Hello hello! Happy Monday.
This was a largely very nice weekend- shockingly “open”, for our standards. We had no out of town visitors, Asher did not have swim practice, no one played soccer. The only events were a birthday party Asher attended on Fri night (but the Birthday Mom joyfully both picked him up and brought him home!!! 3 cheers for her!), and Ethan worked from 7-2 pm both days and needed rides.
Otherwise- WIDE OPEN.
I know. It felt like a Christmas miracle.
But yet… I did not really end the weekend feeling particularly relaxed, nor do I feel like we really made a bunch of magic Christmas memories, either. (I will admit that I do struggle sometimes when I see “everyone” online doing all the Holiday Fun List things- breakfast with Santa, Christmas performances, light displays, Christmas parties, etc..) and meanwhile I feel like, “WTH? I still need to buy gifts and we need groceries and someone should clean the house and I haven’t ordered a Christmas card yet and why does everyone else have all this open time and I feel like I’m just wack-a-moling tasks over here??!” 😩
This sounds very whiny and dramatic, because I actually did not do chores all weekend long, either.
Here is a list of non-worky things I did this weekend:
1) Ivan and I went out for nachos on Friday night.
2) I spent a quiet morning Saturday selecting photos and ordered our Christmas card (okay, technically a task, but I was home alone and Charlie was napping and I drank tea and played Christmas music, so this was a nice one).
3) I watched part of the Grinch on TV (Saturday afternoon), I watched part of a movie with Ivan (Saturday evening), and I watched 2 episodes of Modern Family with the boys (Sunday night).
4) I went in the hot tub with Ivan Saturday night.
5) I ran 3 miles on Saturday (outside!) and did a Full Body strength workout on Sunday at gym.
6) We went to Chipotle on Saturday afternoon! (post-run!)
Here is a list of “Tasks” that I did this weekend:
1) Made and ordered the Christmas card. (This is always a Production for me, because I take approximately 100,000 photos a year and I really like to include a nice splattering of our various trips/activities on our Christmas card…. but I invite you to try paring down 100,000 photos and see how that goes. 😆). *Next year I swear I am going to review my photos monthly and add front-runner photos to a Possible Christmas Card album!
2) Ivan and I cleaned out the fridge, made a meal plan, a grocery list and then Ethan and I went grocery shopping.
3) I did a bunch of online Christmas shopping Saturday night and made some big progress.
4) On Sunday morning, I ordered gifts for my nieces and nephew in Ireland!!! This is always another Production to find things that can ship to Ireland and that they’ll hopefully like, etc. Very happy to check this off the list.
4) Ivan and I went out to do in-person shopping on Sunday for several hours and made more great progress! I found this….semi-fun/ festive, a little annoying and mildly exhausting. But I am super glad to have made a huge dent in our shopping this weekend. We are not 100% done but getting pretty close.
5) Ivan did our laundry, Asher cleaned a bathroom, we all cleaned our bedrooms, and I cleaned some stuff out of the garage and washed towels.
6) I finally tried on a few dresses that I ordered a long time ago now that need to either get kept or go back… Ivan started making threatening comments about the bags sitting in our bedroom. 😅 Just kidding. But he was like try those on already!!!!
Here is a list of things I wanted to do, but didn’t:
1) Take a long winter’s nap. 😉 I’ve just been up too late lately and felt generally sleepy this weekend.
2) Read for a long time by the fireplace.
3) Watch several Christmas movie, in entirety.
4) Catch up on blogs/ write a blog post.
Oh well. Only so many hours in the day. 🙂
All in all, it was a good weekend. I know in reality this was a normal, mid-December weekend, and we certainly had a mix of work and play. Everyone is extra busy this time of year, and many of the tasks we did are just “part of the holiday season” (and, ahem, regular life).
I just didn’t end the weekend feeling like, Gosh by golly, that was so relaxing! I felt more like…Wait, it’s Monday already?? I need more weekend….
I think what I really want is for all of the regular life tasks (the cleaning, groceries, cooking, errands, etc.) to just disappear during December. Also, if work could just kinda disappear too, that’d be fantastic. 🙃 THEN maybe I’d have time to just really focus on the season! I will ask Santa for this. 😉
Here’s some random photos from the weekend!
Daily Gratitude:
I am sooooo grateful to have made a big dent in the Christmas shopping. Honestly, once most of that is done, it’s such a big mental burden off and I can more easily enjoy the rest of the season.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Ah weekends…they’re surprisingly not relaxing. The hubs and I went on a holiday shopping spree, which is something that we almost never do together. It was fun but that was basically the weekend – shop, go to family party, run errands, and now it’s Monday.
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We very rarely go out shopping together too, so it IS kind of fun… I think I just don’t really like the “pressure” aspect of Christmas shopping. Especially if I think it’s sort of my only opportunity, or one of them, to get presents, I get a little panicky sometimes like, OK, we MUST find something here for so and so!! But gift buying doesn’t always work that way. I guess in an ideal world I would know exactly what I want for everyone and it would just be a matter of ordering it or selecting the specific item. But depending, we end up doing “browsing” for some people, just trying to find something that looks like a good fit.
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I think you’re doing great! I also made a huge dent in my Christmas shopping this weekend. But I know- there’s still so much more to do (like ahem, cleaning the house.) I always think “If I just didn’t have to go to work, I would have time for everything!” Remember we still have two weeks… but I’m not sure when you’re leaving for Mexico?
Ha ha, I love the photo of Charlie looking out the window!!! And yes, Charlie definitely belongs in the bed, every night.
Oh and great job on that run! That’s a nice pace.
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Yes, there still is time, but it just feels like it’s going to fly by. Asher has a home swim meet next weekend and I have to volunteer at it so it feels like next weekend is going to be pretty tied up! And then the following weekend we leave for Mexico already- on Sunday morning. Fortunately, the reality is that we aren’t doing our normal big Christmas with my parents where we exchange all the gifts etc until after we get home. So technically, I don’t HAVE to have everything bought before Christmas. But I know I will not want to do any Chrsitmas shopping or wrapping after Christmas. And we are celebrating with some other local family next weekend after the swim meet, so I do have to have their stuff done. Anyway, it always works out!! 😉
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Wow! That was a fast run!! I haven’t ran that fast since pre-kids! You are in excellent shape! Well done.
Our weekend was pretty good. We had some fun events but it wasn’t overly packed. Phil cleaned and got groceries over the weekend. I thought he would do something enjoyable with the several stretches of alone time in the house but he cleaned. But – he has chosen to take on that task rather than hire it out (which we could certainly afford to do!) so I kind of shrug my shoulders over the fact that is how he chooses to spend his precious free time! It will get a bit easier when the boys are older and can help with the cleaning. But that’s a ways off!!
I haven’t wrapped anything but am ready for Christmas otherwise. But we buy so few gifts! I just had to get gifts for the cousin exchange (we draw names) and some things for the boys. That is kind of it besides odds and ends for teachers and such. I have Friday off so will do my wrapping then!
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Haha, well that wasn’t like my super easy pace or anything either- like I said, I was trying to push myself because I wanted to replicate the type of cardio workout I would get on the stairmill or something like that. I am sure that if I start running a bit more, I will not always want to run challenging paces and will definitely do more easier paces! I think I used to usually settle around 9:15/9:30 for my easier paced runs, back when I ran more frequently, without really making any specific effort.
Sounds great to be totally done with your shopping! We are pretty close now but always seem to have loose ends to tie up….
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That’s a very “fast” run for first run outdoor in years! you are so talented!!!
I miss chipotle! I wish i could set the time to meal prep them so I can have it several times a week.
When I get to spend few hours reading in a weekend, I feel relaxed and not rushed. If i don’t get them, I ended up feeling the weekend was too much. I must admit that i’m lucky not to have to do chores as we have help M to F, which leaves me more time to do things I want to do. I can’t imagine having to clean, do laundry, cook everyday. I know… super spoiled. Yet, I wish everyday has 30 hrs so I can do more of things I want to do.
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Yes, 30 hour days would be nice!! I always wish that I didn’t need to do things like shower, personal care, etc. Because that just eats up time every day, no matter how fast I try to go, that I feel is kind of wasted! But in order to look presentable I personally seem to need to dry my hair and put some makeup on! Plus doing some skincare… it adds up with time, and I find that annoying.
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It’s too bad regular life can’t take a holiday in December! You’ve got a lot going on for sure, no wonder you don’t feel relaxed!
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Exactly. I think we should petition to someone to have all other responsibilities removed from December. 🙂
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I wholeheartedly endorse regular adulting having to take a break during December! That would make things a million times easier. I honestly don’t have time to go shopping, so last week I just ordered a million things off Amazon and now I basically only have to get gifts for my husband and my nephew and that seems doable. But the next two weeks are going to be quite challenging!
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I still need to figure out husband gifts too. UGH. The worst ones… he’s sooo hard to buy for. We’ve picked up a couple things when we’ve been out shopping that he eyed and wanted, so we just bought them and I’ll wrap them up for him. 😉 But I always like to have some sort of a surprise gift, too.
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If you ask me, your weekend sounds productive and fun at the same time (Friday night nachos? Heck yes! Getting Christmas stuff done? Double fist pump!)…. even if you didn’t do ALL of what you wanted to do (but isn’t that what happens EVERY weekend? LOL)
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Wow, a busy weekend! We are pretty much ready- like Lisa said above, we get very, very few things. The kids already get a TON from our friends, and even neighbors (!) so we only buy two-three things for them. For each other, one thing. Tony is not allowed to gift me any STUFF. Because I get get my own STUFF. So an airbnb giftcard, for a nice amount, that is what I want 😉
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