Christmas In Richmond

"Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for other. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values."-- Thomas S. Monson

Christmas is usually a pretty routine deal, even sharing the holidays between two families. Usually it involves dinner with Will’s side of the family and then opening a few presents and dinner with my side. This year we added a little pizazz to our Christmas festivities.We had already seen Will’s mom the week before and they don’t really celebrate Christmas since they are all in the military and were almost never in one place over the holidays. So it was dinner as usual, just a week early.

We drove up to Richmond to see my parents on Christmas Eve. We did something completely new and decided to cook them dinner since for some reason they love frozen dinners…not going to fly with us. We eat fresh vegetables and meat so we were going to have a non frozen dinner.We broke out all of the pots and pans that I’m sure have barely seen the light of day since the 70s… yes they were almost all over 20 years old… We made fresh and from scratch mashed potatoes with russet and sweet potatoes, vegetable casserole with zucchini, squash, onion, peppers, green beans, etc.

We then grilled some DELICIOUS steaks in the skillet. It was a huge success as were the diabetes friendly carrot cake and not so friendly cookies that we shared with friends we saw later. Stuffed to the brim we bid my parents adieu and left to see some Christmas lights. Before you get all offended that we ditched family on the family holiday, my parents go to bed super early so we stayed a while then went to enjoy the night.

Downtown Richmond always has tons of neat lights, especially at the Jefferson, but we went to something a little less ritzy and saw a local’s favorite Christmas spot. Richmond has a Tacky Lights Tour every year that brings out hundreds of us in droves…if you know where to look. They have paid tours that take you everywhere, but it’s not necessary. Two weeks before Christmas they have a fun run 5k that lets you run past all of the houses with the amazing lights, but we missed that.In order to be qualified to be featured on this Tacky Lights Tour you have to have a minimum of 40,000 lights on your house and in your yard. I’m pretty sure they all have at least double that. We drove and somehow found parking on the first try in the middle of a neighborhood packed with people walking around seeing the lights on two houses on the tour. We even brought Atlas who had several toddlers fall in love with him and follow him around for 15 minutes straight.

We were blown away. The amount of lights on these two houses was insane. It was so bright they lit up the entire street. How they could afford that electric bill was beyond me, but they did have donation stands set up, hot chocolate you could buy and pictures with Santa. I’m sure they made out well, especially since it was their 41st year of doing it. They had your regular string of lights bedazzling the trees, but they also had crazy unique lights set up like melting snowmen, bowling alleys, kissing reindeer, hot air balloons, airplanes, and so so so much more. Pictures are probably the only thing that can do it justice.

After having our minds blown we decided we wanted to walk around more so we hopped over to Short Pump Town Center, which is a giant outdoor mall that allows dogs. We walked around and saw some lights, but nothing on the level of what we had seen, but definitely enjoyable nonetheless.

Another tradition of mine before both of us moved out of state was to go over to my long time friend’s house (Laura) and enjoy being with her family and maybe sing some tunes together on the piano. We walked in and her dog immediately fell in love with Atlas and followed him around all night and kept trying to play with him at all costs. They clearly had an amazing time. I hadn’t seen Laura in over a year and her family in over 2. It was great to catch up with them, play with the pups, and just relax with some piano music and good friends.

Christmas morning was uneventful since my parents decided to sleep in to almost 10. I took the dog for a 1.5 mile walk and enjoyed breakfast with Will. When my parents finally woke up we enjoyed unwrapping super neat presents and just hanging out together. We stayed for a while and enjoyed the day, but headed back to Greenville that afternoon so we could beat traffic. All in all it was a great holiday with lots of the same old tradition and new experiences that made this Christmas unique.





The spirit on Christmas is the spirit of love and of generosity and of goodness. It illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world's busy life and become more interested in people than in things."--Thomas S. Monson

Batten Down The Hatches

"Maybe your weird is my normal? Who's to say?"-Nicki Minaj

As many of my followers know, I have had my fair share of poop stories. Until last Wednesday, these were strictly animal stories. I will now share my first (and hopefully last) human poop horror/humor story.

One of my day jobs I currently have involves teaching Zumba at several gyms. My all time favorite class to teach is my Wednesday night class at a gym that will remain nameless. The members are rambunctious, hilarious, and ready to WORK. I've been told my classes are the hardest/best workout money can buy and I really pride myself in that. I always make sure to have low and high impact options so anyone from 8 years old to 80 years old can come away and feel like they really exercised, challenged themselves, but were safe in the way they went about it. Zumba is so great because it really feels like you are having a little party, acting like a fool, and best of all it doesn't feel like a workout that you have to convince yourself you can finish and hope you don't pass out.

Yes my classes are hard, but that's why we're at the gym. To make changes and get in shape! I had a special "Kick Butt Thanksgiving Zumba Extravaganza" complete with new songs, lots and lots of sweating in preparation for the 800 cookies, pies, turkeys, potatoes, etc that we would eat the next day. I even had handmade door prizes that I had crafted myself. You can check them out here if you want: www.etsy.com/shop.eclecticgreetings

Little did I know it would go horribly wrong and I wouldn't even know that it made a turn for the worst until Thanksgiving itself.

Thanksgiving morning went really well. My boyfriend, Will and I ran a 10k and finished in a little over an hour. There was a light drizzle, but it felt AMAZING since we were ridiculously warm from not running that far in a long time. We then went home and cooked cream cheese and bacon stuffed poblano peppers and a green bean casserole. Then we made the trek, with our pup Atlas of course, to NC where Will's mom lives to eat all of the delicious food she had made. We were beyond stuffed by the time we made it home. Everyone in the house: cats, dog, and boyfriend were asleep within minutes of sitting down. I curled up with the 5th Game of Thrones book and just relaxed.

We decided to go to Target around 9 so we would miss the massive crowds and still get to shop around for some great deals. Little did I know my entire day would be changed as I walked out of the game section towards the pet section.

I ran into Chris who takes my Wednesday night class and he is super energetic with a fun personality. He is the one who informed me about the "incident". After saying hi and making small talk he leans in and in a hushed voice asks me "Do you know that someone pooped in your Zumba class yesterday?"

First of all, this is not the normal conversation topic I was expecting. Secondly, my brain had trouble processing that information. Thirdly, WHAT THE F@$&?????  I was disgusted, confused, slightly amused, intrigued, disgusted again, horrified, and most of all the feeling of "no...that couldn't have happened."

But happen it did. I was 100% oblivious...not that I would have known what in the world to do if I happened to see someone poo on the floor accidentally. Let's give you some more detail. No not about the poo you weirdo, about the situation.

I had 20 people in class that night and the "perpetrator" was in the back of the class according to witnesses and hear sayers. I always teach at the front and am looking around the room constantly to check form. It never occurred to me to check the floor for rogue bowel movements. A mother and daughter duo are usually at the back almost every class and they had apparently witnessed it happen, but were too confused or horrified to do something about it, which is very reasonable. Many in the class wrote it off as "oh, there's dirt right there".

What horrifies and confuses me the most is the next few facts. 1. She pooped in the middle of a crowded room and knew it happened. 2. She didn't casually excuse herself to clean up the mess on the floor and undoubtedly elsewhere on her person. 3. A WHOLE OTHER CLASS happened in that same room right after and everyone thought it was dirt. 4. She never CLEANED IT UP.    I can forgive someone for pooping on the floor if they have bowel issues. That can't be helped, but preventative measures should be taken like an adult diaper, etc. Not to clean is up is rude, unsanitary, and a slipping hazard to name barely a few of the risks without mentioning how gross the whole situation is.

I'm not the sort of person who focuses on the negative, but I had no previous socially acceptable reaction in my arsenal in which to pull from to figure out how in the heck you respond to something like that.

In short, if you have to poop, go to the bathroom immediately. Poop waits for no mortal being and it means smelly business. If you do poop accidentally, nonchalantly play it off as it being dirt on the floor and blame it on a muddy dog you may or may not have and excuse yourself and get the proper cleaning tools. That's humiliation free and won't wound any pride, plus it prevents blog posts such as these from unsuspecting Zumba instructors who never see that situation coming.

All in all, I exercised the shit out of someone. Literally. I still have no idea how to feel about that. Holy crap. Pun intended.

"The only thing worse than it raining after you wash your car, is having to poop right after you get out of the shower."--Unknown