[Mistr]

Holiday Cheer Challenge 2021

 

Last challenge I worked on having more grace in my life, and that was somewhat successful. This time I am working on cheer. I almost wasn't going to because I thought it would be too hard.

 

I am not feeling at all cheerful at the moment and the holidays typically make that worse. That said, I do have choices about how I deal with the things I don't like. I know that Elf and Cleo both have bad histories with this season. Me being cheerful will help them get through it with far less stress.

 

Goals:

1. Get enough sleep

I know that tired => cranky. Now is not the time to try to be disciplined about getting up at a specific time. Continue to work on ending evening activities and getting to bed on time. If things happen, sleep as much as needed and rearrange my morning activities.

 

2. Sit zen

Sitting zen lets me look at what my brain is doing and helps quiet my brain weasels. It also helps develop Jedi powers. Keep doing it every day. Mornings are best, but a short session in the evening is better than nothing.

 

3. Exercise

Movement helps me feel better physically and feel better about myself.

a. Finish up the Elements course. I think I have about 10 sessions left. Do those as soon as I can. It is working, but I don't love it. I want to say I gave it a fair shot and finished the whole thing.

b. Do the NF pushup challenge. I'm on week 3 of a 6 week challenge. When I finish this, I will move to bodyweight exercises.

c. Do PT exercises. I just met with my physical therapist about my left hand and shoulder. Earlier this year I was doing PT for my hips. For now I will do PT in the rest intervals in my other workouts. When I am done with Elements, I will alternate days of PT with days of strength training.

d. Aikido - practice as much as I feel works with my life. Aikido is more fun than most things, but it takes a lot of time. Make good choices.

 

4. Work

I am stressed about being behind at work again. Put in extra time as feasible to get caught up. The incoming work volume historically slows in December. Hopefully that will help.

 

5. Finances

I am worried about money. Make time to at least know where we are at. If I can do analysis and budgeting, so much the better.

 

6. Fun stuff

Do a little of this every day.

a. Take 10 minutes to spin or knit, even if things are really busy

b. Duolingo. I decided to start working on my French again. I would like to spend the month of December doing review. I am not thrilled with the current cost/reward format for Duolingo, but I'm willing to pay for their premium service for a month so that I can blast through a bunch of sections doing review. My goal is to do one topic area a day, like an advent calendar of French grammar. I can do more on weekends if I need to skip days or do short sessions during the week.

 

In order to maintain my cheerful outlook, I am NOT going to worry about cooking or chores. I can do things when I have time and want to. If we actually manage to have a household meeting and divvy up chores, I will do mine and not worry about anyone else's. Our holiday meals might be pizza or Chinese take-out. All good so long as everyone is happy.

[Harriet]

Actively choosing your mood and doing what's needed to support it is difficult and impressive. I wish you great mastery in the art of cheer. I hope your holiday is splendid, and that Elf and Cleo experience a season of serenity and safety steered by your cheer.

[Happienumber]

7 hours ago, Mistr said:

I decided to start working on my French again.

 

Nice! French is a nightmare. 

I applaud you lol. 

 

7 hours ago, Mistr said:

I know that Elf and Cleo both have bad histories with this season. Me being cheerful will help them get through it with far less stress.

 

That's so rough, good for you for contributing positive attitudes to combat this. 

[Kishi]

Nice! Sounds like you're trying to bring the vibes this season. Hope it works out! I can definitely get how this can be a rough time of year, and it's really great of you to be around for people.

[Mistr]

I decided to do things at home yesterday evening and not go to aikido. I could tell I made the right choice by how I felt when I talked it through with Dumbledore.

 

I put in an extra hour of work at my job, which got me caught up for the day.

 

I cooked red cabbage with kielbasa, red onions, apples and cranberry sauce. It was a hit with the whole household.  

 

After that I finally made a USB boot disk with Xubuntu for my laptop. Then figured out how to make the laptop boot from a USB, which is not obvious. Once that was done, I got signed up for a month of Duolingo Plus. I think that Xubuntu has the same keyboard problem when booted as the primary operating system that it had when used as a shell. I need to test that more. If so, I will have to reinstall a new version of Linux. Probably not Ubuntu, since I was not happy with it.

 

I am glad to report that Duolingo Plus does actually let me do what I want to do. I can breeze through review of the French I know and feel rewarded for it. Once I feel like I remember a bit more, I will start on learning new words and  parts of speech.

 

Tonight I had to work late again because one of my  team members had to leave early. I want to say "went home sick", but she is already working from home, so that doesn't make sense.

Just as well because I still am not done with my tasks for today. I am afraid that exercise is what is getting cut. I already did zen and went for a walk with Dumbledore at lunchtime, when it was warm and sunny out.

 

This weekend I am going to a big family birthday party. Not as big as originally planned because one branch of the family has COVID. Even so, I will get to see relatives that I have not seen in several years.  Tonight I am making mushroom gravy for Swedish meatballs. Most of the food will be catered, but this one is easy to make and quite expensive to buy. I am using frozen meatballs, I'm not that much of a glutton for punishment. I was thinking of making rosettes for my mom and brothers because they do not ship well. My grandma used to make rosettes for all the holidays. I don't think anyone else in the family still makes them. We shall see if I get that far.

 

Elf decided to stay home because they don't want to deal with meeting a bunch of new-to-them relatives and they are worried about Cleo. I think she will be okay, but I'm not going to push it. In some ways things are easier with just me and Dumbledore. Cleo has convinced our very shy cat to let her pat him. Elf has not done that, and has been here longer than the cat. Dumbledore has been making a point of including Cleo in activities and making her laugh. That seems to be helping a lot in getting her to relax.

[Kishi]

14 hours ago, Mistr said:

Tonight I had to work late again because one of my  team members had to leave early. I want to say "went home sick", but she is already working from home, so that doesn't make sense.

Just as well because I still am not done with my tasks for today. I am afraid that exercise is what is getting cut. I already did zen and went for a walk with Dumbledore at lunchtime, when it was warm and sunny out.

 

Blech, that has to happen sometimes but it still sucks. Something I didn't respect when I was younger was what a luxury training is and how access to it is dependent on a whole bunch of stuff - schedule being a big factor. I hope the good work lets things calm down a bit for you.

[juliebarkley]

On 12/1/2021 at 1:20 PM, Mistr said:

Duolingo. I decided to start working on my French again. I would like to spend the month of December doing review.

French is one of the languages I do on Duo as well. If you want a Duo buddy and/or want to practice any of the French you're reviewing, hit me up.

[Scaly Freak]

On 12/2/2021 at 5:42 PM, Mistr said:

Tonight I am making mushroom gravy for Swedish meatballs. Most of the food will be catered, but this one is easy to make and quite expensive to buy. I am using frozen meatballs, I'm not that much of a glutton for punishment.

 

So does every Swedish person I know, for obvious reasons.

 

In fact, Swedes who tell you they refuse to use frozen meatballs because it's cheating unless you make your own, are complete liars. Or professional chefs. One of the two.

[Mistr]

Weekend report

 

Whoosh!  It felt like party was over in 15 minutes. Set up and clean up felt much longer. Details under the cut. My main relaxation time was in the car while Dumbledore was driving on our way home. 

 

Spoiler

The main event this weekend was a round number birthday party for my mom. One of my brothers did most of the planning, with some help from me. My other brother was going to help, but my nephew brought home COVID from a school event. Even though he is vaccinated, my brother got it, so his family had to quarantine. On Friday, the day before the party, my other sister-in-law got sick. That appeared to be food poisoning, but there was no way she could travel. It seems she thought the event was cursed, and wanted us to cancel the whole thing. I had a long talk with my brother about it, and he talked with mom. We decided to go ahead. My SIL insisted that my nephew stay home for unknown reasons, but my brother came anyway.

 

I did not manage to make rosettes, so I made chocolate chip cookies on Friday morning. In retrospect, I could have skipped it. Still, I wanted to give my mom and brother something personal. We also had fresh cookies to eat on the road trip. I did the driving on the way there, which was uneventful.

 

Saturday was non-stop activity. After breakfast together, my brother and I picked up food while Dumbledore recorded a podcast for work. We got to my mom's with plenty of time for set-up, which was good because there was quite a bit to do. We had asked the on-site catering for a plate of cheese and crackers, deviled eggs, a tray of chicken skewers, and a tray of eggrolls. All of the trays were much bigger than they promised on their catering list. The plate of cheese was enormous. It was a large serving tray, mounded with cubes of cheese. My niece got the cake. We figured we needed a quarter sheet cake. We were right. She got a half sheet cake and we used half of it.

 

The actual party lasted 2.5 hours. I did get to sit to talk with people a couple times. I spent part of the time waiting by the front door for late/lost guests. My cousin kindly came and talked with me for part of that. It was nice to catch up with her. In a flash it was over, and we had to clean up. We sent food home with as many people as we could, but there was still a lot. Dumbledore gets extra virtue points for doing the majority of the food packing. After that my brother and I washed up mom's serving dishes, then got out her Christmas decorations. I wish we had started on that when we had time in the afternoon, because it took much longer than we expected.

 

By the time we were done it had been snowing for at least half an hour. The roads were bad. Dumbledore gets sainthood points for driving back on the highway with idiots in SUVs zooming past. We got to our hotel and just crashed.

 

I made the mistake of having decaf coffee at breakfast and with cake at suppertime. It has been months since I have had coffee. Between the excitement and the caffeine, I did not sleep at all, even though I was tired. I got up at 6:00am to sit zen, since I was awake anyway. We got packed and out of the hotel by 7:30am so we could take my brother to the airport. It had stopped snowing, but the roads were still bad. Dumbledore did a great job of driving.

 

On Sunday we had brunch with Dumbledore's brother and his family. Dumbledore was grumbly about it ahead of time, but was good once he got there. He and his brother have both mellowed over the years. Our previous visit was fun, and this was even better. I was able to offload a lot of the party leftovers. We had a great time talking and laughing. Quite the contrast to my reserved family. I am really glad that we could see them.

 

Overall, I am counting the weekend as a success. I did only one session of exercise and one of zen, but did Duolingo every day.

[Harriet]

9 hours ago, Mistr said:

Overall, I am counting the weekend as a success. I did only one session of exercise and one of zen, but did Duolingo every day.

 

It sounds generally quite nice despite the curse!

Did the decaf coffee keep you up because it has trace caffeine?

[Kishi]

Honestly, given how busy the weekend sounds, I'd say you succeeded. Sounds like you had just a ton of stuff pulling you every which way and yet you still managed to roll with it. That's cool.

 

Sorry to hear about coffee and cake. I like coffee and cake. Sounds like it's a timing issue; I hope you find your way to more in a better way.

[Mistr]

9 hours ago, Harriet said:

Did the decaf coffee keep you up because it has trace caffeine?

 

Probably. Decaf coffee has much less caffeine than normal coffee, but not none. It is also possible that the server at the restaurant forgot I was drinking decaf and refilled my cup with regular coffee. That plus sugar and adrenaline and missing my normal bedtime window.

 

I have done several things that make me more cheerful.

 

First, I finished a project at work that was overdue. With that done, I am keeping up with the normal stuff. I still have lots of things on my to-do list, but none have guilt attached.

 

The main thing is that I went to aikido last night where my weapons partner was teaching basic class. He is doing a great job of breaking down techniques into understandable pieces for the new people. Someone requested ushiro kaitenage. I like doing ushiro techniques, and kaitenage is my favorite technique to be thrown from. It flows when done well. Practicing that was fun. The awesome part is that I have my rolls back.

I was taking back falls for one of the newer students at the beginning of class. He was getting the technique and throwing with some energy, so it was easy for me to do a full back roll like I used to do all the time. A bit later, sensei had us do a simple forward throw. I just rolled. I didn't have to think about it. My rolls are not perfectly smooth, but they weren't perfectly smooth before COVID either. I feel like now I can work on my aikido again without worrying that I have lost too much.

 

On the less happy side, I have been eating a lot of chocolate and it shows in how difficult it is to tie my hakama. I resolved not to eat white sugar or white flour today. That lasted until Dumbledore and I had a frustrating conversation after lunch. We got it resolved, but I really wanted chocolate. I had some and yes, it did immediately make me feel better.

 

I think my approach to eating is going to be limiting snacks, especially between breakfast and lunch. I do pretty well on two meals a day on weekends. On weekdays I can have a moderate breakfast, a full meal at noon, and just a small meal in the evening. I am planning on making cookies to send to family and neighbors, so there will be lots of sweets in the house. Saying I won't eat them just won't work. I can emphasize eating veggies and protein first so that I don't overindulge. Plus limiting stress.

 

Spoiler

Cleo has been taking more steps to get her life set up here. She just had another job interview yesterday. Dumbledore has been getting her to do household things with him to help her get comfortable.

 

That seems to be working. Another sign is that she had nightmares last night that this was too good to be true and something would happen to mess it up. We expected that would happen about now. It happened for Elf when they moved here. This place seems like a gingerbread cottage to someone coming from an abusive situation. I see all the normal things and chores that need to be done, but it is my house. Cleo sees the fridge full of food and a working washer and dryer in the basement and feels like she is in a movie.

 

I have not had a chance for a real talk with Elf to see how things are going on their side. I hope it is okay. I am not ready to deal with more drama yet. I think things will get better for both Elf and Cleo when Cleo starts a new job. That will give her a steady schedule and money coming in, so she can see she is making progress on her goals.

 

Dumbledore is behind on a deadline that he set for himself. He is worried about that and the dreary weather does not help. I hope that another 7-10 days will put everyone in a better mood.

 

I am also feeling good about refreshing my French. I counted and found I have 67 units to review in Duolingo before I get to new material. I may decide to skip ahead after I review future and past tenses. For now, I will take all the easy wins.  

[Harriet]

7 hours ago, Mistr said:

 I feel like now I can work on my aikido again without worrying that I have lost too much.

 

Nice! Enjoy your rolls!

 

7 hours ago, Mistr said:

On the less happy side, I have been eating a lot of chocolate and it shows in how difficult it is to tie my hakama. I resolved not to eat white sugar or white flour today. That lasted until Dumbledore and I had a frustrating conversation after lunch. We got it resolved, but I really wanted chocolate. I had some and yes, it did immediately make me feel better.

 

Ah. Yes, arguments with husbands are very stressful, and stress definitely makes me want to reach for food based coping. It's difficult.

 

 

[Mistr]

I have met my sleep goal this week by not setting an alarm. In practice this means I have gotten to bed at least 30 minutes later than planned and gotten up late. I think the trade-off is worth it. I would like to have time for exercise and zen before work because it frees up my evenings. I've been pretty good about sitting zen in the evenings.

 

I have done three sessions of Elements this week. They keep talking about "playing with the movements" and "explore and have fun with it". I have come to the conclusion that this is not my idea of fun. I can do the animal movements much better than I could before. The sessions are not too difficult or frustrating. It just is not how I want to exercise. I am going to press through the last week of sessions and get this DONE.

 

I just realized that I have another deadline coming up at work next week. Hopefully things will be slow enough that I can get the project done without staying late.

 

Cleo has a job! She is going to meet her new manager in person and do paperwork today. It will be full time with benefits and in easy walking distance. I hope it will be a good fit for her.

[Scaly Freak]

4 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Cleo has a job! She is going to meet her new manager in person and do paperwork today. It will be full time with benefits and in easy walking distance. I hope it will be a good fit for her.

 

And hopefully empowering and help her built a sense of independence, in addition to the other benefits. (Yes, I'm making a lot of assumptions about the kind of workplace it is and what kind of manager she'll be working with.)

 

I hope you don't have to stay late as well. Do things in your job slow down in December, or is it more like retail where the crazy keeps building until it reaches critical mass?

[Mistr]

12 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

I hope you don't have to stay late as well. Do things in your job slow down in December, or is it more like retail where the crazy keeps building until it reaches critical mass?

 

I'm working late today because one of my team had the day off. That means I got to start later too.

 

Historically, our contact volume drops in December. One of our customer segments is academic, and all those institutions go on break. Lots of our colleagues in Europe shut down for the last two weeks of December as well.

 

That sounds good, but a lot of my team will be taking vacation time. Things look okay for December 20-22. Over half the team is out from December 27-30. It makes sense - we get three days of holiday time so a person can take four vacation days and be gone for 11 days. I am going to be working the whole time, just taking off the 17th. That gives me three long weekends in a row.  

 

Last year our traffic was higher than normal in January. It's hard to say how much of that was COVID-related. Everyone who does COVID testing or research has a routine by now and does not need to call us with questions. I think it might just be due to growth in the business. If so, the trend is likely to repeat this winter. I have a feeling things are going to get worse before they get better. If I'm lucky, I'll get a lull over the holidays before that happens.

 

Spoiler

Cleo's new job is in a co-op grocery store. I would say they are well-intentioned, but not always great in dealing with things. I know from their newsletter that they are desperate for staff. I read that on Monday, told Cleo about it, and she had an interview the next day. The work conditions will depend on how good her manager is.

 

[Scaly Freak]

38 minutes ago, Mistr said:

 

I'm working late today because one of my team had the day off. That means I got to start later too.

 

Historically, our contact volume drops in December. One of our customer segments is academic, and all those institutions go on break. Lots of our colleagues in Europe shut down for the last two weeks of December as well.

 

That sounds good, but a lot of my team will be taking vacation time. Things look okay for December 20-22. Over half the team is out from December 27-30. It makes sense - we get three days of holiday time so a person can take four vacation days and be gone for 11 days. I am going to be working the whole time, just taking off the 17th. That gives me three long weekends in a row.  

 

Last year our traffic was higher than normal in January. It's hard to say how much of that was COVID-related. Everyone who does COVID testing or research has a routine by now and does not need to call us with questions. I think it might just be due to growth in the business. If so, the trend is likely to repeat this winter. I have a feeling things are going to get worse before they get better. If I'm lucky, I'll get a lull over the holidays before that happens.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Cleo's new job is in a co-op grocery store. I would say they are well-intentioned, but not always great in dealing with things. I know from their newsletter that they are desperate for staff. I read that on Monday, told Cleo about it, and she had an interview the next day. The work conditions will depend on how good her manager is.

 

 

Spoiler

Well-intentioned can go a very long way though.  Fingers crossed, and let's hope Cleo has a good job experience!

 

I am one of the people on my team who takes vacation in the second half of December. We're currently in the process of coordinating on-call coverage.

[Harriet]

On 12/11/2021 at 12:14 AM, Mistr said:

Cleo has a job! She is going to meet her new manager in person and do paperwork today. It will be full time with benefits and in easy walking distance. I hope it will be a good fit for her.

Nice! I hope it's low stress and no drama and that she can just make some progress and feel good about it.

[Mistr]

Holiday cheer level: moderate

 

I did a bunch of social things this weekend. My work had the big all-company holiday party on Saturday evening. Everyone had to be vaccinated, so it was a non-masked event. It was great to see people dressed up and having fun in person. We left after dinner, which suited both me and Dumbledore. Sunday I went to aikido and zen (both at the dojo). I don't know if it was the contrast from activity to quiet or just an off-balance exchange with Dumbledore, but I was grouchy the rest of the day.

 

I got some things done:

• Mended the sweater I found in my old project bin (I am wearing it now)
• Mended a T-shirt for Dumbledore
• Made beer-cheese soup, using bone broth from pork bones and the leftover cheese from the party last weekend.
• Lots of Duolingo

I could not persuade myself to work on finances, which was the main thing on my to-do list for Sunday afternoon. That has now reached the critical point where I need to do it tonight. I was also disappointed that the cheese came out of solution in the soup after I added the beer. I would say precipitated, but the form was like normal melted cheese. Sort of like French onion soup, but with the cheese on the bottom of the soup pot. My guess is that the bone broth did not contain enough fat and the roux didn't have enough carrying power to keep 12oz of cheese in suspension. The soup tastes like it should, just with the cheese in the wrong place. Go figure.

 

Elf and Cleo barely emerged from their room all weekend. Cleo has not been feeling well with GI issues. A previous doctor said she may have Crohn's disease. She has an appointment coming up with a GI specialist. We got her set up with a variety of protein drinks to try since she can't keep solid food down. Also a bottle of pain killers (approved by the doctor) and a heating pad. Elf has been keeping her company and taking care of her. All that is good. Dumbledore is still under deadline (self-imposed, but announced to friends for accountability) for a big project. That means that no one is doing anything for the household in general except me.

 

My brain weasels are dancing all over this. I am falling back on my strategy from last challenge of just doing the things I care about. That means there will be cookies later and a walk outside in the sun. If other people have time and want to coordinate with me, they can ask. If not, I am behaving as if I have people staying here who are all busy doing their own things (which is the case). Hopefully this will lead to a better cheer level.

[Scaly Freak]

Uncooperative cheese in food is always a little sad. Next soup will be better.  

 

Maybe you don't need to convince yourself to work on your finances? Maybe you need to track down Procrastination and throat punch her repeatedly until she stops attacking and distracting you?

[Mistr]

On 12/13/2021 at 11:52 AM, Scaly Freak said:

Maybe you don't need to convince yourself to work on your finances? Maybe you need to track down Procrastination and throat punch her repeatedly until she stops attacking and distracting you?

 

I tried that last night and barely got her to back off. I got the absolute minimum done.

 

On the plus side, I helped Dumbledore put return address labels on Christmas cards, which made him happy. He really wants to send out cards to everybody this year. This is partly a business networking thing for him, since he is not seeing most people in person at events. He agreed that it was okay to spend almost all our budget on cards and not do other things. We will send gifts to the three moms and call it good. Our siblings, neighbors and close friends will get cookies.

 

I started off today with somewhat improved cheer. Then work got busy and I realized that if I make cookies today or tomorrow, I can take a batch to the team holiday party. This is something of a gamble. The last time we did a cookie exchange, I was not impressed with the quality of the cookies that my coworkers made. The best ones were sugar cookies frosted by a toddler. I am hoping that COVID baking has improved their skills.

 

I feel like I somehow lost a week of prep time. Everything has to get out the door by this weekend. Thankfully Elf and I both took this Friday off. I trust Elf with grocery shopping more than Dumbledore. Dumbledore is more likely to get inspired in the produce section and bring home things he does not actually have time to cook. Cleo still wants to help with cookies. I hope she is feeling enough better to do that.

 

Spoiler

I learned that Cleo has had intermittent GI problems since she was a teenager. She never had a decent doctor who addressed it.

 

Now her first priority is to get her health issues sorted out. She has her first appointment with her new primary care physician this week, and an appointment with a GI specialist before New Year's. 

 

For those who have been following this saga, the rest of her stuff has not shown up. She had everything still in boxes because she and Bob had just moved. He said he would send it here more than two weeks ago. Cleo and Elf both cut off contact when they broke up, so they are not going to ask what happened. I think this is just more proof that Bob is a jerk. It's not like he has any use for Cleo's clothes. She said she did not leave anything important there, but it still sucks. Making an unemployed person live off of the clothes they packed for a one week trip is a dirtbag move.

 

My plan for today is to sit zen right after work. Dumbledore has already left for the evening and Elf won't be home for another hour. Then I can decide what I want to do about cookies. I can sign cards while the cookies are in the oven. Then I can go to bed on time for a change so I can exercise before work tomorrow.

 

I found out that someone at aikido last week was exposed to someone with COVID. Since we don't know yet if the person got it, sensei asked everyone who was at Tuesday and Wednesday class to skip class for a week or until they are tested. That makes me feel a little better about skipping Monday class. I will probably skip Wednesday just to deal with holiday baking.

[Harriet]

17 hours ago, Mistr said:

 

I started off today with somewhat improved cheer. Then work got busy and I realized that if I make cookies today or tomorrow, I can take a batch to the team holiday party. This is something of a gamble. The last time we did a cookie exchange, I was not impressed with the quality of the cookies that my coworkers made. The best ones were sugar cookies frosted by a toddler. I am hoping that COVID baking has improved their skills.

 

Can you make awesome cookies, and then eat them? Just an idea 😁

[Mistr]

I am very pleased with my implementation of yesterday's plan.

 

Sitting zen right after work was great. The house was quiet and it was a good break from work. After that I made cookie dough and washed dishes.

 

1 hour ago, Harriet said:

Can you make awesome cookies, and then eat them? Just an idea 😁

 

I am doing some of that too. I made oatmeal-raisin-date cookies on Monday so that I would have cookies I like to snack on. I find that I can stop eating cookies with dried fruit easier than chocolate chip cookies. The base dough is the same, so I know my response is to the chocolate.

 

I got the order placed for food basket gifts to be delivered to our moms. Hopefully those will be delivered next week, but I am not too worried. They will appreciate them if they arrive a couple days late. Same for the cookies I will be shipping to our siblings. I know that deliveries are slow again this year. Receiving an unexpected package is almost more fun than getting a gift on the main holiday.

 

I am down to the last couple days of Elements. GMB is pushing their new course, which is a phase two for Elements. It combines the same animal movements with floor mobility. I watched the videos and thought "those are the movements we use to warm up for rolls in aikido". I do not need to spend money on this.  I really want to finish this course and be done with it. I will do a session tomorrow at lunch for sure. I will be able to go into my own program by next week at the latest.

 

Now I am off to bake ginger cookies. 👩‍🍳

[Scaly Freak]

4 hours ago, Mistr said:

Receiving an unexpected package is almost more fun than getting a gift on the main holiday.

 

There, fixed that for you.

 

Since we are still working remotely and the holiday buffet work used to give us every December isn't happening, the Big Manager Boss of my specific organization arrange to have gift baskets shipped out to everyone instead, and mine arrived today.   (Not literally a basket. The wine bottle and chocolate candies were packaged in a very padded cardboard box.) A complete surprise that brightened my whole week.  

[RES]

Finally caught up, noticed a new name and realized I'd completely missed your last challenge  but I'm all caught up now  

I just love your family and your heart ❤️