40+ Club- I'm Dreaming Of A Light Christmas

alf1163

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Stuffing's my favorite too - can't have Thanksgiving or Christmas without it!! :happy: :laugh:
In fact, in 2007 I drove to Texarkana to be with the hubby (who was at a school for 5 weeks). Both daughters spent Thanksgiving day with the youngest's boyfriend's family. The youngest made me write down my stuffing recipe (if that wasn't fun- who writes down the ingredients for an ancient recipe????:laugh: :laugh:) so she could make it, and ONLY called me twice while she was making it. Both daughters said it helped having "Mom's stuffing" in a house that wasn't home! They've both informed me that Mom's stuffing (and Mom's presence to make it) are mandatory forever, no matter who is hosting Thanksgiving!:laugh:


Happy Thanksgiving all..............
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MK, that is the sweetest story!!!! :flowerforyou:

Stiring, Happy Thanksgiving to you too!!! Enjoy the formal dinner tonight. :drinker:

I will talk to all of you tomorrow! Off to watch the Finale of Dancing with the Stars!! :drinker:

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

singfree

Good morning!

One more day of work and I am off until Tuesday!!!!! I'm giving thanks for a long holiday weekend! Tonight we have a community Thanksgiving eve service at our Church. We will have a combined choir from all of the participating Churches. Since I am the Choir director of the host Church, I need to clean up our 2 anthems in 1/2 hour of rehearsal before the service. Should be interesting.

Well, the Turkey's been thawing in the fridge since Sunday. My wife is starting to bake pies and do some early prep work today. The weather has been mild for late November around here. We are getting an Arctic blast on Friday and Saturday, just in time for us to go to NYC. Time to get the winter jackets out.

Is anyone actually going to the malls on Black Friday? Crowds and traffic make me crazy. If we do go anywhere, it will be later in the day after the hoards of shoppers leave for the day. Maybe a nice coffee and a book at Barnes & Noble. Now that sounds relaxing!

OK, I've been stalling long enough. I'm going to report today because I'm not sure where I'll be on Friday. With all of the concerts and rehearsals and illness the past few weeks, exercise has not been regular. I miss it a lot. I am going to exercise today, tomorrow and Friday. We are in NYC on Saturday and we are getting company on Sunday. I will attempt to eat like a human being but it will be hard. Turkey is my favorite meal of the year. I can pass on the pie...on second thought I better eat a small slice as not to insult my wife's baking. The pie is delicious, but I prefer a second helping of turkey to any dessert.

My sincere best wishes are with all of my dear friends here at MFP. Take care and enjoy your holiday. And give thanks for all of those little blessings that we take for granted!

Swissmiss

sing, I certainly will not be going anywhere on Friday. I have heard the horror stories !!:laugh: Yep, will be eating like a human, as opposed to a rabbit (lettuce). We will be having the traditional turkey. I didn't buy a lot of the sides that normally go with it and am hoping to cut some calories this way. My son invited us to drive to his house late Thursday afternoon. He lives about 2 1/2 hours north of us. I am having second thoughts on going because my husband hasn't been in the best of moods and I don't want him acting this way where there isn't a possibility of being about to remove myself from him.:mad:

:flowerforyou: alf, my mom's stuffing was the BEST. I have such good memories of it. Lucky you, your girls feel the same way.:flowerforyou:

:flowerforyou: stiring, I can't imagine Thanksgiving away from home. My heart goes out to you. Please have a wonderful day.

alf1163

Oh no!!!! I did not quote that right!!!! Swiss, I was quoting MK's last post about her daughters loving her stuffing. :laugh: It was not me. I thought that was a really sweet story. But my daughter(I only have one) likes some of my cooking and she has called me for recipes. :happy:

I might do some abs trng today. Tomorrow I want to do some upper body weight trng since I am off and have more time in the morning to do it. I will report on Friday.

I have done Black Friday in the past but I want to say about twice only in my life. I am not planning to tomorrow. I am off but my husband is working. I want to do something with my son, take him somewhere fun. For him that is going to a pizza place :noway: :grumble: so I might have to find an alternative.

What am I thankful for? My family, my friends, my health, and my wonderful MFP friends!! I cannot believe is going to be a year that we found each other, it has been a blessing. I know some of you will not post tomorrow so I want to wish all of you a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! :flowerforyou:

Swissmiss

:flowerforyou: sorry alf, that is what I get for "skimming" the thread. I have my kids call for recipes. Some of what they want were my mom's and I don't have them anymore. My son, recently, called long distance to ask how to make a roast in the crock pot.

zebras

Happy Turkey Day All

I can't really avoid the traffic of Black Friday, because my condo is right behind a Wal-Mart and Home Goods, and that's nestled in the stretch of Route 1 with all the stores that everyone will be at on Friday. You have to understand that the area is nuts with weekend shoppers all year round, so once the official shopping season starts it becomes absolutely insane.

What is it about Costco that turns normal people into complete morons in the parking lot? I have found people are willing to block the entire traffic flow into the parking lot to wait 20 minutes while someone packs up their car. Why is that acceptable. Plus the brain trusts that designed the parking lot put the entrance to the lower level as far away from the entrance to the parking lot as they possibly could, so us smart people have to get around all the morons to park down there, where its a lot less crazy. Rant over! Actually, Costco is so close, if it were safe to cross Route 1 on foot, I would never take my car there, but I've watched the cars ignore people in the crosswalks a few too many times.

Husband is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday, then his sister on the 4th and then my brother on the 11th. Hopefully all goes well for all three, and hopefully I can focus again on my good eating and exercise.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Sing I'm sure all your choirs will come together beautifully!

Texssippian

Zebras: best wishes on good outcomes for all the family surgery. Think about bringing healthy snacks with you. Waiting room stress can lead to bad food choices.

Daughter came home from Austin yesterday. She and I made it to water aerobics last night. Yea! son should be at the San Francisco airport now. Should be to DFW by 3:00 pm. Husband is picking him up and then staying off the main highways to get home. The day before Thanksgiving is always one of the worst traffic days of the year!

I go way overboard on food for Thanksgiving. I grew up learning to cook for a big family so making a little bit of food does not feel right. We do ham and turkey with lots of veggie sides: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (poblano pepper in it), corn, the little peas with mushroom and onions in a silver can (only day of the year I will eat them), squash, green beans, spinach, broccoli and mac and cheese (which my kids still insist upon). I have a friend at work whose family hates vegetables so I always bring her lunch on Monday after Tgiving with leftover vegggies.

As far as food tradtions, we started some new ones when we moved out to Texas from Mississippi 25 years ago. I make gumbo for Christmas Eve. Christmas day we put out snacks and snack while opening presents which can take several hours because we open one at time and if something looks interesting, we may play with that present for a while before opening anymore. I also figured out to have Thank you notes ready with the envelopes already addressed and stamped for presents requiring a note. Kids have to write the note before opening another present. Works great! We have some crystal glasses with Christmas trees on them. I love drinking cranberry juice from one of the glasses on Christmas morning.

Around here in Texas, many families make tamales for Christmas day. We have a lady who sells homemade tamales door to door in our neighborhood on Fridays. My husband and son love her tamales!

New Years Day (daughter's birthday) we have black-eyed peas and greens which are supposed to bring luck and good fortune for the new year.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my MFP friends! I don't think I would be keeping at this journey toward fitness without your support. Enjoy all the blessings given to you. TxMs

zebras

Texssippian: Thank you for the waiting room advice, that's the kind of thing I forget to do and end up with vending machine M&Ms. After hearing about your cooking, i"m trying to figure how to get from here to you by T-Day dinner. LOL

mkwood10

Good morning all!

The scale was nice to me this morning, so I'll report BEFORE tomorrow's feast. 128.2lbs - yeah!! Abs are sore from doing 100 crunches on the AbLounger every other night, and shins are sore; not quite sure why, but will be sure to stretch them well before working out tonite.

I'm hosting Thanksgiving "supper" instead of dinner tomorrow, so should be able to get in a good long walk tomorrrow morning after watching the Macy's parade before I start "supervising" the cooking. Youngest daughter informed me last night that she actually wants to cook everything so she knows how........we'll see how long that lasts!:laugh: :laugh:

2BLean

Hello Everyone ~

Happy Pre-Thanksgiving Day! :flowerforyou: I won’t be able to check in again until I get back from being out of town.

I am happy to report that I have finished up my 2nd phase of the STS workouts! Due to leaving town tomorrow I needed to do back-to-back workouts but it was great. Also, our office had a big potluck yesterday and I feasted only on the salads! Everyone looked at me funny & I usually get a comment or two but they expect it actually of me …. but oh well. I felt good and they tasted good to me. I’m saving my “splurge” moments on my mom’s treats that she may have. :blushing:

Won't be doing the "Black Friday" shopping but will do a little bit while I am there.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving – thank you all for being here and for being a part of my exercise/weight loss journey!

alf1163

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :flowerforyou:

singfree

Good Morning!

Happy Black Friday! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Day. We had a nice time here. The turkey was great...my favorite meal. I didn't eat light, but nowhere near my usual epic portions. I guess that is a success of sorts.

Nothing much planned for today. We need to clean and prepare for more company on Sunday. Our dear friends from Arlington, VA are coming for a short visit. Tomorrow we are going to NYC by train from NJ. There is no way I want to drive in the city during the holidays. It's going to be cold and windy. I'm looking forward to seeing Macy's and Lord & Taylor's spectacular windows.

Have a great weekend!

alf1163

Good morning,

I also had a great Thanksgiving. It was very relaxing at home first, was able to do an upper body weight trng workout. I recently bought the bowflex adjustable weights, love them!! We went to my sister in law's cousin's house. We had a good time. I ate a little more than planned but not by much either. Plus they had me to do a Zumba demo that turned out to be about 5 songs so I was sweating up a storm. I modified a lot of moves due to my injury and I was wearing boots and a little sweater dress so...They loved it.

I am off today so I am planning on going to downtown with my son and his attendant. They have a farmers market this morning. I also want to buy tickets for The Lion King in the beautiful Majestic Theatre.

Sing, have a great time in NYC!!! I want to go so bad!!!!

Have a wonderful day!!! :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

Swissmiss

Good morning. I weighed myself today and found that I put on three pounds over Thanksgiving. I feel good about this as I was expecting to gain about five. I am going on a clean diet for about five days and hope to be back where I was very quickly.

:flowerforyou: alf, good for you...doing Zumba on Thursday. I was at my son's house and he had his stereo on. One of my Zumba songs came on and my daughter and I began dancing to it. Well, we stopped when everyone began laughing.:blushing:

sing, I don't expect that red wine is included in a "clean" diet.:mad: Let me know if you think otherwise.:laugh:

alf1163

Hi Swiss!!! Good to hear from you. I am sure a lot of people are still very busy with family, friends, Holiday shopping, etc. I am not doing any of those obviously. :laugh: Swiss, your weight gain is probably water retention for the most part. Going back to clean eating and drinking lots of water along with your exercise will get rid of those 3 lbs quickly. I forgot to weigh in on Friday so I weighed in this morning. I only weigh once a week so the difference was of 1.4lbs higher. No biggie but I have to be on the lookout. I have to stay in control. :laugh:

Swiss, dance dance dance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who cares if people laugh. They are just jealous you are having a good time. :laugh:

Have a wonderful weekend!!! :flowerforyou:

Swissmiss

:flowerforyou: Thanks alf. I am going upstairs now and put in an old aerobic video. Yep, I said "video". It is one that I did about 10 years ago. My husband has an old VCR in our bedroom. Problem is that there isn't much room there to exercise.

I have already drank 6 glasses of water today. I didn't have any breakfast mainly because I was too busy. I had 1/2 of a grapefruit and 4 oz. of turkey for lunch. I am planning on fish for dinner.

Hoosiermomma

Good Saturday Morning! :happy:

Hope all of you are happy with yourselves following your Thanksgiving feasts. We had 17 at the table and had awesome food. 1 plate for me and more of the lean choices. The twice baked sweet potatoes turned out awesomre. I'm still enjoying those! Plenty of wine and about 1 slice pie with samplings I enjoyed.

The big question is... Did Stiring pass or play on the pie at her party?? :laugh: Either way I am sure she enjoyed her evening!

I weighed myself the day before Thnksgvg and will check my progress again next Friday. This is the first week in awhile that I did get 4 REAL exercise sessions in! Working to keep THAT up! The weight went back down so I am working to keep heading in the right direction. :drinker:

We are headed up to Mi. for an engagement party tonight.. The parties continue! :drinker: :drinker: Fortunately I enjoy talking so much. That will slow me down in the eating department!

Enjoy a relaxing weekend All!!

HoosierM

Swissmiss

:flowerforyou: HoosierM, Good for you, being able to party and still being careful on your chooses. I do not have many opportunities to party. Where my husband and I work they have stopped all holiday celebrations due to the economy. On one hand, I don't have to worry about over-eating......but then, I do so miss the parties.

I am majorly upping my water. I am hoping to get through the holidays this way.:drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: ..

tron3002

Wow... Gone for a little while and this sight changes on me.:laugh:

Well I hope that everyone had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving. I was the host of our Thanksgiving and my husband had to work so it was extra busy for me but in the end it turned out great. We had about 18 people here, sounds like a lot but with our family (my husband is the baby of 5 kids) that was a pretty small number.

I got all of my Christmas decorations up but I still haven't started on my shopping. Its gonna be hard this year because with the economy I wasn't able to save up for the presents this year. Not making that mistake again.

As for my weight... I haven't been on the scale but I doubt its very good.

I hope all is well with everyone and I will catch up on all of your posts soon I hope. I have to get ready to go help my mother and also take my son to his girlfriends house. Take care everyone and have a wonderful day

Swissmiss

Hi Tron. Yep, we have had some changes. What do you think of them? I think that I like it.

Alf, you mentioned that the weight may be water gain. I was also told this at the gym this morning.` I need to drink, drink, drink !!!

I didn't do the old video today as I couldn't find where I stored it. I did have my daughter find some of my Zumba music and I danced to it in my living room. My girls thought this was so funny and my youngest recorded me on my phone. I was a little embarrassed but then I viewed it and I really do not look silly at all.

StiringWendel

Happy Belated Thanksgiving Everybody!

I've had a great weekend so far but a horrible weekend when it comes to eating. Oh, well. I actually got through the dinner all right on Wednesday night, but then the dinner turned into a party. And the party meant wine. And, well, things went south after that because, of course, with wine (at least for me) comes cravings and.....so on. So another three days of really bad eating, but I'm done with that now and, once again, back on track. I haven't weighed myself, and I'm not going to for a few days. I know what I need to do and don't feel like beating myself up over a number on the scale right now.

My plan is to eat cleaner until Christmas Eve (which should get me through the worst of the Christmas Season) and then enjoy Christmas as much as I want. My Mom surprised me when I talked with her on Thanksgiving, and she is sending me my favorite cookies this year. I haven't had any since we moved away from Denver in 1992 (I don't have the right kitchen stuff to make them and have always had limited kitchen space since we've lived overseas so much since then), and her telling me she was going to do that for me brought tears to my eyes. In other words, I think I'm a tad homesick right now. :laugh: So I will enjoy that taste of home over the next couple of weeks but I'll also fit them into my calorie allowance while I do (so they'll be part of my 'clean eating' :bigsmile: )

I'm supposed to be taking a week off Insanity this week, but I think I'm going to start Round 2 today and not take the break week. We'll see how my body reacts, and if I'm too tired/sore, I'll re-think my position. I was going to go to the gym for this break week and start back with weights, but it is quite the walk from the house, and it is cold outside (and raining today)!!! So I know my motivation for doing that this week is going to be nonexistent, and I will be finding every excuse in the book not to workout. So I figure it's best to do what I can here at the house, at least until we get our car in (I have my fingers crossed that will be soon).

tron, good to see you! I'm glad you had a good Thanksgiving.

swissmiss, like you, I need to drink my water. I didn't drink hardly any all day on Thursday (we were out serving airmen, which was a wonderful experience but didn't lend itself to water drinking) and I have felt swollen ever since. So my goal today......drink lots of water!!

alf, I hope your being able to dance means you are feeling better! I'm glad you had a good Thanksgiving, and it sounds like you are right back on track. Good for you!

hoosier, I need to implement your plan and talk my way through parties. :laugh: Sadly, though, while I can't eat and talk at the same time, I can, very unfortunately, drink and talk at the same time.....which is what got me in trouble on Wednesday! I'll have to work on that.

singfree, happy to hear you had a good Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoyed NYC and have fun with your friends on Sunday.

I hope everybody enjoys the rest of their weekend.

grlaurie

I am just trying to figure this all out

twin2

Ok I admit it, I have been absent way to long!!! :blushing: I love my life and kids but I seem to be lost in the middle somewhere. What is so sad, my arm is sore from just cleaning the stove top.....that tells me I have been absent from the gym a way to long too! So I am just checking in, with 2 pounds lost (before Thanksgiving) so I am not posting it until I can weigh in on Monday.

I saw one post about "No sugar until Christmas" and the first thing that ran through my mind was ARE YOU CRAZY!?!?!?!?! :noway: I work in a nursing home and the families are always bringing in some type of goodie or another so no sugar, I am afraid is out of the question, at least at home it won't be so bad!

twin2

"I am just trying to figure this all out "



Hang in there it will all come about, anyone will be more than glad to help! And welcome to MFP!:flowerforyou:
Rhonda

singfree

Hello all!

We just got back from NYC. We had a very good time. When we got to Penn Station in NYC, we immediately went to Macy's to see the outside windows and the inside decorations. Spectacular! The theme was "Miracle On 34th Street." It looked like an old fashioned Christmas. We then went to Lord & Taylor on 5th Ave. Another winner with the windows. We then went to Grand Central Station to pick up the subway uptown to see our son's firehouse (he is a firefighter with FDNY).

We ate lunch at "Heidelberg", a German restaurant run by a German family. VERY authentic and good food. I had a nice German dark beer with my schnitzel...yum! We then went to a dance performance at the Joyce theater downtown. I'm not a real fan of dance, but it was really good. The dancers are so very fit and athletic! They gave me a push to get in shape.

Speaking of shape, Stiring, may I join you on the journey to Christmas? Starting on Monday, I am going to get back on the wagon (I really mean it this time). Stiring, why not go back to the 1st month of Insanity, which is easier, so you don't get burned out? You will get your Insanity "fix" and your body will not begin to break down.

Swiss, you are right about the wine, but, I'm drinking it for medicinal purposes (does anyone believe that)?

Have a great weekend!

StiringWendel

Happy Monday everybody! I hope everybody enjoyed the rest of the long weekend.

twin2, good to see you. I hope you can figure out a way of taking time for yourself. It does seem like alot of parents (mothers in particular) get lost in their role in the family, so I hope you can carve out a few hours a week just for you. It's so important to do that. Great job on the weight loss!

singfree, of course you can join me on my 'cleaner eating until Christmas' journey. I've made it two days so far. Only 24 more to go! :laugh:

So I started the second month of Insanity. Thanks for the recommendation on going back to month one, singfree. I may just do that because I'm not so certain my body is going to be up for a full month of this. Yowza! The two 'max' workouts I've done so far are the plyo and interval circuits, and all I can say is.....wow. Those are some tough workouts. I can definitely feel them in my legs right now. But I'm going to try to get through two weeks (unless my body says 'no' of course) before taking a break. I didn't like the max plyo workout at all (the first Insanity workout I haven't loved), so if I get too tired during the next couple of weeks, I may go back to the non-max plyo workout (from the first month) which I enjoy immensely. If I can finish up this Insanity rotation, I have no doubt I'll be in the best cardio conditioning of my life. It is just whether this 44 year old body is up to the impact.

I hope everybody has a great day!

Swissmiss

Sing, I am trying to conjure up a medical condition. No luck.

I have had a back ache since Thursday morning. I did do some work with five pound weights later in the day. My back seems to be getting worse. Not sure if I will be able to go to my strength class tonight. I ate well this weekend until last night when I had some candy that I had made. I brought in a salad to work today. Three cups of lettuce with three ounces of turkey. I had 1/2 grapefruit and 1/2 cup of cottage cheese for breakfast. Will probably have fish with vegetables tonight. I have been drinking extra water and no wine.

alf1163

Good morning!!! Almost December!! :noway: :drinker: :laugh:

Stiring, good to hear from you. And from everyone!!! Glad everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.

I am still not back to where I was before my injury. I've been doing my stretches but not daily. I vowed to do that this week and maybe try doing the shred video starting next week until the cruise. I have done two upper body strength trng workouts, doing my third one today. The hip muscle hurts sometimes, usually after the stretches. :noway: so I know I still have to take it easy.

This week I am signing both contracts to teach Zumba at two different fitness facilities...:noway: what am I getting into?? :laugh: I am a little nervous about it, I hope it works out. I would start the first week in Jan. I still have the whole month of Dec to get my music, routine ready so I feel better prepared. Unfortunately I have not been able to co-teach somewhere to get a feel for it. It was fun doing it on Thanksgiving day with people I knew but they also knew I was improvising and modifiying.

Swiss, where does it hurt? Be careful!! Maybe rest your back for a couple of days and see how you feel. :flowerforyou:
Hoosier, you party girl!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nonstop!!! :laugh:
Sing, glad you had a great time in NYC!! One of these days I will go during the Holidays.
Stiring and Sing, I want to join you on your cleaner eating until Christmas!! How strict is it?? :laugh: When you eat clean Stiring what do you avoid the most??

Have a wonderful day!! :flowerforyou:

duffyzmom

Happy Monday - Sorry don't have time to read all the posts just wanted to check-in and say Hey!

Swissmiss

:flowerforyou: alf, I sure do wish that I lived close enough to go to your Zumba classes. I really think that my back pain is due to not working. I am back at it this morning and feeling much better.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to work in exercise classes during the holidays? I have begun to miss some of them and I don't want to get out of the habit of going. Actually, a lot of the scheduling problems are due to my daughters' schedules. They are involved in so much and they seem to have to be somewhere at the same time as one of my classes. Now with the holidays coming up there is even less time in my days.