I bought into the ugly sweater craze this year, picking up a red number that reads: “Working On My Santa Body.”
The sweater features a cookie — with a bite out of it — placed right at my belly button. Below that, is Santa’s big black belt, seemingly there to hold up a jolly jelly belly.
The words couldn’t be closer to the truth this holiday. Maybe you are like me and have taken every opportunity to indulge.
Hang on, let me pull on my yoga pants and I will tell you all about my Christmas gluttony.
It includes not one , but three turkey dinners, with all the trimmings, plus dessert.
A notable amount of chocolate and cookie consumption started on Dec. 1, enjoyed alongside my favourite holiday drinks (coffee and Bailey’s, eggnog paralyzers and wine.)
But now that the rush to Christmas is over and the magic of the holidays is fading, I harbour no regret for trying to build a body like Santa’s. All the food and drink was consumed among my favourite people, family and friends, with laughter and cheer. My son filled the season with wonder and joy each day.
But now that the New Year is almost here, I’m forced to look to the future and make some resolutions which — let’s be real — I will probably not honour.
Here and now, I vow that come Jan. 1, I will join a gym and wait my turn for the elliptical trainer like the hordes of others who have made the same resolution.
We will pack into the fitness centers throughout January and staff will watch our numbers thin as we slowly lose motivation. We will begin to disappear by February — no lineups for machines come March.
But in 2018, unlike other years, I also resolve to take the plunge. That cold and crazy plunge — a baptism for crazy people, if you will — meant to start the year anew, to wash away the old, so we can start fresh faced and bushy tailed.
I am going to try the Polar Bear swim on Jan. 1.
The swim, which has been a worldwide tradition for more than 100 years, only grows in popularity every New Year’s Day.
In Vancouver, people go crazy. I’ve been to that one, where if you don’t dress up in a chicken suit, you simply aren’t doing it right.
On the birth of the New Year, hundreds of Fraser Valley residents, young, old, big and small, peel down to their skivvies and plunge into the icy waters of the Bedford Channel. From what we can tell, everyone seems to have a blast doing it.
It’s all smiles and camaraderie — a fraternity of sorts for zany folk.
There is something so odd and enticing about people willingly jumping into ice cold water wearing next to nothing.
But you only live once — might as well make it a good one, every single day. What better day to start than the first of the year?
Maybe I’ll see some of you there, taking the plunge, too!
