Let the season begin!

The holidays are DEFINITELY here!  The kids are nutty at school, the cookies are everywhere and I have singing galore.  School is the biggest challenge...you don't want to crush their holiday spirit, but no, we can not have a "day off" because Hannukah started yesterday.  Nor, can we sing about Santa and his reindeer every day.  We have a concert in January that we're preparing for!  Anyway, rant over.

Life outside of school is good.  I was down 1.8% at the gym this week and feel like I'm finally making progress.  My goal is to have another good week before the insanity really hits.  (Wedding, b'day and Christmas all in 1 week!)

Saturday was my first concert of the weekend.  The Hudson Voices is a small a cappella group associated with The Rockland County Choral Society.  We sang for 3 different nursing care facilities in the area.  It was both wonderful and sad.  It's nice to bring some holiday spirit to the seniors in our area but also sad to see how many were alone.

Sunday night I made a really yummy stew with venison that was a gift from a friend.  I don't hunt myself, but I have to say that it is nice to have friends who do!  I prefer not to actually see the source of my meal...I know it's a bit wimpy but that's how I am.  Venison is great because when it's cooked well it has a nice mild flavor and is REALLY lean.  It's almost as lean as chicken so it makes for nice variety on the diet plan.

My big accomplisment for the week was getting into the gym 5 days and going for a good walk on another.  I think 6 sessions in a week is part of the reason I was successful.  I also tried another new class at the gym.  (Finally getting moving on that resolution!)  Solutions is a circuit training class for a half hour.  You get a quick strength training workout and there is someone there to assist if needed.  I did that Saturday morning followed by a half hour of cardio.  Yay!  I am hoping that along with my 2 sessions with the trainer I'll start to see even more results.

I have 4 concerts this weekend with Sing We Enchanted and will be cooking my first turkey on Sunday.  Wish me luck!!  We're having a small "holiday" dinner with some friends that we didn't see for Thanksgiving and won't see for Christmas.  It's sort of a 2nd family type thing and I'm looking forward to it as well as being terrified.  I'm doing the turkey, stuffing and a mincemeat pie.  Everyone is bringing something else to make the dinner amazing.  I'm really looking forward to trying some other peoples traditions.

Have a great week everyone and I'll check back next week with another update!