Guide to holiday blogging

Are you in a blogging rut? Need some ideas for blog posts?

Never fear, here’s 10 timely topics. Don’t worry, these haven’t been done to death by bloggers, magazine writers and local TV news.

1. How not to gain weight through the holidays and manage eating at holiday parties. This includes writing about low-fat and low-calorie versions of traditional holiday dishes.

2. Gift guides for everyone, including the neighbor’s dog.

3. How to survive spending time with your family over the holidays and holiday dinners

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Familia, Mexico

Descanso

Tía Ofelia, descanse en paz (rest in peace)

***

A while ago, I wondered what it was like for my father to grow up stateside while all his extended family was in Guanajuato. I felt like my father had been cheated of the relationships with his cousins, aunts and uncles I had thanks to proximity. I teared up thinking about how lonely it must have been for his parents and siblings without the support of their extended family nearby.

Despite this, my father is actually quite close to his cousins. You wouldn’t know that they didn’t grow up in the same town or ranch if you saw them interact. Well, my dad would stick out. He doesn’t look like he knows the first thing about driving a tracker or managing a ranch. But the resemblance between him and his cousins is uncanny.

In 2004, I took some time to get back to my roots in Mexico. As I prepared for my first trip in a dozen years, my parents were jealous. They told me I’d be treated like a rockstar. And I was, even if I was the only kid from the LA side of the family to visit. Everyone wanted to see me, take me to see the sites, made sure I ate well and overall I enjoyed my trip. A few of the kids started calling me Cindylandia. I loved it and in a short time developed a connection to people I was meeting for the first time as an adult — I didn’t remember much from my trips as a kid, and nothing from the trips as a baby.

One of those people was tía Ofelia, who lived on the ranch just outside of Salamanca. She was always much quieter than her many brothers (nine in total!), but she was kind and inviting. When we last visited in 2007, she accompanied another uncle, Max, and my parents on a short road trip to Morelia. We spent the day there with my great aunt and her children and grandchildren.

I knew tía Ofelia was gravely ill, but was still surprised to learn of her passing (via Facebook, oddly enough). My dad got a call from nephews in Houston.

Rest in peace, tía Ofelia.

Listed

December goals & November follow-up

I did better on my goals for last month (see below), but can still improve and this month gives me a good chance to do so. I know a lot of people dread December fitness-wise. I don’t. I’m also as chill as VR up there. I look forward to the family Christmas parties, holiday work parties and spending more time with friends as they have time off.

Since I work at a public university that needs to find clever ways to cut budgets, I get a forced 7 day vacation during the winter campus closure. As a result of the state’s penny pinching (er, fiscal mismanagement), I’ll have more time for Christmas related stuff as well as writing, getting in my workouts, try new classes, etc. It’s a good time for to mix up my usual routine.

DECEMBER GOALS

Health & fitness
1. Use my Groupon for yoga classes at a local studio
2. Run around the UCLA perimeter twice. I’ve done the 3+ mile route once a couple years ago. It’s a great hill workout.
3. Run the Holiday Half Marathon and PR (<1:58). I’m not sure I have it in me, but after the Turkey Trot I have more confidence in my ability to sustain a sub 9 pace.
4. Strength training, twice a week. I need to do this.
5. Do a couple of runs with a friend or group. Trail running with Lori in the San Gabriel Mountains perhaps?
6. Stick to my training plan. I’m paying a coach to tell me what I should do. I should listen to him.
7. Decide on the LA Marathon. Yes? No? I can’t delay much longer.

Wedding
The November goals we didn’t meet carry over.
1. Engagement photo session
2. Estimates/hiring 2 other big ticket vendors (mariachi? florist?)

The blog
1. Post 3 times week. I’ll have the time.

Other
Get the most of our Disneyland passes. We upgraded about a month before they expire. Might as well make our money worth it.

NOVEMBER GOALS

Health & fitness

1. Stick to my half marathon training plan – Check. I skipped 2 or 3 runs and was off 10 miles from the total my online coach had for me.

2. Run the Turkey Trot 10K and set a PR – Check.

3. Strength training twice a week – Fail. I’m much more likely to work out if I can do things at home. I’m lazy about getting to the gym even though it’s so close and on one of my running routes. I need one more piece of equipment to do most of my strength exercises my coach has for me at home.

4. Run home from work once a week – Half check. At rush hour, I can make the 5 mile trip from my office to my apartment on foot faster than on the bus or even doing my usual car/bus method. (Drive 1.5 miles, bus the rest. I do this to save money on parking. A subsidized bus pass is much more affordable than parking on campus.) This time of year, running home is a good way to deal with earlier sunsets and I’m guaranteed not to flake on my planned workout. It’s also mainly downhill, so that helps. Trouble is, it takes some preparation. I ran home twice; the third week I forgot to pack a sports bra. I stopped by the student store and considered buying one, but nixed that plan when I saw they were selling Champion bras for $34. Um, that same bra — minus the UCLA logo — costs $15 a Target. The commute home that day was really bad and took over an hour.

5. Go back to Weight Watchers for a meeting – Check. I achieved Lifetime status last spring after getting to my goal weight and maintaining it for 6 weeks. Unfortunately, maintenance isn’t as easy as losing. I quickly gained back ~5 lbs and was ineligible to attend free meetings since I wasn’t within 2 lbs of my goal weight. So, I didn’t go back because I didn’t want to pay for something I wasn’t getting much out of anymore. Earlier this year I found out the WW plan had changed and I was curious about it. I attended a meeting and learned all about the new Points Plus plan. It’s different enough that there’s a bit of a learning curve for me. I tried tracking for a week and fell off very fast as I had to calculate/look up everything rather than go from memory. I do want to get back to goal weight, so when I decide to make that a priority, I’ll go back to tracking and keeping within my points. It worked once before!

6. Focus on eating more fruits and vegetables – Fail. I didn’t track this, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t getting my 5 recommended servings per day.

Wedding
1. Get save-the-date and invite ideas to our graphic designers – Yes. We’ve got some feedback and even a first look of some graphics we’ll use.

2. Decide a concept/location for our engagement photo shoot in December – Half check. We can’t really delay on this much longer.

3. Figure out estimates for 2 more big items on our budget – Fail. This was sort of an off month in the wedding planning area. At least we got some props for our photo booth thanks to post Halloween sales.

The Blog
1. Do something for 11/7 (blog anniversary) – Check, but I didn’t post my other reflections on 10 years of blogging. It’s tough to pick out favorites when you have 10 years’ worth of posts.

Familia

Happy Mexicans at the happiest place on earth

On Friday evening, my mom called.

“Do you have a Disneyland annual pass?”

“Yeah,” I told her.

“Okay, good. We’re taking Papá Chepe and Mamá Toni to Disneyland on Sunday with your tía Martha, she has a pass. Do you want to go?”

“Hmmm, my pass isn’t good on Sunday, we’ll have to pay. Let me think about it.”

Sean was down to go and it seemed worth the expense to spend a day at Disneyland with my grandparents. I don’t know who came up with the idea to take my grandparents to Disneyland. Maybe after dinner on Thursday, tía Martha was talking about how her pass expires soon and she planned to go on Sunday. My mom might have chimed in that she had some free park hopper passes. Either way, plans came together to take my grandparents to Disneyland for the first time in 35 years.

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Escuela, Familia

Board games and blowouts

I’m slow when it comes to recapping weekends, vacations and fun days with the family. It’s worse if I have to upload and edit pictures. I know some bloggers do this daily and even recap each day of their vacation, but I can’t do that.

After being back at work for a couple of days, I’d like to go back and relive the long weekend — except for that part on Saturday night when the UCLA football team forgot to show up at the Coliseum. Yikes.

Other than Saturday night, the long weekend was filled with good times.

Sean and I kicked it off by watching The Muppets on Wednesday evening. We both loved it as did the rest of the audience in the theater. I plan to see it again soon. I’m pretty sure I missed some cameos and jokes because I was laughing too much (manically, of course). I’d also like to learn some of the original songs and add them to my karaoke go-to song list.

After for going for a sunny mid-day run on Thursday, I headed over with Sean to my madrina’s house in East LA. Madrina Chilo always hosts Thanksgiving and other family members bring sides and desserts. By the time Sean and I arrived a little after 3 with our sweet potato casserole, most of the family had already eaten. I’d barely eaten in the morning so, I couldn’t be bothered to photograph my first plate. After scarfing down turkey, ham and lots of carby sides — stuffing! mac and cheese! — we retired to a spare bedroom with the rest of the cousins.

We played Imagine If and Last Word, took silly photos, and tried to keep baby Minel from stealing our cell phones. I liked the Last Word. It’s an easy game to set up and play with several people. It also made us laugh a lot as we tried to think up words that went along with the category (e.g. things in a purse) that started with the designate letter. Before everyone went home, we also picked names for the big family Christmas gift exchange.

I hope Sean enjoyed his first Thanksgiving with my family, even if he didn’t get his usual turkey leg… at least not initially. I luckily was in the kitchen just as Madrina Chilo was carving the second turkey and asked for the turkey leg to take home with my other leftovers. Yes, I brought my own tupperware.

I didn’t do any late night shopping on Thursday or hit the stores for deals on Friday and attempted to make some pumpkin pie. It didn’t work out well, but redeemed ourselves with some brownies. Instead, we ate leftovers, watched movies (Drive and The Muppets Take Manhattan) and were lazy.

Saturday was another chill day. I supported some small businesses (local nail salon for a pedicure, tacos from a local restaurant). I didn’t watch the USC/UCLA game since I don’t have cable. Instead I just got ESPN updates with each scoring play. A 50-0 loss sucks, but I wasn’t terribly disappointed or embarrassed. I’m not the one on the field or sidelines. Nor am I the one hiring and recruiting the coaches and students involved with the football program. There are many other reasons to be embarrassed and ashamed by college football programs and your alma mater than losing in a blowout to your rival.

At the end of the game, I thought of the UCLA marching band’s post-game ritual. I was in the band during my first two years, it was fun, but time consuming during football season. After each game, we’d play the alma mater, “Hail to the Hills of Westwood” on the sidelines. If we won the game, we’d play and sing a silly song called “Rover.” Then we’d change out of our uniforms and get back on the bus to Westwood. As our buses traveled the final few blocks in to campus, we’d sing the alma mater a second time. I miss those moments and wanted to sing the alma mater again even if it wouldn’t be followed with “Rover.” Maybe when I finally graduate, I’ll audition to be the singer at the ed school ceremony. That would be cool.

Lotería Chicana

Author Archives: cindylu