Happy New Year

All week I have been waiting to post until I was done my sweater and had something to share. It finally happened late last night. I have had a fun week.

I went to three used bookstores with a friend (one of two in my bubble). It is cool because you make an appointment so you have the whole store to yourself. I managed to find six books to buy, though one is a gift for the friend I went with. It must have been my knitting book day!

I also met up with the friend at chapters and returned the class gift (a cape that was huge on me). I can definitely find more books to buy!

I have done a run every single day of my holiday so far and only have three days left to complete the streak. Today’s run in Burnaby was the best and most interesting. I’m glad I got at least one run somewhere I can’t go when I’m working. I’m already starting a list for the next holiday.

I have to admit I spent an entire day binge watching The Bridgerton’s. It was entertaining, but not as good as the books and I was surprised by a couple of things.

I have knitted a sweater and am fixing another.

Look out for some year end posts in the next couple of days, as well as my Run To Rapid City Update.

Have fun!

AJ

Stretching Ny Skills with Sally

Shucks I just realized that yesterday was the last Saturday of the month. Abbey, Kathy, and I always try to take on Sally’s Baking Challenge each month.

This month the challenge was Stained Glass cookies. I have learned this month that these are really just sugar cookies with a decorative touch in the middle.

My cookies weren’t wonderful but also weren’t horrible. They were quite easy to make and the instructions were very clear, but I just didn’t love the taste of the cookie. Maybe I will try a different gluten free, dairy free version of a sugar cookie and see if I like it more.

Make sure you check out Abbey and Kathy as their baking product always look amazing!

Have fun!

AJ

SAL Update

For the past twelve plus years, this cross stitch project sat on a shelf in my spare room. This year I was determined to make progress and this SAL is definitely helping!

Here is where I was three weeks ago:.

Here is where I am now:

I am just trying to slowly make my way through this section where it appears I am out on every row:(. I finally realized my mistake. Instead of trying to do as many stitches as possible at one time in one colour, I need to go row by row and just do the one or two stitches of each colour at a time. It is a pain, but I think I’ll make less mistakes.

I had a request from a reader that I share all my progress pictures from this year, so here goes:

Wow this actually did make me feel better about this project as I can actually see a difference between the first and last picture. I hope I get to keep doing this next year!

Make sure you check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects in this SAL!

check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects!

Jenny

Avis

Claire

Gun

Carole

Sue

Constanze

Christina

Kathy

Margaret

Cindy

Heidi

Jackie

Sunny

Hayley

Megan

Deborah

Mary Margaret

Renée

Carmela

Sharon

Daisy

Anne

Cathie

Laura

Sherrie

Happy Christmas Eve

It’s been a good day!

It started with an awesome coffee chat with Kathy who is as wonderful as her blog makes her seem! Thanks Kathy- it gave me something to look forward to and was a lovely way to start my Christmas Eve!

I then proceeded to go for a run with Dennis. We got a very respectable 7km done, but had to run the main road because the sidewalks were still too icy:(

After a coffee with him, I came home to a FaceTime with my brother and his family. We had to play Among Us (according to my niece and nephew) and I had flashbacks of being stuck in a hole in Minecraft. Age is not making me better at video games.

I did some knitting on my current black toque and had a nap before going to join my friend Lyndsay for Christmas Eve pizza tradition. We played celebrities and it was a fun night!

Blogmas:

I can’t believe how bad I am at getting these done. I’m going to have to do multiple questions tonight!

The awesome Abbey developed would you rather questions for Blogmas this year.

Would you rather wear a light up necklace or a red nose during the season?

I would definitely go with the light up necklace. I have the tradition going that for every school day in December I wear red or green and Christmas jewelry so this really wouldn’t be that different for me. As well, I don’t really like having things touching my face so the red nose would drive me crazy!

The final question is: would you rather bake or eat Christmas treats?

I would much rather bake the treats than eat them. I loved it when I was young and living at home. I could bake a ton of things, leave them on the counter and they would all be gone by morning. Big brothers are good for some things. Now I don’t let myself bake much because I just eat it all 😥

Well merry Christmas to you all!

AJ

It’s Going Too Fast!

I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday!! It was definitely a busier day today.

I met up with two friends from work (my usual two) and we headed up to the mountain to go snowshoeing. I was super excited because I had gotten new snowshoes at the end of winter 2019 but didn’t get to use them last year.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to use them today either:( We got halfway up the mountain and got turned around as there was no more public parking. We had planned to do the free provincial park trail, but weren’t even allowed up. We ended up going for a walk in a nearby park.

There were a ton of stairs, but it was gorgeous and worth the climb. It was nice and quiet too!

We had lunch on the way home at Colony which turned out to be a lovely bar and grill. The burger and salad was fine, but nothing I need to drive over there for again.

Exercise:

I decided a walk didn’t count towards my run streak so I went for a short run when I got back home. It was just a short run to the park and back for 3km. Something has got to be better than nothing!

Knitting:

I finally got my sister in law’s toque finished for the second time.

It seems huge to me, but I decided to put the pompom on and if she wants it smaller or bigger, I’ll change it on Christmas.

I decided to start on another toque in case my nephew will wear one.

Blogmas:

The awesome Abbey has come up with twelve would you rather questions around the season. Today’s question is:

Would you rather put up Christmas lights for all the neighbors or wrap the gifts for all extended family?

I would definitely rather wrap gifts! First of all, nobody would want lights put up where I could reach🤣😜

Secondly, as a kid I always wrapped all the gifts for the whole family so doing so for the extended family would be no problem. I love knowing what people are getting, way more than being surprised, so this would definitely work for me!

Have fun!

AJ

Blogmas

How did I get so far behind? I’m going to have to do multiple ones a day.

The wonderful Abbey asks today: would you rather know the perfect gift for others or always get the perfect gift.

I would rather know the perfect gift to give! My family doesn’t do gifts and that works in my favor because I never felt like my gifts were great anyways. Even with my friends I don’t feel like I do good gifts, so it would be amazing to always know what was perfect for someone.

Ok I’m off for an outdoor adventure. I’ll tell you all about it later!

Have fun!

AJ

Blogmas

It was a quiet day of knotting, watching a hallmark movies, getting a massage and watching the surprise snow come down. Nothing very exciting to tell you, though I did manage to mess up my scarf, again! I’m waiting for daylight to figure out my mistake.

Oh and for hallmark watchers- I recommend Write Before Christmas. It has a Love Actually vibe.

And yes I did keep up my holiday run streak. I got a very easy 3km run in the pouring rain this morning and then did a NourishMoveLove 30 minute workout.

The awesome Abbey came up with would you rather questions for Blogmas this year.

Today’s question:

Would you rather vacation somewhere hot or cold for Christmas?

Last year my family took our very first Christmas holiday together. We went to Palm Springs, and… it was cold 😖😖😖

With this in mind I would rather holiday somewhere cold because then you know it’s going to be cold. You can prepare for it and you won’t be disappointed. In addition no one looks at you weird for continuously having a warm drink in your hand!

Have fun!

AJ

Day 2

I can’t believe I’ve already gone through two of my days off:(

Exercise:

I didn’t want to wake up this morning and it was super dark, but at least it wasn’t raining. I met up with Dennis and we did 8km this morning. He said six at the 1/3 mark, but I didn’t look at my watch again until 3.93 so at that point we figured we might as well do 4 before turning. He ran slow today so that he’d be close by since the area we run in isn’t the best. I appreciate his awesome running buddy qualities!

This evening I did a bit of a workout just using body weight. It wasn’t much, but anything is better than nothing!

Knitting:

I spent lots of today knitting. I have gotten back to 2/3 done my brother’s scarf. He had better love this thing!

Of course I’m seeing a ton of things on Pinterest that I want to make while I already have a zillion things to do!

Baking:

After a lovely nap, I made some Christmas cookies with the Christmas music going. You will hear about the cookies on Saturday, but it was good and bad. It did put me in the Christmas mood for a bit as I’ve been baking cookies since I was tiny, but it also made me miss my family as I’m usually baking for them!

Hallmark:

I have also spent a lot of time watching movies today. I have had some really bad ones, like Christmas in Paris, but I’ve had some decent ones like Christmas under the stars too.

Blogmas:

The awesome Abbey came up with would you rather questions for Blogmas this year. Today’s question:

Would you rather meet Santa or Frosty?

Oh I would love to meet Frosty as I love snowmen better than Santa, though I do have to admit meeting Santa would probably give me a lot of points with my students. Nope I’m sticking with Frosty. Maybe he could give me pointers on how to survive happily while being freezing all the time😜🤪🤣

Have fun!

AJ

Day 1

Sorry i think life is going to be pretty boring for the next two weeks as I’m just home.

I really wanted to sleep in today but was up at my usual time:(

Exercise:

In the back of my mind I’m thinking I’d like to see if I can run everyday if the holiday. I started off well with a run last night with Dennis and another 5km this morning on my own. I went right away because it wasn’t raining and that seemed to be a popular thought as it was quite busy on the path.

This evening I also got a short workout in. I was going to do a Hallmark, but had to knit so couldn’t keep track of the different elements.

Shopping:

I finally got out to get my nephew’s gift and the cord I needed for work. I also went out to a little shop to check out their puzzles, but the one I liked was $18 and only 500 pieces:(. I did come home with two new to me knitting books so it wasn’t a wasted trip.

Reading:

Oops I’ve finished a few books I’ve forgotten to mention. I read the Mistletoe Trap which was super cute! I really loved the family and supporting characters in this book.

I also have read Her Halloween Treat. This is the first of a three book series so of course I had to start with it. I am now onto the second book.

Knitting:

I had to laugh or I would have cried! I laid out my brother’s scarf to measure it as I thought I must be done, only to realize I had accidentally added a stitch 4.5m back. I guess that’s what I get for knitting while chatting in the lunch room. I ended up ripping it right back to the start. I have made up 30 of the pattern repeats and think I have 66 to go. I hope I can get it done by Christmas!

Holidays:’speaking of Christmas I am trying to compile a list of one thing I can do each day to be festive and take my mind off the fact that I have to be alone for the holiday. So far the list is comprised of: baking cookies, looking at lights, going snowshoeing, but I need two more ideas!

Blogmas:

The awesome Abbey came up with the idea for Blogmas of doing would you rather questions.

Today’s question is: would you rather star in a popular holiday single or in a popular holiday movie?

This one is quite easy for me as no one wants to hear me sing! Besides, I watched two Hallmark movies today and I think I could do as well as some of those actors! 🤣🤪😜

Have fun!

AJ

T-1

The winter break is almost here. I just have to get through one more day with crazy excited children.

Teaching:

We planned the first week back this morning and I prepped on my break. We got through our art scrapbook gluing. We actually rushed because we were supposed to have a fire drill at 11:50, but as we were waiting for it to go off, I got told that it had been cancelled. Of course that was only communicated through an email at 11, while I was teaching😖😖😖. Incompetence drives me crazy!

This afternoon the kids had a great time! Our STEM challenge this month was to build the tallest “tree” possible with 15 cups. The kids were so engaged!! I loved watching them persevere and try different things as they got three tries. There were no tears this time so I think we’re making progress!

Socializing:

After work I went out with Lyndsay and Cori and it was nice to unwind and catch up away from work.

Blogmas:

Would you rather eat gingerbread every day or candy canes every day?

Hmm this is tough, as gingerbread would be great for my tummy but might feel heavy really quick, but candy canes would be great for my breath but might get old quickly. I think I would go with candy canes because there are so many different flavors of them now!

Have fun!

AJ