Gratitude

Gratitude seems to be the buzz word around the Thanksgiving holiday. I spent the two day prior to Thanksgiving Thursday decorating holiday trees and offices for the Florist that I have been freelancing for. Decorating a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. I still managed to teach most of my Yoga classes, and the intention was gratitude. I was surprised that my Wed. night class was not cancelled, seeing how it was from 6-7:15pm the evening before Thanksgiving. Most of my regular students expressed that they would be out of town. I had one student, and took the wife to class with me... It was a relaxing, stress relieving practice. Afterwards, we went to Blue burger for a veggie burger.....

We started Thanksgiving with a family hike nearby home. I plugged into my Ipod, and tried to focus on all the blessings that I had to be grateful for. The new puppy was a little unruly, but that is to be expected until she is trained properly. We had an early dinner which included Tofurky, yams, veggies, etc. It was relaxing, and because the weather was so nice, we ate outdoors. We made the obligatory phone calls to family with Thanksgiving wishes, and were done with that.

I spent Friday morning teaching my usual early morning classes. As I expected, they were poorly attended. 1 in power and 3 in Yin...... My 10:30am Power class was better attended however. I began the class by reminding everyone that although the average adult diet should consist of 1400 -2400 calories a day, and on Thanksgiving day, the average American adult consumes upwards of 3000 calories. According to the article that I read, it would require a 30 mile walk, or 8 mile run to burn those calories... I asked the class if anyone had done either of those after Thanksgiving dinner... No answers, just giggles. That was my justification for making the class particularly challenging. We did an unusually large number of sun salutations, and difficult transitions from Sun salutations.... At the end of the practice, I assured the class that we had not even come close to burning the 3000 calories that we all needed to burn, but that it was " a good start." Yoga classes ended at 11:30am. I zipped home, showered, and headed up north to do a Christmas decorating job for the Florist that I freelance for. Home by 5pm. It has been getting chilly in the evenings, and the family wanted to try out the new fire pit. We bought some wood and marshmallows and fixings for S'mores, and off we went fire pitting. I spent part of my time in the hot tub, and part of my time in front of the fire. It was a nice relaxing evening.. As the evening wore on, it became very windy outside. We have a cold front coming through. At 3am, I went outside to make sure everything was battened down. A few cushions were blown off chairs, but the cover was still on the hot tub, and the gazebos, furniture and TV were all secure...I have the TV and gazebos lag bolted into the concrete. A hurricane could not move them.... It did disrupt my sleep however.

This morning, I slept in. I was not up until almost 9am. Then it was off to teach my 10am class. A good challenging class that was well attended. After class, some philosophical yoga talk with a few of the students, and then I was off to finish the decorating job started yesterday. Finished in no time, and back home by 1pm. Spent the rest of the day outside reading and watching college football....Well, there it is then....... You are up to date....