, probably shouldn't swing it around like that it will break!" and "Ade! Let MOM do it"!

Ha ha ha!!! I'm kinda like the Soup Nazi in Seinfeld when it comes to putting the decorations on...so I really had to take a deep breath and just let Ade have fun with it.

Which he did! He kept saying "More" which sounds like "Moray!" And saying "Mama, Papa, Mistmas Ree!!!" He was certainly having fun! Yvan and I both took turns helping Ade put decorations on the tree and we took lots of photos and video for keepsakes of his first Christmas home.

Once everything was done we plugged in the lights and stepped back to have a look. The tree, in my humble opinion, looks so beautiful and I really think it is because we did it as a family. Kids really bring out the fun in Christmas!!!!

Later that night we put on our matching Christmas pajamas (Yes, we have matching pajamas! I couldn't resist!) and tried to get a family photo in front of the tree for our holiday cards! Um, ya throw in a 2 year old, 2 dogs and 2 very tired parents and you get a gong show of epic proportions. But I think we managed to get at least one good shot!

Every morning as we come downstairs for breakfast, Ade asks for the "Mistmas Ree On!" so we plug it in and his face lights up with the biggest smile!

Seriously, Christmas this year is going to rock!