+1 vote to continue the weekend

Ahhh, a 3-day weekend. What a lovely thing. It really was so very nice. ESPECIALLY because it was a 3-day weekend minus visitors, holiday prep, stress, etc.

We had a very chill, low key weekend (for our standards), though we still did plenty. I was really wishing this morning that the weekend could just keep on keeping on right on through Tuesday… and maybe Wednesday….

Weekend Highlights:

Friday-

• Asher and I attended the boys high school swim meet. It was the rivalry meet between our town’s two high schools. He sat with friends, I sat by some moms I knew. It was fun! Also, attending a swim meet when your kid is not actually swimming is much more relaxing. No worrying about if I was going to miss his race, or if he was going to miss his race, or anything of the sort. 🙂 And certainly no volunteering happened. Double smiles. 😊😊

• Later, Ivan and I had our Friday date night. Ivan humored me and my “diet” and we subbed out our usual nachos for a molcajete- basically a big bowl of steak, chicken, shrimp with a garnish plate of beans, guac, etc. I still ate chips and salsa- come on, is life even worth living if you can’t eat chips and salsa? Anyway, they fit my macros fine.

Saturday-

• Asher had 06:30 a.m. swim practice. I drove him to that, and enjoyed a quiet morning at home alone while others slept in. Then I picked him up at 8 and we stopped at McDonald’s for hot chocolate/ tea.

• Ethan had a basketball game at 10:15 (home game, so no far away driving). They won and he played well.

• We were home before noon and had a wide open rest of the day. I spent from ~12-5 taking down Christmas decorations!! Ivan tackled the outdoor stuff, and I did the inside. He and Ethan lugged boxes down from the garage. It feels so great to have that done. I suddenly reached my breaking point for Christmas Clutter, apparently, because I was literally starting to get itchy from all the extra stuff sitting around!! I miss my garland and lights, but besides that, I am fully embracing our “emptier” looking house right now.

• Ethan had a soccer practice from 4:30-6, and I did a Re-Vibe stretching workout. After that, I read by the fireplace while Ivan and Ethan watched Ivan’s Mexican home soccer team play. We ate leftovers for dinner.

• Asher was away at a sleepover birthday party!!

Sunday-

• Sunday we had a lazy morning. Well, I was up early in my office and wrote a blog post, did a big email clean out, etc. Then, I heard Ivan upstairs making coffee, so I headed up. We were going to get the day going, but ended up opting to take our tea/coffee to our room and watch the final two episodes of Younger instead. Series done! I’m sad, because I ended up loving it.

• Ethan played video games for a large chunk of the morning. 🤷‍♀️ He didn’t have to work this weekend….

• We decided to go out to lunch with Ethan, as I previously shared, at Red Robin. The special time with Ethan (Asher was still away at b-day party) was nice.

• Then, in the afternoon, Ethan had another local basketball game…. and then I tackled taking our basement Christmas decorations. Oh yes, there was more. The downstairs tree and all the other stuff around the bar, etc had to get packed away. I can’t remember what Ivan did exactly. I know he cleaned the bathroom this weekend and took some returns back for me at some point.

• I squeezed in a Full Body gym workout + cardio at home, and then we all watched The Man from Toronto on Netflix, with Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson. It was ridiculously unrealistic, but hilarious. The boys loved it.

Monday-

• Bonus day!! I did some other admin stuff on the computer in the morning, and Ivan went out to drop some of his work clothes off to be drycleaned.

• Asher and I ran out to pick up some drinks for his Swim Christmas Party at noon. (All the kids had no school, so he and his friends planned the party for Monday.) We were in charge of beverages.

• After a shower, I dropped him and his swim buddy off at the party house. I then spent 2 hours paging through my Costa Rica travel guides, taking notes, looking stuff up online, etc. Our trip is sneaking up on me!!! Need to get a better handle on a few details yet, re: potential tours, activities, etc. in the various locations. (Also, we need to get good water shoes and lightweight hiking sandals for all of us. Anyone have any great recommendations?? We are planning to do CARRY ON ONLY for all of us, for a 2 week trip…. eek. (Due to limited space in our rental SUV with 6 people total). 😬)

• Also, if you’re wondering about the 14 year old girl Secret Santa gift, here’s what we ended up doing: a very nice set of press on nails, a tube of lip gloss, and a bag of Dove milk chocolates. (Apparently Asher tapped one of her friends for info, and found out she likes press on nails. I thought it was a good idea!)

• I picked Asher and friend up at 2 p.m. from the party, and he ended up going to his friend’s house for the rest of the afternoon, all the way through 6:50 p.m. swim practice. They fed him dinner and took him to and from swim practice. Nice! He was happy.

• I did more trip planning stuff while Ivan cleaned out some junk from drawers in our room, and Ethan practiced piano and cleaned out his closet!!

• Then, since Asher was gone again, the three of us went to a local bar/grill and played pool for a couple hours! It was super fun. Also, I am really bad at pool. Ivan is very good at pool, and Ethan is rapidly catching up to Ivan. (Why does the ball never go in the direction I think it’s going to?! I swear I was pretty good at geometry back in the day…). Ivan and I had a beer and Ethan had a lemonade and some pretzel bites. I don’t know why we don’t go there more often, because it is really close to home, and really fun!! A perfect family activity.

• I closed out the evening by doing another Cardio Dance video (never made it to the gym for my leg day- swapping that to today…) and walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes to get my steps in!

It was a very lovely weekend. 🙂 I think all weekends should have 3 days.

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for online travel resources! Wonder how people planned trips back in the day.