Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the Gagnon’s

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Hi there! Anyone else enjoying an extra day off today? I wasn’t planning on taking today off, but I am so happy I did since I’m home in Maine with my family who is also not working.

As I’ve mentioned before, I took the train home on Tuesday, which is always fun. I don’t mind the drive, but since my sister was driving home later on Tuesday due to a work party and will drive me back to Boston tomorrow, it made sense for me to just take the train. I thought about reading, but ended up blogging and napping which is totally ok.

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When I arrive at the train stop, mom and dad were waiting for me. Mom was looking quite festive in her {ugly} Christmas sweater.

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We ran a couple of errands before coming home for lunch and baking/cooking. I snuck in a quick workout (6 rounds of this workout and 2 rounds of this workout which ended up being awesome… and taking less than 25 minutes including a quick warm up!) before making a delicious dessert and going to church.

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Not long after we got back from church, we popped open bubbly and waited for our friends to arrive. Per usual the night was a blast! Good food, great friends, cute babies and solid Christmas carols… can’t get much better than that;)

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Before bed, we made mom read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, as it’s a tradition for us. Anyone else love this story?

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Christmas morning we woke up and opened stockings and our gifts. I was shocked to see that my parents got me the little moveable kitchen island that I had been wanting!! It’s going to be so perfect for my apartment as I am in DIRE need of more counter space and under the counter space. Thanks so much mom and dad!

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My sister got me the sweetest sister bracelets AND she got each of us a pass to take a barre class at Pure Barre in the Back Bay, which I’m so excited about!! Such a thoughtful gift for a fitness lover like me!

After we finished presents, we headed to the Mahoney’s for our annual Christmas brunch, accompanied by mimosa’s, of course 😉 I mixed cranberry juice with mine instead of orange juice and it may be my new favorite!

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We all came home for nap time (except for mom) before heading to Sara and Amy’s mom’s house for games and catching up. It’s always fun to get together with the girls and guys on Christmas night, but by 8ish I was ready to go home and go to bed! It had been a tiring couple of days and I couldn’t wait for bed 🙂

All in all, it was another fun-filled Christmas for the Gagnon’s and I am so blessed to have such fun family and friends to celebrate the holidays with! I’ll catch you up on the rest of my week in a bit, and I still owe you a workout (that I’ve created, I just haven’t written the post yet!).

Questions for you: How was your Christmas? What’s your favorite tradition? What was your favorite gift?

Somerville Jingle Bell 5K Recap

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I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas (if you celebrate) with your family and friends! Mine was absolutely perfect; I’ll share a recap with you soon, but until then, let’s catch up on the 5K I ran with my sister last weekend- it was so fun!

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As I’ve mentioned a number of times by this point, last weekend, my sister and I ran the Somerville Jingle Bell 5K. Since it was my sister’s first race and my 6th Jingle Bell race, I decided to run the race with her as her “pacer” to help her reach her goal. She works out 4-5 times a week, but she enjoys classes and spinning more than running, so not only was this her first race, but it was also her first time running 3 miles! We picked up our bibs Sunday morning then waited for our parents to arrive

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After having a slight issue with parking, we arrived at the start line just in time for the race to start (literally. It was 10:59 by the time we got there and the race started at 11).

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Our parents were so cute! they literally walked along side us until it was time for us to actually start the race.

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The race went really well! Danielle was a little nervous about it because she’s been getting shin splints lately and running has just felt hard, but she rocked it! I watched my watch throughout the whole race to make sure we didn’t get going too fast and then burn out later; I wanted to make sure she had enough energy to finish the race strong!

Our parents were able to catch some great pics of us as we were just about to cross the finish line- so happy to have these memories on camera.

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I think this was the best first race for Danielle to run since it was mostly flat. On top of that, there are so many fun costumes to look at- people get REALLY into it. We didn’t really wear costumes, per say, but did you see those lovely vests we wore, courtesy of Sue Gags? She’s got quite the collection 😉

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Post race we grabbed lunch at Christopher’s in Porter Square. We did this last year and it was perfect because if you go there straight after the race, you can get a table very easily! To celebrate the race, we got cocktails, duh. I call this blog Burpees to Bubbly for a reason, ya know 😉

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I ordered some Mexican breakfast plate and it was delicious. We love Christopher’s because the atmosphere is great, food is delicious and the prices are very reasonable. We had a blast chatting and getting excited about Christmas. As I’ve said before, Christmas Eve is my favorite night of the year, so talking about the food and friends who are coming made me very happy!

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All in all, it was an absolutely fantastic day. I love when I get to share fitness passions with other people, and when my sister is one of those “other people”, it’s even better. Thanks for running with me, Danielle- Can’t wait for the next one!

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Questions for you: Who is your favorite person to work out with? Have you been to Christopher’s?

Merry, Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas, friends! I hope you are all able to be with your families during the holiday season this year. I am so happy that I get to be home in Maine spending time with mine- I am so blessed!

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I’ll be back with regular blogging later this week- I owe you a Wednesday Workout post 😉 Thanks, again, for all your continued support- means the world to me!

Weekending: Granary Tavern, Birthday Lunching, Jingle Bell Running

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I’m pretty sure the weather this past weekend did nothing for getting people in the holiday spirit, right? Nothing like 60 degree weather in December! Oh well, by the end of the weekend, I was able to ignore the weather and fully get into the Christmas/holiday spirit!

Friday Night

Friday night, my sister came over and we headed into the city to meet up with my former yoga instructor and current friend, Alyson. We decided on Granary Tavern, which I love. Alyson was running late so Danielle and I grabbed a drink at the bar while we waited. I splurged on the La Crema because, well, why not?

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We shared a few things like the Fondue, Ahi Tuna and Pizza. So good!

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After dinner, we bounced around to a few places before going our separate ways. Such a fun night and we definitely need to do it again, Alyson!

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Saturday

For the first time in a month, I didn’t have to teach last Saturday! But, to be honest, I missed it 😦 I really love starting my Saturdays teaching at the Oak Square Y because the energy is so good in that class and it gets me pumped for the whole day! Last Saturday, I decided to head to the Wellington BSC for some cardio, core and BodyPump. It was great!

After lunch, I met up with some of my college girlfriends (I love when I get to see them more than once in a week!) at the Yard House for our friend Lauren’s birthday. Have you guys ever been to the M Street Shops? They have so many stores (including a Lulu!), coffee shops and restaurants. I’m seriously obsessed with it and cannot wait to go back. Lunch was delicious, but what made it even more special was the fact that our friend, Kelly, who lives in San Francisco now, joined us. It was perfect!

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I hope you had a good birthday lunch, Lauren!

Saturday night was amazing- I did absolutely nothing! I feel like I’ve been on the go a lot on week and weekend nights so the fact that I had the chance to be home, alone, with no plans was awesome. I was in bed at 10pm and slept until 8am. Boy was that necessary!

Sunday

I woke up feeling like a new woman after 10 solid hours of sleep! After breakfast, I headed to Somerville to meet up with my sister and our parents for the Jingle Bell 5K. I will recap on that later, but it was such a fun race and day! We are so lucky that our parents are so supportive and love coming down to do things with us. They braved the ice storm and everything. Thanks mom and dad!

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After the race and lunch, I was SO happy to have a chance to hang out on my couch and shamelessly watch cheesy romantic holiday movies. I’ve been seriously obsessed with these movies this year!

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I don’t have many Sundays where I have no meal prep to do, no lunches to make, no grocery shopping to do, etc. I had a little blogging to do, but besides that, I was faced with an afternoon with no plans and it was lovely 🙂

Questions for you: Have you ever been to Granary Tavern? Did you or do you know anyone who ran the Jingle Bell 5K? What’s your favorite Christmas movie?

This Week: Workouts, Schedule & What I’m Looking Forward To

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Hi there! Can you believe it’s Christmas week?! Shockingly enough, I feel like I have been able to enjoy the season this year. I decorated my apartment, I’ve attended Christmas parties and I’ve spent Sunday afternoons totally enjoying ABC Family Christmas movies (please tell me I’m not the only one who has a guilty pleasure watching those cheesy movies!). But, with that said, I still can’t believe that Christmas is in 3 days. I can’t wait!

Since it’s a holiday week and I’ll be home in Maine for most of it, my workouts will be a little different than usual, but that’s good sometimes!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I subbed a kickboxing class at the Watertown BSC. As I’ve been subbing more lately, I’ve realized how “trained” my members are who come to my permanent classes. Those members come week after week and are always ready for the crazy things I throw at them, however, when I sub, I am reminded that those members are not used to me and I need to tone it down a little so that people don’t feel overwhelmed. It’s weird!
  • Tuesday- I had all intentions of going to the gym after work to run on the treadmill, but when I got to the gym, they told me they were closing in 20 minutes. I had plans that night and was getting picked up at a certain time so by the time I trucked my way home through the snow, I had 10 minutes to do something. I could’ve skipped it all together, but I really needed to get some energy out so I did 10 minutes of random cardio moves. Wasn’t a lot, but it was better than nothing!

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  • Wednesday- I got up and worked out before work. I did a full body tabata workout and it was awesome!

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25 Days of Christmas

  • Friday- Rest day!
  • Saturday- I did 20 minutes on the elliptical, 10 minutes of abs and then BodyPump. It was awesome.
  • Sunday- I ran the Jingle Bell 5K with my sister! This was my 6th year running the race and I still have to say it is one of my most favorite races. What made it even more special was the fact that my sister ran it with me… as her first race! so proud!

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I have dinner plans after work so by the time this is published, I will have finished an at-home workout. Maybe this workout or maybe all 3 of my holiday series workouts (this, this, and this).
  • Tuesday- I am heading home to Maine on the 9am train so my plan is to try and get my workout done before that, but we will see.
  • Wednesday- It’s Christmas, so I am not sure if I’ll get a workout in or not. If there’s snow, I would love to go snow shoeing or cross country skiing with my mom!
  • Thursday- If the YMCA near my parent’s house is open, I may try to get to a class or do my own workout there. Otherwise, an at home workout.
  • Friday- Definitely trying to get to a class!
  • Saturday- There’s a great 1.5 hour cardio cross training class at the YMCA that I would love to get to before heading back to MA
  • Sunday- Pending on my workouts earlier in the week will determine whether or not I’ll workout on Sunday.

Schedule

This is a fun week because A.- there’s only 1 real day of work for me and B.- it’s Christmas so that means I get to go home to Maine for longer than usual! I am heading home on Tuesday morning and will be there until Saturday. It will be so nice to get out of the city for some extended R&R.

Things I’m Looking Forward To

Gosh. So much! Dinner at the Palm on Monday will be fun and I can’t wait to take the train home. We host a party on Christmas Eve with a bunch of family friends and it’s pretty much my favorite night of the year. We drink lots of bubbly, enjoy lots of homemade pizzas and laugh so much. I can’t wait!

Questions for you: Do you plan to workout over the holidays? What’s your favorite Christmas tradition? What are you looking forward to the most this week?