Bombas are my favorite and I get some every year during the Black Friday/Christmas sale (20% off I believe). But Costco's Kirkland wool socks work for me as well and are much cheaper.

It can be an overwhelming experience. I would take the pressure off myself to buy something the first trip. Maybe just wander through all the model rooms and make a list of ideas, see what's in stock, go home and measure spaces, then make a purchase plan.

30 min on the treadmill. We're finally getting to "quiet and relaxing" after last week ended up being much busier than I anticipated.

I had to go get cat food at the pet store which is near a Hallmark store. I do like Hallmark's wrapping paper best. But I had enough stress this year with a whole week off before Christmas that I know next year will be even harder when we teach much closer to Christmas. So I had been thinking about getting more gift bags to make wrapping a bit easier next year, and we can use paper gift bags for many, many years. I popped into the Hallmark and got I think 8 bags, 1 roll of wrapping paper, and sticker gift tags all for 50% off.

Two days off--back at it today. Bodyweight circuit x2 and yoga for flexibility. Enjoying some time home with the girls this week.

My youngest is my creative, artsy but also mathy kid. She made her own posters for her room when she went off to college and I was so impressed I said she should make some mathy ones for my classroom. She never did, until now. She made a bunch of function posters with her cool minimalist art, like the f(x)=x poster says "linear" up the side then has a skier going down a straight line slope. Quadratic has 3 cyclists (one flipping) in a y=x^2 bowl. They're just cool. I tell her she could sell a lot of these to math teachers. Then her sister, first year teacher of world history to 7th graders, said she should make her posters too. Youngest replied "I know her subject better." We had some fun thinking up ideas for world history (Vikings, castles), but she said those would take a lot longer to make.

Treadmill yesterday, yoga this morning. I'm busier than I want to be--some appointment or something every day, and it won't stop until Christmas day itself. Then I hope for a couple of days of mostly nothing.

What a fun Christmas!

We have a family birthday shortly after Christmas which always involves a chocolate cake. Otherwise I would love to try a yule log cake. Christmas is only our immediate family and we're typically over-sugared by then. We usually have some Christmas cookies out all day. We sometimes make chocolate milkshakes if we're in the mood for that after dinner. But other than that we don't make a special dessert.

10 min yoga for shoulders then a 20 min dumbbell workout. Left shoulder is achy--not the one that was injured by writing overhead, so I assume this is from lifting 85 lb dd. I should do proper transfers with her.

10 min yoga and 20 min fitbymik cardio.

Bodyweight circuit x2 and a 20 min yoga stretch.

I want to try to make a dip our Indian host made for a department get-together. She served it as a dip with something like Tostitos scoops, but as I google the ingredients I see similar things called a salad. Anyway, all I know at this point as I was guessing the ingredients out loud is canned garbanzo beans, red pepper and cucumber cut pretty small, garlic, lemon juice, and the ingredient I didn't guess and hadn't heard of, chaat masala. I am not a garbanzo bean person, but I was eating scoop after scoop of this stuff. And want to try to re-create it. Fits our dietary goals too. Hummus is probably easier though!

10 min yoga stretch AND 30 min on the treadmill. Nice to be on break.

I still have some gifts to wrap. Midweek will be the last big grocery run. I guess I should plan out all the meals first. House still isn't fully picked up, even after a weekend, so there is more general cleaning to do. We're on break but I'm going to do some school stuff this week so I can be totally off next week when both kids are home. I might go in and clean my classroom today. And then maybe head downtown for a stocking stuffer or two. I'm trying to not gain weight, so also watching to not overindulge every single day.

The important thing here (to the kids) is same number of gifts to open. And they open quite a bit more than dh, disabled dd, and myself which we're all just fine with. My budget is for all of Christmas and dd's post-Christmas birthday--not tracked by person.

The classics here (also the ones we own) are Elf and Muppet Christmas Carol.

16 min on treadmill yesterday. Yoga for Joy this morning--20 min I think. And I'm now on break--17 days with no students. Yay! I will spend some time on school though--try to get caught up and all planned out for January. And I'll probably go in and clean my classroom one day this week (don't want to go in Christmas week when the girls are both home). Maybe I'll get 30 min of exercise for a bit. And try not to overindulge most days.

Fitbymik--20 min cardio yesterday, 15 min light dumbbell workout today.

Especially this time of year, right? Seems like we're meant to hibernate a bit. My form of it will be reading on the couch next week!

20 min on treadmill yesterday, 15 min yoga this morning.

15 min on the treadmill yesterday, 20 min yoga this morning. I could have done the new 30 min Yoga with Adriene, but it's like I have a 15-20 min attention span for exercise right now. This was a very high-stress week. The biggest was that my formal observation was yesterday. I over-prepare and prepare way in advance for such things, and then there were things I wasn't preparing for that happened also and I ended up twice this week having physical symptoms of the stress. The observation went well--I'm just very glad this week is over. Just a normal stress level for the week ahead, and then we're on a much-needed winter break for two weeks.

15 min on treadmill yesterday. 15 min light dumbbell workout today. Light dumbbell does not mean easy. I am queen of the 15 min workout these days. I'll shoot for longer over break.

Bodyweight circuit once and a 10 min yoga stretch this morning. Pretty solid rain--probably won't be walking with dd today.

Just 15 min fitbymik cardio this morning, but a field trip to a community college with my AVID class today, so I'll get some walking in.