New Traditions

We celebrated Christmas yesterday morning by having breakfast with my in-laws (eggs, sausages and coffee) and then, we all sat in the living room and opened up presents. I have to admit I had so much fun watching the girls opening up their presents. There truly is something magical about re-discovering Christmas though the eyes of a child. I was just as happy as Rina when she opened up the box containing her purple unicorn and to see Béatrice kissing her own pink unicorn was priceless:

Full of love!

After the gift opening, we took everyone for a walk to the closest playground for some fun in the chilly Christmas day:

Her gorgeous brow eyes!

Rosy cheeks from the crisp air!

She kept singing: “Up in the sky!” when I was pushing her on the swing!

No snow for us, but plenty of dead leaves on the ground for Christmas

I would have posted some pics of Rina, but she was making a grumpy face on all the shots I took of her yesterday 😦

We were also able to live some of the Christmas magic as I was able to convince Ben to go walk downtown Victoria to go see the Christmas lights in action at the Parliament. You see, my wonderful husband doesn’t like it when we do non-physical family activities, so I had a bit of convincing to do, but with the help of my in-laws, we all packed up in two cars and headed downtown. It was perfect! Seeing as it was December 25 and around 4-5pm, there was barely anybody in the streets, making it easy to find parking and take wonderful pictures of the deserted streets. Below are some of my favourite shots I took:

The Parliament is on the left, blurry on purpose

Some of the Parliament buildings, all lit up.

The Empress Hotel from the Inner Harbour

The Inner Harbour

Christmas day sunset on the Inner Harbour

The moon, the Parliament and the Inner Harbour

Merry Christmas!

This morning, I was able to lounge in bed for a bit before I had a hearty breakfast and headed out for the Box for this:

Skills: Back Squat 6×3 E2M

I paired up with Tracey for these. My last PR for these were at 110#. I was going for 115#, but my math being what it is, I ended up my 6th round at 120# and even though my last rep was hard and I struggled to come out from the bottom, I managed to do it! Yay! A 10# PR on a 3-rep isn’t too shabby! The amazing Tracey managed 150#!!! I was in awe! She made it look easy too! Something to aspire to, fo’ sho’!

WOD: Baseline

This one is a basic one for our Box. I had first done it at the beginning of my On-Ramp program and finished in 7:55, using the black (widest) band and doing knee push-ups. The last time I did it was at the end of my On-Ramp program and I had done it in 6:55, using the black band and doing my HRPU from my knees. We had to separate into two heats today and I was part of the second one. I took two short breaks during the air squats (one after 10 reps, just to catch my breath, the other after 25 reps, to stretch my hip flexors a bit) and managed to do all the sit-ups unbroken. I was struggling through the push-ups, but I managed to do them all full HRPU, no knee push-ups for me, no siree! 😉 I then moved onto the pull-ups and they were hard. I broke them into 3-3-2-2. I finished in 7:35. Smack between my 2 previous times, but really, this was a PR for me as well, considering I did all my HRPU Rx and used way smaller bands for my pull-ups! A good day of hard work! 🙂 When the girls wake up from their nap, we will be going out to buy our new sectional for our living room! I’m so thrilled to say that I will finally be rid of our futon! It has served us well over the years, but at 36-years-old, I am ready for a REAL couch in my life! 🙂

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season! Mine just keeps getting better and better!