Christmas, What a Wonderful Time

Merry Christmas to everyone from the Stemmet family in case we missed somebody through Twitter, emails or sms. We spend Christmas home and it was very relaxing, no travel or overcrowded beaches or holiday resorts.

On Christmas Eve we had Gerrit's( my sisters Fiance) Mother, Sister and Brother over for the evening as we handed out the presents and had way to much to eat.

Our little Christmas tree with all the presents (most of them DJ's). We decided that every family will only buy for their own family presents, no buying presents for everyone. But the elder ignore that rule and the kids got presents from everyone.

On Christmas Eve the weather was so pleasant and my sister and DJ decorated the tables outside by the swimming pool. Every year no matter where we are we tell my mother to take it easy on the snacks and every year she just ignore us. There were so much food and with the Christmas lunch leftovers the next day we're going to have food for the next week, maybe two.

It was so wonderful handing out presents later that night and to see everyone faces and reaction, specially DJ's it is just special.

The next morning we headed for Church and after that I did my run training. I knew I had to do it immediately or else I will not do it. Kim, my Mother and Sister were getting all the food ready for Lunch. Dejone could not wait to get back from Church to start building her puzzle( one of her presents). She is so into puzzles right now and just love building them. Definitely her mothers child, I just don't have any patience for that or anything where I have to wait or sit still for a long time.

Niel, Kim's brother met this new girl that live in Johannesburg and he went to them for the Christmas time. Here he is with his new girl friend and her son.

Kim's sister also just popped in during the day as they were on there way to Pretoria to spend some time with family. Here is Kim's Sister with her husband and her daughter, Monja who is expecting her first child end of January. I must say and Kim also mentioned it that she really looks good for someone who is 8 months pregnant.

The Lunch on Christmas day was awesome and we enjoyed it at my sister flat. Luckily it is on the same premises as our house as I was so tired after lunch and just excused myself after desert and went for a nap. I slept for more than two hours and was still tired when I woke up.

One of my Mothers favourite deserts creations, and I always have two and regret it later. For the rest of the night we just had fun and enjoyed family time.

On Boxing day( day after Christmas) I went to the gym as I woke up and I could feel that I've been eating and drinking more than I should be. What I don't understand is I've been eating very healthy and 100% according to my eating plan for more than a week. Then for two days I eat whatever I want to, and not everything is healthy and I haven't gained any weight. That I don't understand, not that I mind, maybe the weight gain will kick in later.

When I came back from the gym we went to see a movie. I wanted to see Avatar, not that I am a big movie lover. Think I haven't been to the movies in three months, but DJ wanted to go and I said OK , let's make it a family outing. When we arrived at the movies it was so busy. DJ then decided she wanted to see Alvin and the Chipmunks 2, and the harder I tried to convince her to choose another movie the more she wanted to see it.

As we sat in the movie waiting for it to start I told her that she is now to old for these kind of movies. She quickly pointed a few adults out that was watching the movie and they didn't even had children with them. What's wrong with these people? Needles to say I did not have an answer for her and struggled through the movie, would have done a 4 hour bike session on the trainer any day instead of watching that specific movie.

After the movie we had some lunch and I had my favourite as a starter, Oysters. I will eat Oysters everyday all day if I had the chance. One of the guys that is in DJ's dance school was our waiter and he was just talking dance with DJ and Kim whenever he was attending to us.

The guy is really committed and I gave him a generous tip as he is a foster child and is really working hard and saving all his money to pay for his dance classes. I have so much respect for people like him, to let nothing stand in his way to achieve his dream.

Sunday morning was a lazy morning and although I wanted to sleep late, I just couldn't and was up way to early. It was actually so peaceful with everybody still sleeping. I made myself some coffee and sat outside with Eddy and watch the sun rise and the world waking up.

We had a big breakfast that DJ made for us and then I was off to the pool for my swim training. I am really concentrating on the video I saw the other day on Bryan's blog and trying to better my stroke. The more I read up on improving my swim the more I realize one message coming through and that is to constantly work on technique. It is not like biking where distance and time make you a better cyclist, you need to improve your technique with every swim session.

I met and 75 year old man at the pool today and he was just keeping himself busy in the pool. As I stopped between one of the sets, he started chatting to me and asks me for what am I training. He told me a lot of his stories and gave me some advice.

One thing he said stuck in my mind, " Whatever you do, don't stop because the older you get the harder it become to get into shape until one day when you can't get back into shape again"

He said that he was once just as active and in such good shape that what I am now and he stopped due to some work issues and other things and when he tried to get back into shape he was just to old and he just could not get back to the form he used to be.

O, I forgot the other day when I talked about all the pets we have about Gerrit's chameleon, here's he or she I don't know in his/her cage.

Well tomorrow it is back into training for the week before we celebrate the new year on Friday and then there will be no more excuses preparing for IMSA 2010.