The Joy of Christmas Traditions

A few of my favorite Stuckey family Christmas traditions...

Arriving at church 45 minutes early on Christmas eve to make sure our whole family can find a spot to sit together.

Baking Christmas cookies, shaped as Santas, trees, snowmen, stars, or gingerbread men.

Crooning along to Bing Crosby's Christmas record, or these days MP3 files, especially Mele Kalikimaka (it's the thing to say on a bright, Hawaiian Christmas day).


"Organizing the presents" with my sister Mandy, which may or may not be an elaborate ruse for seeing the shapes of our own presents and helping each other guess what they could be.

The Stuckeys in 1980 on our homemade holly rug.

Sampling our favorite foods at our "snack supper" on Christmas Eve.

Singing "O Holy Night" amidst the candlelight at church.

Insisting on opening presents from youngest to oldest, because I was the youngest for the first eight years of my life.  Even after Mandy came along, second youngest is better than fifth oldest.

Racing my brother and sisters to be the one to put the daily ornament on the advent calendar.

Sitting at the top of the stairs on Christmas morning waiting for Mom and Dad to "make sure Santa came."



As I've grown older, Christmas has become less about the presents I receive and more about the time spent with family. I can't wait to see my family in two days. What's one of your family's favorite Christmas traditions?

AIRobics

Pineville, N.C. has a new trampoline center called Sky High Sports.  Picture a warehouse covered in trampolines, including the walls.
How awesome is this?

 It's being billed as a kids play place, BUT it also has fitness classes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. At $7 a pop, AIRobics could get a little pricey, but I'm desperate to give it a try. 

The website describes it like this:

AIRobics is low impact fat burning exercise that improves balance and coordination and it is fun and energizing! The workout consists of moves from many different workout activities, and it incorporates some moves that can only be done on a trampoline. Studies show that an hour of jumping on a trampoline burns over 1000 calories. It's the best cardio you'll ever enjoy.

Who wants to go with me?  I'm thinking this Thursday or next Thursday at either 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. Seriously, I'm looking for volunteers here. Let me know. I would even go tonight if you want to go. Give me a call! 

My Weekend in Pictures

Having a great time in Wilmington! Enjoying delicious foods and funny friends.
Enjoy some pictures!

Cara Chip Face

On the coast

Caution! Slippery when Wet

Road Trip!

Photo bomb

Christmas Cookie Goodness

Goldi-Jill

For some reason, perhaps because I'm off track on goals this week because of the sickness, I've been wacked out on the amount of soda I've been drinking.

I'm back to drinking way, way too much.  Today, when it got to be 1:30 p.m., and I hadn't had any water I forced myself to drink nature's nector instead of diet cherry coke.  I KNEW I needed the water. I could tell. My mouth was constantly dry no matter how much I drank, I was getting a headache and I was just feeling off. Still, it was really hard to reach for the water bottle instead of the soda. Addiction, crazy stuff, huh?

Even now, when I've downed two liters of agua, I feel better but not completely normal. I guess because I'm still low on water for the day/week.

So clearly, I've had way too much.  But I don't feel like my reaction should be to go completely off of Diet Coke.  When I give up Diet Coke completely I miss the sound of the can cracking open and the fizz that immediately follows.  I miss the icy feeling on my throat and the little kick of the caffeine.

It occurred to me that it's rather like the story of Goldilocks and three bears.  The amount of soda I had this week was too much.  Going cold turkey is too little. I need to navigate the Diet Coke waters to find the amount that makes me exclaim, "This Diet Coke is just right!"

I think it's two cans a day, but I need to stick to that better.

I really think the Goldilocks principle (beside being about an intrusive little blonde) applies to much more in life. Have you ever experienced the "just right"ness of something similar?

Have a great weekend!

Thankful Thursdays: Dec 15

Last night as I was falling asleep I was thinking about all of my thankful things for today, which was great.  Not so great?  Falling asleep and forgetting everything by the time I woke up. Good news, that means I get to start over with new thankful things today!
Today I'm thankful:

That my stove is fixed.

That means I can start baking Christmas cookies!

That I get to see this lovely lady this weekend.

April moved away a few months ago, but this weekend, we're roadtripping to visit her!

That people care about rolling down hills.

I posted this random status on Facebook last night about how I want to roll down a hill at work and got a whole lotta thoughts on whether I should pursue this dream.  I haven't done it yet, but the response was overwhelmingly positive, so I think I really have to do it now.

That a co-worker is giving her husband skydiving tickets.

This is not just an excuse for me to post a skydiving picture of myself. I might be more excited about this present for a man I've only met once then I am for any that I bought for my family (sorry, family). Skydiving was discounted on Living Social a few weeks back, and I told her about it and she immediately snapped up the deal for herself, her husband and her daughter. She says her husband has always wanted to jump. I can't wait to hear how much he loved the gift when we return to work in January.

That Christmas is just around the corner!

I get to see my sister and likely take more fun pictures like this one. (hehe, she doesn't read my blog so she'll have no idea I posted this of her. I'm sneaky.) Time spent with family and a week off are two wonderful gifts.

As always, I'm wondering what you're thankful for this week.  Share in the comments below.

My Sickness of Choice

Now that I am fully recovered from my recent sickness, I have a lot of thoughts on the subject.  Really, the stomach sickness is my preferred type of sickness*. And here's my top five reasons why:


5. I think it shrunk my stomach.
Yesterday and today I have not eaten much.  This morning I ate my normal breakfast and then wasn't hungry until 1 p.m. That's unheard of. Usually I'm about ready to gnaw my arm off by 9:30 or 10, which is when I turn to my trusty snacks.  Today I started back on my exercise routine, though, so I bet my appetite returns tomorrow. And while I do not, in any way, endorse bulimia, between the up-chucking and the not eating anything, surely I lost some weight. I won't know until Friday when I weigh-in, but here's to a sickness that could potentially help with weight loss!

4. You get a little sympathy.

Everyone knows exactly what you're going through and gives you heartfelt sympathetic reactions when they hear. Of course this also means you have people who will avoid you and anything you've touched for two weeks after, but I've got to respect that. No one wants to get sick.

3. I was definitely sick.
I have this thing where I feel guilty about calling in sick to work. All day I spend wondering if I should be at work, if I could be working through the hacking/sneezing/itching/exhausting symptoms of a cold or if I was right in staying home.  But when you have validation that you are sick coming out of your esophagus every few hours, you know you were right to stay home.

2. It doesn't hit me very often.
As I was staring at my toilet** throughout Sunday night, I started thinking about how often I had used it for this, most disgusting of disgusting uses of a toilet, and I think it was only once before.  That means I've only thrown up once in four and a half years, if my memory serves, which of course, a lot of times it does not.  Regardless, it's not bad.

1. 24 hours and its over.

Once I made it to 24 hours, it was like I was a new person.  I felt completely fine yesterday, even rested.  I ate cautiously, but that was because I was nervous, not because I felt bad.  This totally beats cold-like symptoms, where you mope around for days or weeks, sneezing, blowing your nose, coughing or just feeling like you've been drug around a truck.  Wham, bam, no thank you, ma'am.

So while all sickness is no fun, I'd much prefer to deal with this every few years,*** then the perennial cold.   What do you think? Am I crazy?

*Under no circumstances are you allowed to remind me of this post the next time I have the stomach sickness and say, "But Jill, isn't this your preferred type of sickness?" Sarcasm will not be tolerated while I am puking my guts out.  
**If you are offended by the graphic nature of this post, I am sorry.  But also, you could just be glad there are no pictures.
***If you think I am offending the stomach sickness by being a bit too cheeky a bit too soon after my encounter then pray for me. I'm a little nervous myself.

Goals of the Week: December 12

You guys, I have been betrayed by my stomach. From Sunday night to Monday afternoon, I had a pretty horrific stomach bug. Sure, some might argue that my stomach owes me a little grief after I've spent most of my life abusing it with too much fried foods and chocolate.  But it didn't need to attempt to get its revenge by causing me to spend 24 hours hovering in the vicinity of my toilet so that I could make a quick dash in case my stomach got angry and started spewing like a volcano.  Not appropriate.

While I am infinitely better today, I'm hesitant to set several, if any, goals this week. First, I've already missed two days of working out, and I'm not back to eating full meals yet, (although the way my stomach is rumbling - in a good way - right now, I might be rectifying that tonight) so I'm pretty weak.

First let's review my previous Goals of the Week:
Last week

• Stick within my calorie budget each day This worked well for Monday through Wednesday...Thursday through Saturday this did not happen.
• Add in two strength training workouts. Checkmark!

The week before that.

• Exercise five times Checkmark!
• Run three times Checkmark!
• Drink 3 liters of water a day Checkmark!

This week:

Get back to drinking 3 liters of water a day

Work out three times, including at least one run and one strength session

Allow myself to recover

That's about all I've got the energy to think about right now.  Hopefully next week I can be a little more ambitious.

What are your goals this week? Or do you have any great stories from a time your stomach betrayed you? I know they're out there...