Gosh, this week was supposed to be kind of a “down” week after our holiday festivities, but as usual, it’s managed to still feel rather full! It’s been a nice week, just maybe not as super low key as I thought it might be. Still haven’t sorted my Christmas pictures, either! So stay tuned for that.
Monday 12/26
The day after Christmas. Ivan had the day off, and my parents were still here. I technically had to work (we get a floating holiday added to our vacation bank to use any time, but I took 2 days off last week, so… I wasn’t sure I wanted to use another day). I ended up deciding to put in just a 1/2 day. But, we had movie tickets for 10:30 a.m., so this mean I was up early. I worked from 6-10 a.m. in my basement office and called it a day.
Then we all (including my parents) went to see the new Puss in Boots movie!! It was so cute!! The boys actually went to it on a school field trip last week, loved it and said we should all go. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for an adorable, funny, family movie.
Afterwards, we all stopped for a lunch. “The world” seemed very busy on this post-holiday Monday. We waited ~20 minutes for a table, but then got in. This was nice!
Asher had swim practice at 3:30 but was catching a ride with a friend. Ethan also had to work at 4 p.m. Life is a little stranger with older kids! I mean, they have so much of their own “stuff” on the calendar now…..
My parents stayed home and relaxed for a while, and Ivan and I headed across town to his cousin’s house. They had family in town from out of state (who we also know), and the mom had texted me to ask if I would stop by to chat with their senior-in-high-school aged daughter, who is planning to be a nurse. She’s in the process of waiting to hear back from colleges, etc. and is doing a lot of Future Planning. 🙂 I asked if I should give my honest opinions about what being an inpatient nurse is like, or a gentler, more favorable opinion. 🤣🤣 Just kidding…..
Anyway, we spent 1.5 hours or so over there, and then headed home by maybe 5:30. We all snacked on some leftovers for dinner and then just put on a couple of Christmas movies. I watched one (Noel Diary, with Justin Hartley), and mostly slept through the second one (Christmas Inheritance). (It was really good, from what I saw, but I was just TIRED! Fun fact, did you know that according to my Apple watch, I can enter into “deep sleep” mode while asleep face down on my living room carpet??? 😂)
Tuesday 12/27
Not as much to report on Tuesday. My parents left by late morning, and I worked a much more normal day. I did spend a chunk of time in the morning trying to sort out our car rental in Costa Rica for March- seems like a ridiculously expensive endeavor to rent a 4×4 SUV for 6 people for 14 days. Yikes. I even had Ivan call them directly in Spanish to check…. but the required insurances there are just $$$$. yay. Anyway, on the plus side, I guess I’m glad I at least got the various (confusing) options all sorted out.
Had a couple work meetings Tuesday afternoon and spent a lot of time on the phone! The boys went to the gym for quite a while.
Tuesday night was a great relaxing evening. I did my 30 minute walk, Asher got a ride to swim practice again (carpools are life), and Ivan and I watched back-to-back episodes of Younger by the fireplace with a glass of wine.
Wednesday 12/28
Wednesday is Asher’s early swim day. Even on Christmas break…. So, I was up and off with him by 5:15 a.m. I did squeeze in a blog post that morning. After, Asher and I made some eggs, cheese and spinach to share, while Ethan went off to school basketball practice. We have 3 other families right in our neighborhood from Ethan’s class/team, so we have a great carpool set up for BB this week.
I worked Wednesday most of the day- nothing too exciting. The boys just mostly hung around. Considering Asher had already swum for an hour and a half, and Ethan played basketball for 2 hours, I kind of didn’t really worry about what they were up to. I know they played some of their new FIFA soccer xbox game they got for Christmas.
Wednesday afternoon I made my first gym appearance in a couple weeks! Did a Lower body workout, and omg. I’m so sore!!! It’s CRAZY how sore I get if I take a couple weeks off. Normally, I never really get sore- it’s always just that first week back that my muscles are like whaaat?
Wednesday night we had plans to go out to the Melting Pot! (a fondue restaurant). We had promised this for Asher’s birthday (December 2nd), but it just hadn’t fit in yet. Wednesday was the day!
Melting Pot:
We got there around 6:45 p.m., and for some reason, I never thought to make a reservation. Oops. I mean, duh- Christmas/ New Years week is always busy, especially at “special” type places. They told us it would be an hour for a table! We accepted, and went across the street to the mall and walked around. It was actually very nice- there’s a new fancier department store there, which has gorgeous Christmas decorations. So it was quite pleasant to browse around for a bit.
Finally got our table at closer to 8 pm. THE BOYS LOVE FONDUE. haha! This was their first time there, and they are big fans.
We got the 4 course dinner for two (cheese, salad, meat entree, dessert) + 2 additional meat-only entrees for the boys. (They shared our cheese and dessert.) I had 2 very tasty martinis! The whole thing was super fun. It’s a much more interactive meal- no down time just sitting and waiting, like a normal meal. You’re constantly dipping or eating something, which the boys liked a lot.
And, a family shot:
It was a great evening!! I was sooo sleepy by the end- with all the burners on, it was pretty warm in there. Plus, my two martinis….. lol. I actually fell asleep in the car on the way home (~30 minute drive) and it was perfect. Hahaha.
Thursday, 12/29:
That brings us up to Thursday (yesterday).
I worked from early through the afternoon, minus a quick run to the school at 11 to pick up the basketball boys. I also squeezed in a quick race through the house to “straighten”/ clean up, because our old neighbors were coming over by late afternoon.
It was so good to see them!! It was just the boys’ old friend (a girl- she is 1 year younger than Asher) and the mom. We all sat and talked in the living room for an hour or so, and then the kids went off to hang out alone and I talked more with the mom. She’s one of those really easy-going people who are easy to talk to and you never feel like you have to impress or anything. It’s so nice. I still wish they hadn’t moved away!!! Eventually she left to run to Costco (they moved to a rural area with no Costco around), and I did another 1.5 hours of work while the kids played.
She brought back Costco pizza for all of us before they headed for home and Asher had swim practice. After dropping him at practice, I hit the gym!! At 7 p.m. Ugh. Not my favorite time to work out, but, with work + the social plans, I couldn’t fit it in during the day.
I did shoulders/chest/triceps- a lower intensity workout, anyway, thankfully. It was fine and I was proud of myself for sticking to my workout schedule.
I didn’t get home until after 8 p.m. Asher was showering post-swim practice and then the boys ended up playing a couple more rounds of FIFA in Asher’s room. So, Ivan and I crawled into bed and watched 2.5 episodes of Younger. (I just LOVE this show!! Honestly, it’s so good. It started slow for me in the first couple episodes, but then it really took off and has been GREAT. We are almost done though. Boooo…..).
Friday 12/30
And today is Friday! And the second last day of the year.
As you can see, I haven’t had much time to do “end of year” planning or anything of the sort. I’m hoping tomorrow should be a quiet day!
Today: the boys have dentist appts this morning, Ethan has basketball, I have a work meeting at 9:30 and we have plans tonight. A very old friend of mine- who I haven’t seen in probably ~16 years?- reached out to me that she is in town this week. She is from Argentina and lives in Argentina, but is back in Madison visiting her dad, who lives here. We are getting together for dinner tonight!!
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for our old neighbors visiting yesterday. So glad the boys have stayed in touch with their old best friend.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Oh my goodness, this sounds like a very busy (but very fun!) week. I love your fondue experience. It sounds yummy and special!
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Wow you did have a very full week! I suppose this is life with kids at their ages. Life doesn’t completely slow down but you are busy in a different way w/ shuffling people back and forth. It’s been a pretty quiet week here. I was in the office Tues/Wed as I wanted to get out of my house after being home so much when it was crazy cold. And I hadn’t been in the office since Dec 1st. I know they are tracking badging so I figured I better get some in office days in. Then I was off on Thursday since I had 2 doctor appts. I am so glad I had my coworkers cover for me (after covering for them the last 2 days) because my rheum appt went sooo long since my disease isn’t well managed right now. I thought it was not a big deal but she was concerned over how bad my flare is despite being on a pretty high dose of prednisone for weeks. So I ended up having to get x-rays since my one joint is really bad. Plus I had to get lab work and I got a steroid injection during the appt. Gah. But I treated myself to Chipotle as a treat after that appt since I was in appts from 9:30-12:30! And holy moley Chipotle was so busy. There was a huge line. So I ordered online thinking it woudl be faster – and then 10 minutes later I realized I placed my order at a different Chipotle! But I had race home because my SIL was dropping Paul’s presents off. It all worked out but it was not a fun day off. But my SIL ended up staying for over an hour and we had such a great talk. I had some family stuff happen over Christmas and while we didn’t talk about it because I didn’t want to put her in the middle, I’m feeling better about what happened.
Fondue looks like so much fun! It’s nice that you are in the stage of life where an hour wait is totally fine! That is NOT our stage of life. 😉 Ha. But we don’t really go out to eat with the boys ever. I am very happy to hear that restaurants are full, though. I’ve noticed that when we go out for book club and it’s been hard to get reservations at times and I am just so thrilled as I really worried about restaurants and how they would recover after the pandemic!
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Well, I totally understand not loving going out with the boys- BUT, I will give you one tip…. we always took our boys out to eat quite a lot when they were young (but I know we just enjoy restaurant eating I think more than you guys do in general). I do feel like exposing them to that setting frequently did really help them learn early on how to behave in restaurants, how to entertain themselves there, how to sit still at the table, etc. It’s like anything, the more you do it, the better they get at it. So maybe keep that in mind and plan at least some meals out from time to time, although I realize it can be a little painful at first!
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Yes are just not as drawn to eating out in general, even before we had kids! The kids have done pretty well when we eat out on vacations so we know they can do it! I think when Will doesn’t have such an early bedtime (7) we’ll be more inclined to do some meals out. I am more willing to go than Phil, though. He finds the hassle offsets the pleasure and would much rather just order in! He is all about minimizing frustrations whereas I have a higher tolerance for chaos!!
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What a busy week! Meanwhile, unless I was walking the dog, I haven’t left the house!
I feel like what I’m learning from blogs these days is that everyone else has gone back to pre-pandemic life (restaurants! movie theaters!) and I am the person with PTSD who will never go into a theater ever again in my life. LOL.
When is your favorite time to work out? I tend to work out right after work, so it’s not unusual for me to work out at 7. Do you prefer morning workouts?
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I usually workout sometime during the day, lately. I used to do super early morning workouts, but that was years ago now. Although I have been doing some home cardio workouts early- but in terms of going to the gym, it’s almost always either after I drop the boys at school quick before I start work, during a “lunch hour” break, or I work through lunch hour and take a late afternoon gym break. The gym gets so busy with the after work crowd that I’m just not a fan of having to fight for machines, etc. I also just tend to start to fade once it’s dark out and I start feeling more pulled to my bed or the couch versus a workout! lol.
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Sounds like a full work and not much needed rest. I didn’t realize until now that most people in the US don’t take extra work leaves during Christmas. My work is closed for almost two weeks so I don’t feel the rush to get back into normal life mode. Hope you do get some rest this weekend to recharge.
I haven’t done any end of year review nor goal setting yet. I’m just thinking about them and taking notes, hopefully in our last days in Bali I find time to write it down.
Fondue looks so fun, I’m sure kids would love it.
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I WISH my job just closed down over the holidays!! My dad always had that when I was growing up- his company closed down basically between Christmas and New Years, but he still got all his other vacation time on top of that. It would be soooo nice to have all that time off. I mean, I could use vacation time, but we always travel at other times, so I feel I need to save my days for our trips in the summer or spring break. I do feel like having to work constantly leading up to Christmas, and then again right after does lead to some increased stress- it’s just so much to fit in.
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Did you know that the 26th of December is an official (second) holiday in Germany. I honestly think that should be adopted here ASAP. I had the whole week off, so it didn’t really matter, but I could have not imagined going back to work on the 26th (so glad you only had to put in a few hours).
I haven’t been to the Melting Pot in ages. Would be fun to go again sometime. I am not surprised the boys loved it!
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