Tag Archives: holidays

A Very Low-Key Holiday Weekend (or Enjoying A Real 3 Day Weekend)

For me to have a 3 day weekend is extremely rare. Because I work Monday-Saturday between my 2 main jobs, if a holiday is on a weekend I get to have 2 days off. And if a holiday is on a Monday (which so many of them are), then I also get to have 2 days off instead of just 1. But to have 3 days off is something that just doesn’t happen much for me. But for Christmas, that’s what I got!

Both of my jobs had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as holidays, so I had Friday-Sunday off work. It was a nice break that I really needed after having a crazy few months recently. And for the most part, I didn’t do much over those 3 days. But I think that’s exactly what my body and mind needed.

On Friday I did have my workout in the morning which was fun. And then that afternoon a friend of mine came over to the condo because I wanted to start marking out some of my furniture and planning how I want to set things up. I still have time before I am moving in, but it’s easy to plan out now when there is nothing there and I’m not worried about messing up new floors or walls. And there are a few new things I want to get for the condo, but I needed to figure out how much space I would have. Just taping out my current furniture helped me so much and I’m starting to look more at things I want to get (although I will be waiting until I move in for most new things since I want to see what I really need).

And on Christmas Day, I really did a lot of nothing. I didn’t set an alarm so I was able to sleep in a little bit. I spent a lot of time reading and watching things on Netflix I wanted to catch up on. And I ordered Chinese food since that’s one of my Christmas traditions. I didn’t technically watch a movie that day, but I think binge-watching shows on Netflix should count as a movie in a way.

And on Sunday, it was another somewhat lazy day but I was also getting things ready for my week the way I normally do on Sundays. I did some cleaning, laundry, and planned out my week a bit. I’m working almost every day this week, but I’m working half days so I have a bit more free time than I normally do during the week. But between things with the pandemic getting worse and the bad weather we are having in LA, I’m not sure I’ll be doing a lot this week either.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is always a bit of an odd one even in normal times. I’ll try to go out and do things when I can, but I also want to spend this week getting myself ready for 2022 and all the good things that I know will be coming my way in the new year!

Time For A Short Christmas Post (or I Hope You Have A Great Holiday Weekend)

Merry Christmas Eve! Just like I do for most holidays, this is going to be a short post. Even though I don’t celebrate Christmas, I do have my own traditions and I try to keep them up each year. This year, because of my work schedule and how the holiday falls on the calendar, I actually have a 3 day weekend. I rarely get those because I typically work Monday-Saturday. But this time things aligned and I get to have Friday-Sunday off!

I don’t have any crazy plans, but I’m excited to have a bit of a break so I can relax and enjoy time off. And I want to start doing some planning for the new year as well.

I hope you all have a great Christmas Eve and Christmas and you get to celebrate the way you want to! I know it’s not easy this year with the new variant, but I think we all learned last year that we can find ways to celebrate even if we can’t be together. And I’m excited to do some 2021 recap posts next week and then write about some plans for 2022 the week after!

Another Low-Key Thanksgiving (or Doing Some Of My Traditions)

Since my family celebrated our Thanksgiving early, I didn’t have things to do with my family on actual Thanksgiving Day. I wasn’t sure what I’d do for that day, but I knew I’d have the day off of work so I wanted to make some plans for myself. And even though this wasn’t my traditional Thanksgiving, I think I did a pretty good job for myself.

I allowed myself to sleep in. But since I’m so used to getting up so early every day, sleeping in for me now is closer to what time I used to get up before the pandemic when I had my old schedule. But it was still nice to have extra sleep and I also was able to be lazy in bed for a while instead of rushing to get things done.

Next I went to a workout at Orangetheory. I had my family workout 2 weeks ago, but I didn’t want to miss my Thanksgiving day workout. I’ll write more about this in my workout recap, but it was a nice thing to do that felt like a normal Thanksgiving to me. Last year, I did work out at home, but going to the studio is so different and I’m glad I had the chance to do that this year.

The next thing I did was to go over to my condo to do a bit of work. I am going to be selling some appliances, so I needed to get good photos I could use to list them. And I wanted to try to do a few other tasks around the condo that helps to prep things for the renovations that will be coming up. But since I was going to be at the condo for a while and I knew traffic wouldn’t be too crazy, I asked my friend Robert if he wanted to come check out my new place. I hadn’t had any friends come over to see my condo, so it was exciting to have someone see the place I’ve been talking about! And since his background is in design, he and I were working on some ideas for how to arrange my furniture. I’ve already been excited about my new place, but having a friend come over and be excited too took my excitement to a new level!

And the last part of my day was to cook and have a bit of some Thanksgiving food. I didn’t make as much as I did last year and I didn’t want to go too crazy. So I made green beans with shallots and bacon (one of my favorites). And instead of doing a big turkey breast like last year, I found turkey breast cutlets at the grocery store when I was seeing what options I could make. And while I was at the store, I looked for some recipes and found a simple one that only required a few extra ingredients. So I made that too and had a pretty basic Thanksgiving dinner, but it was still delicious!

And after dinner, I just relaxed and watched tv before going to bed. I didn’t do anything crazy or fancy, but it was still a nice day for me. And since having a full day off of work is rare for me, even just that felt like a luxury and I was happy to have a chance to relax.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving doing whatever you did! And if you cooked, I hope you had success like I did!

Happy Thanksgiving! (or My Tradition To Have A Short Post)

As I usually do on Thanksgiving, this is going to be a pretty short post today.

I really hope that you all are getting to celebrate Thanksgiving the way you want and with the people you want to be around! As I am writing this post, my Thanksgiving Day plans are still a bit undecided, but I know whatever I end up doing I’ll be enjoying my time!

I know so many of us felt like we couldn’t celebrate last year, and I hope you all can celebrate safely this year.

Enjoy great food, awesome laughs, and an overall amazing day today!

Not Quite Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Time (or A Full Family Day)

As I mentioned in my workout recap, this past Saturday my family celebrated Thanksgiving early. Thanksgiving is the main holiday my family celebrates, and last year was the first time we weren’t celebrating together. But since we are all vaccinated, we wanted to get together this year to celebrate. And it was decided that since it is significantly less expensive to celebrate on a weekend other than Thanksgiving weekend, it was decided that this past weekend would be when we would get together.

Things were in Santa Barbara this year, so it was going to be easy for me to get there. But because of how my schedule was, I knew my time with everyone was going to be limited. I had things to do pretty late on Friday, so I was going to drive up on Saturday morning. And the original plan was for me to stay the night and go home on Sunday, but I would be leaving early on Sunday morning so I said I might just drive home Saturday night. But when I got all my stuff together, I did it with the plan that I might spend the night.

I drove up pretty early, but it didn’t feel too early to me since I’m up early anyway most days. And since it was early, there was no traffic and I had a very easy drive up. I got there with a bit of time before we were going to go to our workout, so I hung out with my parents before my dad and I left for Orangetheory (my brother was going to meet us there).

After the workout, I went back to the rental house my parents got and showered and changed before we headed to the club that my brother and sister-in-law belong to. They were there with my niece and nephew (and my cousin was there with her kids) because it was a very hot day and everyone wanted to swim. I just hung out in the shade at a table because I was still dealing with some of the side effects from my vaccine. But that was fine with me because I got to spend a lot of time catching up with my sister-in-law and cousin. Plus I got to hang out with my niece (my nephew is still a bit wary of me, but hopefully he starts to remember me).

It was nice just being outside and enjoying time with family, even if I wasn’t feeling completely ok. And since I hadn’t seen my cousin or her kids in almost 2 years, it was crazy to see how much her kids have grown! Her oldest son is almost taller than me now!

And after swim time, everyone went back to where they were staying and we got ready to celebrate our not really Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner. This was also held at the club my brother and sister-in-law belong to, and we had a private dining area so it didn’t feel like we were in a restaurant or around a lot of people. It wasn’t exactly our traditional Thanksgiving celebration, but we were celebrating together as a family and that’s what is most important to us and how we celebrate.

Dinner was a few hours (which I guess is a bit more traditional for us) and then everyone started to say goodbye. Even if I was going to stay the night there, I wouldn’t see my family the next day so I had to say goodbye to everyone. And there is a good chance I won’t see most of them until next Thanksgiving. I’m used to spending a few days with family for Thanksgiving, so only having one day didn’t feel like I got my full fix of family time. But it’s so much better than last year when we had to celebrate over Zoom.

I did end up driving back home that night after dinner since it’s just easier for me to sleep in my own bed. And I forgot a few things I would have needed if I did spend the night in the rental house. But I’m about to have more family time with my parents soon, so missing one overnight isn’t too bad.

Normally, I feel like I have a ton of pictures after Thanksgiving. I’m not sure if it was because I didn’t have as many days with my family or if I was enjoying my family time and not focused on taking photos, but I don’t have a lot of photos from my day with my family. But I did get a cute photo of my nephew, a nice one with my niece (I couldn’t get her to smile), and a silly one of my parents’ dog.

Next year, hopefully we will be together for Thanksgiving (or fake Thanksgiving) again as a family. I missed this tradition so much last year and I’m so grateful we had it back again this year!

A Working Memorial Day (or Just Having A Regular Monday)

Last year, for Memorial Day, I had a virtual hangout with my friends. That was one of the first big virtual hangouts I had with my friends last year and I remember us thinking that we would hopefully be together by Halloween last year. It was also one of the first big traditions that I missed having since I usually am spending the day with my friends and enjoying a fun BBQ. But last year, we all understood why we couldn’t be together and I am still grateful that everyone in my friend group has been able to stay safe.

This year, I know some people were able to get together and the guidelines do say that vaccinated people can be together. But my friends and I have all been very cautious about things and I knew that we weren’t going to have a hangout this year. But that was ok with me since I had to work on what is a day off for so many people.

When I was only working my box office job, having Mondays off was a normal way of life. I never worked on Mondays so having a holiday on a Monday just felt normal to me. But now, I do work my other customer service job Monday-Friday (between all my jobs, I’m working Monday-Saturday with occasional Sundays). So having a Monday holiday would usually mean a day off. But at my customer service job, we also rotate who does holiday coverage.

Working on a holiday does mean extra pay, so that’s nice. And it’s only one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. And I didn’t have to stress too much about getting all the work done because holiday work means that you look for the most urgent issues. There would likely be a lot of customers that I could wait to do until we reopened on Tuesday, but I also had the option to do some of the other work if I had the time. This was my first time doing the holiday work, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

And I’m glad that I did it because I was able to get a lot of work done that I would not necessarily have had time to do on Tuesday. I did have some slightly urgent client issues that I immediately handled first when I logged in for the morning, but I was able to do other work to fill the rest of that hour. Then I had several hours where I could relax if I wanted to. And I spent that time getting a few things done around my house and reading before I had to log in for the evening. And somehow, I managed to almost complete all the work before I had to log out. I know that saved me at least 2 hours on Tuesday, and when I was working on Tuesday I had a lot more work to get done. So I never would have completed everything from the weekend in a single day. It was nice to have a day to get myself caught up and ready for the week.

And honestly, it was fine working on a holiday. Maybe I would have been a bit more upset if there was going to be an in-person hangout and I was going to miss my first chance to see my friends in person in over a year. And if there had been something planned, I’m sure I would have been able to figure something out so I didn’t miss out on it completely. But I’m glad that I didn’t have to add that stress into my day. And even though I had a working holiday day off, I was still able to relax a bit and enjoy my free time.

A Virtual Holiday Party (or Missing My Union So Much)

I’ve been getting more and more involved with my union. A lot of my involvement has been related to union service, such as being a delegate and attending board meetings. And being involved with union service is important since the members are leaders of the union. Even though we have staff, so much of what the union can do is because of the membership. So being involved in union service is something I try to do a lot of and try to encourage others to do so as well.

But I also have been trying over the years to do more fun things with the union too. And there are normally a lot of fun opportunities, such as going to screenings and attending classes and Q&A interviews. And a few times a year, there are big social events for the union. The biggest one in my opinion is the annual holiday party!

I’ve attended the holiday party for the past several years. I haven’t always been able to attend, but I always try my best. And it’s just a good fun time. It’s all about being social with other members. There is food, lots of photo opportunities, and lots of time to just talk to each other. Since there is no real agenda for the holiday party, it’s a great time to catch up with union members I haven’t seen for a while and to meet new members. Since most of the members I know are also involved in union service and a lot of members aren’t involved, it’s always been a time that I get to meet a lot of new people.

It can be a little overwhelming being in a big crowd when you don’t know everyone, but I’ve never regretted going. Sometimes I don’t stay too long, but I always go when I can and I always leave feeling so happy.

So with everything going on this year, missing the holiday party was just another thing that couldn’t happen. But that didn’t mean that it was completely gone. Normally, the holiday party is for the Los Angeles Local, so it’s only members from LA that are a part of it. But this year, with everyone getting used to having virtual hangouts, they made the holiday party a virtual one! And it was with union leaders from all over the country!

There were different videos that were included in the virtual party that highlighted different Locals within the union. And it was very positive and upbeat about how we have made it this far during the pandemic and soon things will be going back to how we are used to having them. Film and TV have started up again but at a very reduced capacity. I think everyone is ready for the entertainment industry to be back up and running and all of the leaders were very encouraging about that happening soon. We can’t control when the pandemic will end, but we can be prepared for when it happens so we can get back to work.

There was also some entertainment at the virtual party. Since our union covers singers too, we have amazing singers in the leadership. And there was even a short video with a cooking demonstration. It was really cute and I loved what they were able to put together.

I did miss out on seeing my friends and meeting new people, but that’s how I’ve been feeling about this entire year. I’m hoping it won’t be too long before we can all be together again. And I know I will appreciate it even more. And I hope that next year, they can do both the in-person and virtual holiday party. I love the in-person one because I get to meet so many members that live in LA. But I loved the virtual one and how it included members all over the country! That feeling of unity was wonderful and I want to continue feeling that.

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens next year with the party (or parties). But I’ve got my fingers crossed that we will have 2 parties in a year!

Sending Out More Holiday Cheer (or Hope This Makes People Smile)

Along with doing some Secret Santa exchanges, I like to celebrate the holidays each year by sending out cards. I started doing this several years ago. At first, I was unsure about sending out cards since it seems like only people with kids were doing it. But I realized that it can be fun to send them out on my own as well. I have never done photo cards, but a few of my single friends have given me some inspiration for ideas in the future if I want to do photo cards. But for now, I’ve been sticking with non-photo cards.

Most years, I find pre-made cards and just buy enough for how many I’ll be sending out. When I didn’t have too many to send, regular cards with envelopes were fine with me. But as my holiday card list got bigger, sending out cards got a bit more expensive. So in recent years, I have switched to getting postcards since they are about half the price to mail. The selection of holiday postcards isn’t as great, but there are still a lot of options.

But this year, I wasn’t finding any that I liked that were in my budget. I knew I needed about 100 cards, and there were a lot that I loved that were about $15 for 10 cards. That’s just way too much for me. So I decided to make my own cards this year.

I took a little inspiration from some of the ones I liked when I was looking around but I wanted to change it up. Then I went into Canva to design it since I knew they would have the right dimensions for a postcard. Originally, I wasn’t planning on using one of their layouts, but I looked at them and found one that I liked that I could modify to be what I wanted. It was all pretty easy to put together. My original plan was to take the image and send it somewhere to print (like to an office supply store), but while I was doing some adjustments in Canva I noticed there was an option to order postcards directly from them. They weren’t too expensive, so I decided to go with them.

There was also an option to have them address and mail the postcards, but I wasn’t done getting updated addresses from everyone and finishing my list. So I had them shipped to me and I was going to make my own address labels and mail them myself. Maybe one year, I’ll have cards addressed and mailed for me, but it’s an extra cost so I’m not sure if the convenience is worth it yet.

I finally got my cards addressed and mailed and my friends should be getting them any day now. So I figure it’s safe to show what I made.

I feel like this ended up being the perfect card for this year. I did want it to look a bit cheery since it is a holiday card, but I didn’t want to pretend that this year was great. I had seen a lot of cards that were themed around this year being tough. And that seemed to be the right idea to represent my year and to put a little comedy in the cards.

Hopefully, all of my friends will like the card. I know how much I love getting fun things in the mail, which is one of the reasons I send cards out each year. But I also hope that this makes them smile a bit. It’s been so tough for everyone with everything going on. We want to look forward to next year, but it’s hard when we are still stuck in this year with all the struggles. But this card is a reminder that we should hopefully have a better 2021. This year is almost over and we are going to be going into a year that has a vaccine and maybe at some point next year it will be safe to start doing the things we all miss so much.

So suck it 2020! You were a horrible year. Yes, there were good moments, but overall it was awful. Good riddance to this year and here’s to what should be a better year ahead!

Having Fun Doing Gift Shopping (or Keeping Secret Santa To My Budget)

For the past few years, I’ve participated in different Secret Santa exchanges. Sometimes they are with big groups where I have no clue who I’m getting to buy gifts for and who is getting them for me. And sometimes they are smaller groups where I do know everyone and it’s just fun to get to shop for someone that I normally wouldn’t shop for. I love doing these and if I had the money I would participate in more of them. But I do have to be mindful of how much I spend so I do limit the ones I do.

This year, I’m doing 2 Secret Santa groups. One is through Reddit and one is through a Facebook group. With Reddit, I would be shocked if I matched with someone I knew, but I guess it could happen since I have friends who use the site. But I don’t think I’ve ever given a gift to someone I know on there or have gotten a gift from someone I know. But for the Facebook group, even though I don’t know the people in real life, we are a close-knit group online and I feel like I know the people in there.

I love buying gifts and figuring out the perfect thing to get someone. It is a little easier when I’m buying a gift for someone in my family because I know them well. But fortunately, the Secret Santa groups have us fill out forms that say what we like. So I have an idea of what to get someone and sometimes I find a really perfect thing.

I remember one year I found a book about the science of cooking for someone who said they wanted to cook but also wanted to understand the chemistry behind different cooking methods. Another year, someone said they liked cute things that looked like food and I found a set of erasers that were shaped like cookies. Both of those times, I heard back from the person I gave them to and they thanked me for getting them something they love. That’s an amazing feeling! And it’s not about how much I spend or what exactly I get them, it’s about finding the perfect thing even if it’s not something that is expensive.

I’ve completed the shopping for one of my exchanges so far and I’m hoping to do the shopping for the other this weekend. Both exchanges have a limit of about $30. I have gone over that before if I find something really perfect. The exchange this year that I found the things for already was like that. I didn’t want to just get one thing, I found 3 that I think will be perfect. But the 3 things together went about $5 over budget. But it’s worth it to me. I will hopefully find out soon what they think about the gifts.

I know that I should be saving money and not spending when I don’t have to, but doing Secret Santa exchanges are more than just about gifts to me. They make me happy. They bring a lot of joy to me and that’s something I know I need. And I need that especially this year. There haven’t been a lot of joyful things, so I want to take advantage of it any time I can. And of course, I’m excited to get presents too and I can’t wait to see what I end up getting. But for me, it’s so much more aobut being able to shop for others than it is for getting stuff back.

I’ve also made small donations to friends who are collecting for present shopping for families who need help. I didn’t feel like I could take on a family on my own, but joining together with friends will allow us to do something nice for a family in need to make sure they have a nice holiday season.

Hopefully, everyone I get presents for enjoys them. I know I’ve been enjoying shopping for them. And maybe this will make this month a little bit better for everyone involved. That’s all we can hope for right now. This is the year to spread joy however you can, and Secret Santa exhanges are the perfect way for me to do it.

I Do Enjoy Valentine’s Day (or Celebrating All Love In My Life)

I know that Valentine’s Day is a love or hate holiday. Some people love being able to acknowledge love in their life or showing how much they love another person. Some people hate it, and I seem to be more familiar with the reasons people hate it. I’ve heard how it’s a holiday that is made up and only to sell things. I know some people think it’s an excuse to have a bad and overpriced date. And others say that it leaves out single people and they aren’t able to celebrate since they aren’t in a relationship.

I’m not going to debate that going out on Valentine’s Day might be overpriced and I have no clue if it’s really a made-up holiday. But I will dispute the idea that it’s only a holiday for people in relationships. I believe that any love can be celebrated on Valentine’s Day. And I’ve written a post about how I celebrate love in my life before explaining this. Things haven’t changed much for me. If anything, I believe even stronger now that everyone should be celebrating all love in their life and not just romantic love.

I’m incredibly lucky that I have as much love in my life as I do. Of course, I do want romantic love and am still searching for it, but my life isn’t less than because I don’t have that just yet. I have amazing friends and family that I love and that I know love me. They support me in all my craziness and I know I could turn to anyone if I needed help. If something happened to me, I wouldn’t feel alone because I didn’t have a boyfriend or husband. When I thought I needed liver surgery, I had friends that said they could come over to help me do the things I couldn’t do for a few weeks. I know that having someone I was in a relationship might mean I automatically have someone who could do that for me, but I have friends who can fill in and I’m fine with that.

For several years, I have celebrated the idea of all the love in my life on Valentine’s Day. But this year I feel that even more. I think that’s due to a realization I had after having a talk with a guy that I was trying to get closure with. In that talk, I realized there is a difference between wanting to be with someone and needing to be with someone. That realization actually gave me the closure I was searching for with that guy. And it made me understand why he and I never could have worked even if he hadn’t done the things he did that hurt me.

But it’s gone far beyond just that closure. I have realized that while I do want a relationship, I do not need it. I am living an awesome life without having a significant other. I am not looking for my missing piece. I am looking for someone who can add amazing things to my life and not someone who needs to fill what is missing. And I think having that thought in my head has helped me remember that my life is full of love even if I don’t have a boyfriend or a husband. And it’s important to remember that love and to celebrate it.

I do try to celebrate the love in my life throughout the year and not just for Valentine’s Day. Life is short and I don’t want to miss the chance to tell someone that I love them or how much they mean to me. I thought about doing something for Valentine’s Day for the people I love, but I just didn’t get it together in time. I did send out holiday cards just about 2 months ago to the people I would have sent Valentine’s cards to, so I do know they know how much they mean to me. I would have loved to have sent out cards again, but it just didn’t happen. Hopefully, next year I can do that.

And as far as my Valentine’s Day plans go, I don’t really have anything planned yet. I have my normal Friday routine with my workout and work, but nothing is planned after that. I might see if a friend wants to meet up and do something. I might stay home and be lazy on my couch. I might end up having a random date (which has happened on Valentine’s Day before). I’m not worried about making plans and whatever I do tonight is going to be the right thing to do. The only thing I know I will do is that I will celebrate the love in my life no matter what because I am so lucky to have what I do have.