I am not a Black Friday shopper. My mom is, my aunt was, my cousins...but, not me. To me, the day after Thanksgiving is reserved for cleaning and prepping and getting the holiday decor out. The cleaning has to happen because I am slightly OCD with decorations so there can't be any proof of where past decor was set in the dust. :)
It's actually one of my favorite days in the year, even though I get grumpy at times. I love it because my whole little family comes together and does at least a small part. My hubby gets the tree out and brings it upstairs, my oldest hangs her obligatory ornaments on the tree and then will sneak off to do her own little tree in her room, and my mini me, well she takes charge and helps me throughout the process. She has actually taken to being in charge of ALL decorating the past few holidays so this will be an interesting year. As I mentioned I am a bit OCD about things and I like where I pace things year to year...there is a sense of tradition and familiarity to it...min me finds doing the same things over and over boring so we have had some "creative differences" with previous holidays...but I have already kind of decided that she can set it how she wants. I am going to enjoy the fact that she WANTS to help. We will put on Christmas music, make hot cocoa and coffee, and set to it.
The other thing I like about the day (well, with this more the weekend) after Turkey Day is the girls have gotten good about purging things from their rooms. It has started already with my oldest this year, she has cleared out a closet and made her three stacks: keep (and store), donate, garbage. She literally emptied out one of her two closets with the help of her little sister last week. Now, truth be told its because she wants a vanity of sorts built in to it as part of her Christmas presents, so it had to happen sooner rather than later. Seeing big sis do this though, has prompted Mini Me to get started on the process. Hers is a little more chaotic because she generally (and this year is no different) inherits some of the stuff big sis opts to discard. So it's clearing out, making space for stuff from sis plus room in case Santa decides she IS on the nice list. ;)
This prompts Mom and Dad t go through their stuff, and we have already cleared out three garbage bags full of clothing and things that were donated for girl scouts at the start of the month. Now the downsizing continues.
This year, its also SUPER exciting because for the first time in a long time we are actually downsizing ourselves pretty successfully as well going into the holiday season. We are still enjoying a (very) low carb lifestyle, and I am still very happy with what I am seeing. In 7 weeks I am down 7 pounds and 4.5 inches. WHAT!!! I am SO excited! hubby is down close to 20 pounds, he hasn't done any measurements but based on the fact that there was discussion about needing to add holes to our belts, I KNOW he is feeling the same lack of size that I am.
This is huge. Like monumentally huge. At this point in the year, we are usually so defeated that we have reserved ourselves to trying again after the holidays. This year, we are allowing ourselves Thanksgiving Day to enjoy all the crazy carbs we want, and then back to it starting on Black Friday. It also is good that I have gotten myself into a nice workout schedule. I am doing lots of good walking everyday (14K+ steps kind of walking) and am getting in strength/cardio 4 days a week. Now that the high school soccer season is over, it's freed up a LOT of time and I can use that time to make myself a priority. We get home on Mondays with enough time fr me to get in a good 45 minutes before the hubs gets home and we start on dinner prep, and on Wednesdays and Fridays, I have nothing but time after dropping Mini Me off at dance. The tricky one is that 4th workout which is generally on the weekend...and that's just because we have been able to do lots of fun family time, so making sure I work it in is sometimes tricky...but it's happening. SOMETIMES I even squeeze a 5th workout in on a Tuesday or Thursday night. I am also making sure I do some squats and standing core work EVERYDAY, usually before bed.
I'm not sure that I can think of a time when I have felt this confident about our eating/workout plan going into the holiday rush. Santa can bring whatever additions he wants, so long as they support my "subtractions." Let the downsizing continue!!
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