So this is it, the last week of 2013. It’s been an interesting year!
A quiet Christmas for us and the cats this year.
I was up early Monday and Tuesday for a HIIT workout before running errands. Christmas sparkle returned passing a running group of Santa’s in Monday evening!
Peppermint Bark fail. I loosely followed a Tone It Up recipe and my coconut flakes just weren’t going to be coconut butter! Sometimes you need the real deal for things to work.
It’s been grey and wet most of the week. Not as wet as the UK with flooding and power cuts, but enough to make you feel blue. Just like when it rains there’s always an umbrella in the bin, when it floods there’s always someone canoeing down the street!
Christmas Eve always has magic in the air or at least to me there’s sparkle. Places close early, not many people are out and there’s a hint of excitement. We spent the evening exploring the Old Town and port in Nice. We managed to get right down to the sea rocks along the sea defences. The sea was a little rough and without lights, I felt like a smuggler from way back when!
Christmas morning still in our PJ’s we opened our stockings (thank you Mum) and presents. This is probably the 5th Christmas in 13 years we’ve celebrated together. If you’re in the catering/hospitality business, you work holidays. I never minded working Christmas or New Year. It was an easy shift! Paul’s family open presents in the morning, mine, stockings in bed (or when we were kids we all piled on our parents bed which always ended in a wrapping ball paper fight) and presents in the afternoon sometimes evening when Christmas dinner was all cleared up. That was and still is agony on the little ones! One thing that has become tradition for me is a Christmas run or workout depending on which training day Christmas falls on and where I am! This started when spending Christmases alone in Barcelona and the gym was open! My Christmas movie was always at the cinema. This year, Christmas fell on a run day, so 7km in-between rain showers it was!
Every year my Mum makes the family individual Christmas cakes to take away. I’ve been a good girl and have resisted cutting it since November. It was worth waiting for!
Pre dinner walk around the Old Town and Port. Few people were out with just a few places open.
Dinner was good and the cats enjoyed a tin of tuna. The advantages of living with a chef! Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters was our Christmas movie. Do you find action movies get you fired up to workout? I do!
Thursday, the sun said hello for a little while. I added a few more cardio intervals to my workout (champagne, chocolate, Christmas cake). Balance and negotiate it) while Paul went for a motorbike ride. 26th December or Boxing Day unlike the UK is a normal working day in France. Carrefour was chocca. They were only closed for one day! The January sales in France start 8th January while in the UK this year they started online Christmas Eve and about 6am Boxing Day on the high street. No such luck here!
Paul’s been full of cold this week and I’ve been plying him with juices. My cold busting, vitamin C recipe: 3 carrots, 1 apple, ginger, 1 kiwi, 1 orange and cranberries. I’m hoping it shifts it quick. I don’t want it.
10km off road/road run along my pre injury 10km running route Friday. First time running hills and stairs in about 4 months, so I took it easy with no issues. Everything seems to be working as it should, which is a great way to start 2014. Still slight adductor issues when I run, however not as intense. I’m hoping by February I’m back to ‘normal’. Uh oh! Bigger/longer hills are up next as is getting out of sleepy ville!
I hope you’re enjoying the festive week! What are your plans for New Years Eve?