My favourite part of a 21st by far are the speeches! Those embarrassing stories that you hope would never come up in life again, they do. And all at one time! It doesn't take much to make me laugh, so most of the time these speeches have me in stitches!
We recently had my cousins Military themed 21st. Growing up he was very go with the flow and embraced each situation he was put it. He had plenty of big and far-fetched ideas but often didn't have the plan to achieve this result, which resulted in some hilarious failed attempts. He would always take them on the chin and turn what could have been a disaster into something that had the rest of us rolling on the floor laughing.
And as per any 21st, his Mum, Dad, Sister and girlfriend had all these stories in the bank and ready to be pulled out again on his night. Along with a brilliant slide show, the speeches didn't fail to deliver and had me and all other attendees laughing very hard.
About a week ago I was treating a patient at work one day and he said something that really made me think. This session was just before Christmas and we were talking about how the year had gone by so quickly (like every other year), and he said to me "Well what have you actually done this year?"
It was a really good point, a whole year has gone past and what have I actually begun, finished, attempted, achieved this year? What was I proud of doing, what changes have I made - for the better and the worse?
So for the past week now I have been putting it down on paper. I tried to break it up into work/career, exercise, lifestyle etc. but a lot of it all seemed to merge together. And I don't think I'm anywhere near finishing it yet (hopefully I will be by the time the year ends) but when you put it all in one place like this, you can see that although a whole year has gone by, a lot has happened and I have more accomplishments than I thought I did.
So, what did you do this year?
Not many people in the group I train with swim. But I'm slowly getting them into the pool one by one. Two of them have now decided that we a forming a Rotto Team (19.7km swim across the Rottnest Channel) for 2015 ...we missed the cut off for 2014, so we have 14 months to prepare.
My biggest challenge was getting someone back in who I fought to get in the water around 10 months ago. The first obstacle was not owning bathers. So I made her a spread sheet of online websites selling training bathers so she could find a pair...and she did - TICK! Then I gave her a pair of goggles - TICK! Then 10 months ago, with two other chicks, I got them all in the pool and started working on technique with them. This probably lasted a month.
10 months on we formed a deal...if she got in the pool, I would go in the gym. And today she did it! She couldn't find her bathers, and forgot her goggles (lucky I have a million back ups) but she got in a covered around 500m. WINNER!! Probably wasn't her most ideal way to spend a Sunday morning and she might not yet be a convert...but I'll get there!
No, I'm not hung over...one of the perks of not drink = never been hung over! I'm talking about the morning after a big long day/couple of days prior where people come out of the wood work a little worse for wear, regroup, and start to work off the festive few days prior.
I put on a free boxing class, as the gym had cancelled all group classes for the two weeks over Christmas and New Year which I advertised to my family, friends, training groups and boxing class regulars; and had a surprisingly big turn out of 15. It was good to see people of all ages and levels of fitness come down and punch the crap out of their partner.
So my 'morning after's' are not about pulling myself out of last nights clothes and swearing to never drink again, but instead reconnecting with my fit fam and working hard!
How my family celebrates Christmas is it is split over two days. Yesterday we were with Dad's brother and sister and their partners and children, today it was Mum's sides turn. Her parents live down in Mandurah which is around a 40 minute drive from where we live. Mum has a sister who, with her husband have two kids also. So our second day of Christmas is spent with the 10 of us down at my grandparents Mandurah house, again another tradition I couldn't imagine straying from.
My 8 year old cousin definitely keeps us all young. Just as we were starting to outgrow the whole Santa thing growing up, this little poppet was born and launched us straight back into the Christmas magic. Her belief in Santa keeps the magic alive and keeps us all excited about Christmas which makes the day that little bit happier.
I love the way our families split Christmas over two days. This means we are not rushing around from house to house, family to family and we don't finish the day absolutely exhausted. The festive season lasts that little bit longer.
Christmas Day for us is full of family time. My morning saw my waking at 4.45, up and out the door for a 10km run to get myself going to for the day. Once my family was all up and going after my return we sat around our tree for a bit exchanging gifts and just chatting.
Today, the day was being spent with Dads side of the family at his brothers house. There are twelve if us on this side of the family and the day is spent sitting around p, making fun of each other and ourselves for literally hours. Years in the past we have had less to talk about because we were all located and living in Perth. Now however one of us kids and two parents are now living in Sydney and had made the trip home for Christmas. We thought we'd have the whole family back together for this day, however another cousin, had booked a trip away with her boyfriend who is a professional footballer, so had no other options due to training commitments. as much as she didn't want to miss the family Christmas, she had to make the most of the time she had with her boyfriend and called us from the Maldives midway through the afternoon. We had our annual family photo and left a place for her in the photo where we plan to photo shop her in.
For us it is a big day spent with the family reunited again, many debates, stories and laughs and could not imagine it any other way. I hope everyone out they had a fantastic Christmas Day spent with family and friends.
Most people have shut down for the remainder of the year and are in full holiday mode. For our family, the tradition is the Christmas Eve Morning Swim.
A group of 40 or so keen swimmers gather at Cott Beach at 6.30 for the annual handicapped swim. Everyone was relaxed and carefree and in holiday spirit, coming together for a bit of healthy competition and making the most of our beaches. There is a huge range of ages and abilities that congregate each year, which is why the race is handicapped. You submit your 1km time and the race organiser determines your start time from there.
This year, as per every other year, I am off dead last with a lot of catching up to do. Unlike every other year though there were no stingers, so no one came out of the water in pain and covered in welts. The swim sets up the day for finalising gifts, running around to pick things up and organising everything for tomorrow.
Christmas is upon us!
