Joyeux Noël!

Every year just before Christmas, the family agrees on an outfit "theme." The year before it was blue; last year we wore floral print clothes; this year we wore purple. Even our decor had a hint of purple.

The sea of gifts shows just how big a family we are!

Traditionally, every family member gets busy in the morning of Christmas Eve to prepare for Noche Buena. This year we prepared ham, potato shrimp salad, chicken relleno, parsley rice, molo soup, charlotte russe, and fruit salad. When everything was set, we got ready for the 8:30 pm mass at the chapel just in front our house.

After the mass, we tried to have our annual family Christmas photo taken, but it was a tad too difficult coordinating a big family that includes a dog, a baby, and two little boys.

Our family (no in-laws and kids)

The entire family now

Following the "pictorial," it was now time to eat a little then have the Christmas family program, which is usually just a mishmash of performances by family members willing to look silly for a night. My niece played the guitar while my brother-in-law sang Wonderwall; the two boys sang and danced to Justin Bieber's Never Say Never; and Miguel did a reading of Si Inggolok at ang Planeta Pakaskas.

Rocking out

Miguel reading his book

After all that, it was finally time to open the gifts, which of course made the kids bounce with excitement.

Total chaos

When all that were done and the kids were busy playing with their toys, it was time for the mamas to unwind.

Mango margarita - cheers!

Now the countdown to 2012 begins!

December 26 WOD + dinner

I'd been gluttonously gorging on almost everything I see on the dining table the past couple of days and that made me dread going to the box today. I was expecting a benchmark WOD since CFMNL posted that Libis will be doing "Jumbo Jackie" today. But when I got there we did a running WOD instead. I think it's because the floor was newly painted that's why we had to do the WOD outdoors.

Today was 15 mins AMRAP of:

- 5 kettlebell presses
- 100m run
- 3 tuck jumps
- 100m run
- 3 long jump burpees
- 100m run
- 6 lunges (per side)
- 100m run

The kettlebell press is supposed to be done using one arm but I did a variation using my 2 hands and a 12 kg kettlebell. For the tuck jumps, I couldn't do it right so I just did squat jumps. And even then the coach kept shouting at me, "Squat lower!" Ah, well. I was able to do 3.5 rounds.

From the box, I went to dinner with high school friends plus Neil. We had some good laughs talking about our memories of Tin. Neil took it upon himself to give Christmas gifts to Tin's godchildren, and it makes me want to cry. We miss her. The priest at her funeral mass hit the nail on the head when he said, "We are sad because we know that nobody will love us the way Tintin did."

Holiday nails

Orly's Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

Pardon my masculine-looking hand -- I like to keep my nails super short.

December 23 WOD

Today's WOD was more challenging than usual. Karen said it's because they won't be seeing us for a couple of days because of the Christmas holiday! Punishing us in advance because they know we're going to stuff our faces this weekend?

Anyway, we did 15 mins AMRAP of:

- 10 dead lifts (Rx is at body weight)
- 10 lunges with plates (25 lbs for the ladies)
- 200m sprint

I did 75 lbs for the dead lifts and used a 15 lb plate for the lunges. I was tempted to go down to 65 lbs for the dead lifts but I wanted to challenge myself today, so 75 lbs it was.

I was able to do 3 rounds + 10 dead lifts and 10 lunges and I was so beat after that.

December 21 WOD

Only two people went to the 10 am class today, myself included. A lot of people seem to be getting busier preparing for Christmas. I myself can't wait for this work week to enddd.

Anyway, we worked on strength today. We did 6x3 (or was it 5? I can't remember now) front squats, starting light then working our way up. I maxed out at 75 lbs, and good thing we didn't have to clean the bar. Instead we used those things you place the bar on and you take the bar from a standing position.

Cash out was 10 mins AMRAP of:

- 10 thrusters
- 10 sit ups to burpees

For the thrusters, Rx was 55 lbs for girls but I used the 25 lb bar.

I did 3 rounds + 2 thrusters.

Miggy was there and he asked if I've been running better. I had to tell him that I haven't run since I started going to CrossFit, mainly because my muscles are too sore and stiff the day after a workout. But he said I should test it and maybe I will, this Christmas vacation.


P.S.
Also, I've been using the Tanita scale at the box and the first time I weighed myself (Nov 25) my body fat percentage was 24%. On Dec 7, it was down to 23.5%. Today, it's 23.3%. I'm not sure if that's accurate but I sure hope so. It makes me even more conscious about the food I eat. I know I have to lessen the junk but I can't help it!