December 2018 Reflections

December was a good month.  Christmas often wears me out and depresses me, but I mostly avoided those feelings this year.  Here are my reflections.

The Good

CPA Exam – I passed AUD.  Now I just have one more section to go, and the CPA exam will be behind me.

Christmas Presents – I am not going to do a complete run down of my gifts, but overall the things I got this year were what I wanted and/or nice to have.  My husband in particular did a great job this year.  He normally gets me tech gadgets that I am not always sure what I am going to do with them.  This year he got me a large picture frame with ten spots for pictures.  Seven of these are filled with pictures of us on various hiking trips over the last few years, one is a picture of us with my cousin & her boyfriend when we went to Hamilton this summer, and the remaining two are empty for future shots.  He also got me a handmade custom cutting board engraved with our wedding date that was done by a friend of his.  Technically it is a usable kitchen item, but it is so beautiful that I will likely display it somehow instead.

Holiday Festivities – December is always packed full of stuff, but luckily it was mostly enjoyable this year. I went to a Trivia Night (I was on the last place team, but everyone raved about my pepperoni rolls), a Jazz Concert featuring the Charlie Brown Christmas album (awesome party at my neighbors), various places when my mother was in town (Meadowlark Botanical Gardens Winter Wonderland Walk, Ford’s Theatre Museum for both the museum and a showing of The Christmas Carol, and various restaurants), and Light Up Fest at One Loudoun (amazing!) followed by dinner with the hubby.  The holidays themselves consisted of the in-laws coming to our house the Sunday before when my stepson was here for brunch and a quiet day at home for the actual holiday.  New Year’s Eve is looking to be a game night with some neighbors, but of course that has not happened yet.

Christmas Movies – This year I focused on nostalgic movies/shows from my past.  The criteria for what was included was a) what could I remember watching when I was growing up (anything released before 2000 was eligible) and b) what could I find on one of my entertainment viewing options.  I put them in order below from least enjoyable to most enjoyable seeing them now as an adult.

Babes in Toyland (1986) – This was awful.

A Christmas Story (1983) – I never liked this as a kid, and I do not like it now either.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) – Starting here forward, I liked everything.

Frosty the Snowman (1969)

I’ll Be Home for Christmas (1998)

The Santa Claus (1994)

Frosty’s Winter Wonderland (1976)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1993)

Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974)

White Christmas (1954) – This will always be one of my favorites!

I was hoping to watch Home Alone (1990) as well.  However, Netflix, the US Post Office, and I did not coordinate our schedules correctly and it only arrived today.  I thought about trying to cram it in before posting this, but I just do not have the time or motivation to watch it right now.  I will have to watch it in January.  I would expect that one to fall in the middle somewhere, but since it has been 20 years or so since I last saw it, I have no idea exactly where.

I also technically watched Die Hard (1988) this year, but I am excluding it from my actual list because a) I never saw it until I was an adult and b) it is not a Christmas movie (it is an action movie set during Christmas).

The Challenges

Job Search – I made zero progress on the job front this month.  I have no excuses.  I just keep procrastinating and finding other things to do instead.

Dentist – I had to go to the dentist twice this month.  The first was my semi-annual cleaning.  It is not a particularly fun appointment, but routine and went about normal.  Except I had a cavity.  It is a spot that my dentist has been watching for a while because it was stained and pitted.  It finally became sticky and had to be fixed.  Second appointment was definitely not pleasant, but in the grand scheme of possible dental work not so bad.

Diet & Exercise – I knew December was going to be a tough month for me in this department, and it was.  Technically I was still setting my goal at below net 1800 calories, but I was over it more than 50% of the month.  There are just way too many holiday treats around, and I have no control once they are in front of me.  I did not do terribly when it came to the exercise routines though.  Schedule-wise it was not easy for me to get to the gym for a lot of the normal stuff, but I did a number of at home workouts using the circuits in my 28 Day Challenge book.  I also took a few walks on nicer days, especially toward the end of the month.  I am not sure I hit the 4 active days every week, but at least I did not just let it go completely.  My weight has been fluctuating all month, but as of this morning I am netting about 8 pounds less than where I started in January.  That is a win for the year.

The Future

My life will continue into the future much as it has been for the past several months.  I start back on CPA studying next week, working on the BEC section.  I will continue to plan (and likely procrastinate) on the job search.  My social life will probably be minimal for the next few months.  January and February are too cold and have unpredictable weather, so I never want to do much or plan too much.

My plan for the blog is to continue with the once a month postings.  I do intend to write the In The Tradition posting that I do annually in the next couple of days.  After that, it will be back to one post per month on the last day (or maybe the next day).  I am going to keep it a reflections style posting, but I will not be using the Good, Challenge, & Future sections.  It will just be ramblings on whatever I feel stood out during the month for me.  Once I get through the exam and the job search, I will reassess what I want to do with my blog going forward.

There you have it, my month in review.  See you next month!