Hello, December

Things to do today:

inhale. exhale. repeat.

♥

Good morning, blog friends. And happy December to you all. I think that December is a month that will test me in terms of taking one day at a time and trusting that the outcome will be nothing less than perfect. I realized this morning that I have several "to do" lists floating around. Time to consolidate them, prioritize, and see what I can strike from the list.

And man, I miss blogging! My yoga studies feel like such a gift from Heaven, but they are taking a whole lot of my extra time. I'm not complaining, not one little bit, just sayin'...

{yesterday's photo...time is ticking...}

I've had the past four days off for the Thanksgiving holiday and naturally, I was busy. Doug was away on a camping trip with his brother, and I was left to my own devices: an oven and my yoga mat. An unlikely combination, for sure, but that's how my long weekend went.

 

I was determined to make my mom's bread recipe on Thanksgiving day even though I was home alone for the afternoon. I decided before hand that I would not be sad - that I would dwell in a place of love and gratitude for the gifts my mom gave to me. Ah - I really do have so much to be thankful for! I'm happy to report that I was successful. And, even though I've practiced this bread recipe a few times now, this was the best these rolls have ever turned out. :o)

 

My mom's recipe says to knead the dough for 5-10 minutes. That second half of the kneading time has always been a mystery to me. I've tended to knead for the entire 10 minutes only to have my dough turn out really dense and heavy. But this time I felt it! About 8 minutes into the process the dough felt different to me and I knew it was time to stop. Ha - I guess you could say I finally became one with the dough. And maybe my mom was looking over my shoulder yelling STOP KNEADING NOW! Whatever. The rolls were delicious and I have a bunch in our freezer to have with soups and stews in the upcoming months.

I baked other stuff too. I tried a new recipe for lemon sugar cookies that I'll share later in the month. My grandma loves lemon treats so I baked all the dough and the cookies are in the freezer, ready to be mailed in her Christmas package in a couple of weeks. {Carrie said these are the best cookies she'd ever tasted. Yay!} I also baked a batch of pumpkin bread - frozen and ready for packages. And on Saturday, desperate for something healthy to put into my body, I made a big pot of chicken soup. I may have gone heavy on one particular vegetable because Carrie referred to it as zucchini soup.

In other news, Christmas started appearing around our house. We aren't getting our tree for another couple of weeks, but I did a little decorating around here. I'm always happy to see that my holiday wine glass survived another year's packing. I put it to good use over the long weekend. ;o)

The majority of my Christmas shopping is done and wrapped (don't hate). I knew that this month was going to be hectic with my yoga teacher training coming to a close, so I've planned ahead. I spent a little time this weekend labeling some gifts with tags and monograms cut with my Cricut - and a favorite snowflake punch.

So, yeah, December is here in full swing. A couple of neighbors on our street have Christmas lights on their houses, prompting an increased level of coaxing from me to Doug about getting ours up. {He loves when I remind him about stuff...}

Coming up: a road trip to see my family this weekend (eep!!! :o)!!!). An assignment to teach my favorite standing yoga pose, and also my least favorite/most challenging pose. An assignment to lead an 8-minute series on "grounding." A one hour level one class to design and teach to four of my local friends on December 13th. A full work week on the horizon, followed by two short ones and then two glorious weeks off work! :o)

Christmas cards to write...a trip to pack for...

Things to do today:

inhale. exhale. repeat.

♥