For the New Year
Dec. 28th, 2002 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerr1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year?
Establishing a pattern of exercise. I bought an aerobics step, and did step and weight lifting exercise videos. I did about 150 workouts this year, which is a little under three times a week. I am definitely in better physical shape! Go me!
I am also extremely pleased that I seem to have a viable book idea now.
2. What was your biggest disappointment?
That despite the exercise, I didn't lose any weight. Yeah, yeah, we all know muscle weighs more than fat, but let me tell you, it is really discouraging to force myself out of bed at 5:15 a.m. day after day and kill myself, only to have the scale not budge at all. I slacked off a bit at the end of the year because I was getting so discouraged. I have to get more ruthless about my diet, and recommit to exercise to kick it up to a higher frequency.
3. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions?
Recommitting to exercise. I have a couple of habits I'm not proud of which I'm going to try to eradicate, which I won't mention here, but I'll try (again) to get rid of them. Haven't been successful, despite earlier resolutions, but hey, I did get the exercise habit established, so maybe this is the year.
And not exactly a resolution, but I intend to write lots on the new novel.
4. Where will you be at midnight? Do you wish you could be somewhere else?
I will be at my sister's house with my family, which is just exactly where I want to be. We will have opened our family gifts and will be toasting the new year.
5. Aside from (possibly) staying up late, do you have any other New Year's traditions?
We play the White Elephant game! This has been a family tradition in my family for nigh on forty years:
The Rules:
Everyone brings a mathom or two, gift wrapped, and they are all piled in the center of the circle. (This is your chance to get rid of those salt and pepper holders you never used, or the Praying Jesus plate Aunt Matilda gave you for your wedding, or the VCR remote holder shaped like a stuffed goose or . . . ) Several pairs of dice are passed around. If you roll a 7 or 11, you take a gift from the center of the pile; if you roll doubles, that means you roll again.
When all the gifts are gone, everyone unwraps and shows off their loot. Then a timer is set for five minutes. Dice are rolled and passed. If you get 7 or 11 you can either grab someone else's gift, or unload your gift onto somebody else. Doubles rolls again. And you're stuck with whatever you have when the timer goes off.
It gets to be a uproariously laughing screamfest. We discovered years ago that if you have very young children playing, some gifts should be included that are calculated to please them: matchbox cars, or little dolls. We all remember the year when my nephew David eagerly unwrapped his box, only to find my brother's skanky old tennis shoe, and he burst into tears, and it took quite a while to calm him down.
We have a rule that you have to leave with whatever you won, but there is a long time-honored tradition of trying to hide your white elephants at the hosts house so that you don't have to take them with you. Another vivid memory: one of my uncles hiding an old bowling ball behind the drapes. We discovered it and managed to lob it into the back seat of his car, just as he drove away. He stopped the car and lobbed it back onto our lawn.
We mailed it to him, COD.
Cheers,
Peg
Establishing a pattern of exercise. I bought an aerobics step, and did step and weight lifting exercise videos. I did about 150 workouts this year, which is a little under three times a week. I am definitely in better physical shape! Go me!
I am also extremely pleased that I seem to have a viable book idea now.
2. What was your biggest disappointment?
That despite the exercise, I didn't lose any weight. Yeah, yeah, we all know muscle weighs more than fat, but let me tell you, it is really discouraging to force myself out of bed at 5:15 a.m. day after day and kill myself, only to have the scale not budge at all. I slacked off a bit at the end of the year because I was getting so discouraged. I have to get more ruthless about my diet, and recommit to exercise to kick it up to a higher frequency.
3. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions?
Recommitting to exercise. I have a couple of habits I'm not proud of which I'm going to try to eradicate, which I won't mention here, but I'll try (again) to get rid of them. Haven't been successful, despite earlier resolutions, but hey, I did get the exercise habit established, so maybe this is the year.
And not exactly a resolution, but I intend to write lots on the new novel.
4. Where will you be at midnight? Do you wish you could be somewhere else?
I will be at my sister's house with my family, which is just exactly where I want to be. We will have opened our family gifts and will be toasting the new year.
5. Aside from (possibly) staying up late, do you have any other New Year's traditions?
We play the White Elephant game! This has been a family tradition in my family for nigh on forty years:
The Rules:
Everyone brings a mathom or two, gift wrapped, and they are all piled in the center of the circle. (This is your chance to get rid of those salt and pepper holders you never used, or the Praying Jesus plate Aunt Matilda gave you for your wedding, or the VCR remote holder shaped like a stuffed goose or . . . ) Several pairs of dice are passed around. If you roll a 7 or 11, you take a gift from the center of the pile; if you roll doubles, that means you roll again.
When all the gifts are gone, everyone unwraps and shows off their loot. Then a timer is set for five minutes. Dice are rolled and passed. If you get 7 or 11 you can either grab someone else's gift, or unload your gift onto somebody else. Doubles rolls again. And you're stuck with whatever you have when the timer goes off.
It gets to be a uproariously laughing screamfest. We discovered years ago that if you have very young children playing, some gifts should be included that are calculated to please them: matchbox cars, or little dolls. We all remember the year when my nephew David eagerly unwrapped his box, only to find my brother's skanky old tennis shoe, and he burst into tears, and it took quite a while to calm him down.
We have a rule that you have to leave with whatever you won, but there is a long time-honored tradition of trying to hide your white elephants at the hosts house so that you don't have to take them with you. Another vivid memory: one of my uncles hiding an old bowling ball behind the drapes. We discovered it and managed to lob it into the back seat of his car, just as he drove away. He stopped the car and lobbed it back onto our lawn.
We mailed it to him, COD.
Cheers,
Peg
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2002-12-28 09:05 am (UTC)Will answer your other "why are you here?" post when I get back from my 2nd viewing of TTT. *g*
(no subject)
Date: 2002-12-28 10:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2002-12-30 01:46 pm (UTC)The Elephant had a mathom Christmas party - everyone brought mathoms of a sort and they were distributed as people left.
And a friend in Detroit does something similar.
(Did you see the art by the guy who carves bowling balls?)
Good luck on the resolutions.