Step To It

There is always one day during the season that seems to be more packed with holiday get togethers than any other and yesterday was it.  Not only were there parties galore but it was also Carter’s birthday so Christmas and birthday celebrations had to be entwined together.

After Carter passed the driver’s test and was dropped off at school for a basketball ball game I was able to enjoy one of my favorite annual traditions, my friend Morgan’s annual wreath making party.  Morgan is a queen of flower arrangements and loves to bring out women’s inner crafter by providing everything necessary to make a beautiful wreath from scratch.  I love this party and have made some great wreaths over the years, but my real talent at this party is the bow making part of the craft.

Since I normally spend half my time making my own wreath and half making bows for other people I decided this year to just make bows.  My friend Christy is also a bow princess herself so she and I set up shop in the bow room, which was an oriental rug covered room with a garage door that opened to the outside where the wreath making tables spanned the length of the driveway.  Inside our room were tables and shelves covered in hundreds of different rolls of every kind of ribbon one could want; burlap, silk, sheer and sparkly.  Martha Stewart would be jealous.

As we whipped up many different ribbon adornments for our friends beautiful creations Christy, who is also a Fit Bit wearer said to me, “I don’t think we are getting many steps in making these bows.”  That’s when I started marching in place while looping the ribbon back and forth to create a pompom number.

Later that night while at my neighbor’s holiday cocktail party my friend Lee tapped her Nike Fuel band step counter on her wrist to see how many steps away from goal she was.  That prompted us to take a spin around the host’s house to help us get closer to goal and visit the bar at the same time.  I looked around the room and noticed that many of us middle aged women types had on our step counting bracelets with our cocktail dresses.  I had not yet met my goal before going to that party so I needed to keep mine on.

I am happy to report that since I started wearing my Fit Bit I have lost five pounds.  It is not all because of the steps I am taking but I have really cracked down on my portion control so that the holidays do not get the better of me.  But the step counting is responsible for keeping me on track and acts as a constant reminder.  Why would I want to put in all this work to get 10,000 steps a day and then blow it by eating too much?

I ended the day hosting Carter’s birthday get together by taking four girls to the Harris Teeter at midnight in their PJ’s to get some sleepover junk food.  I was happy I had gotten all my steps in by then so I did not have to traipse through the store in my flannel nightgown.  I’m fairly sure that no one at the grocery store at midnight had on a step counting bracelet anyway.