The Change.

 I taught at 7:30 on Saturday. The sunrise was truly amazing. I was snuggled down in my favorite chair with a cup of coffee after my morning meditation simply observing. I kept thinking, it CAN'T get better than this, right? And yet it kept getting more glorious. This is one of the joys of teaching early morning yoga, even if you were up too late with your husband the night before! Chris Rock had us laughing until 1 am. Oops. 

 I mean really? If all goes according to the current plan (And oh how I've realized that plans mean nothing…….) my sunrise view will be of mountains 6 months from now. Please, plan, please.

 Heading out to cut down our Christmas tree! 

 They each need their own Charley Brown Christmas Tree, don't you think? 

This was the winner. It's also my favorite photo of my family lately. The beauty of coming out of depression is getting to fall in love with everything, and subsequently everyone again. I am madly, wildly in love with my husband. So are my kids, obviously. Isn't he awfully cute? Seeing life through unfiltered eyes, through your normal, healthy, happy self, just feels so amazing its like a high. Speaking of high, our tree is BIG. 10 feet tall!

We set her up on Saturday but weren't able to decorate her until Sunday. I taught this morning, (unfortunately no sunrises, I awoke to grey chilly rain…..I woke at 6 as usual but climbed back into bed TWICE with my warm wonderful husband. I always want to go teach, always……but man on cold days is it hard to actually get out of the door. No, the bed. It's hard to get out of the bed.  As soon as I hit the yoga room, which is heated on Sunday Mornings, all is well, but leaving.the.bed is hard. Especially two mornings in a row. All three classes were lovely, and we did a gate pose series that I haven't taught before and I think went well. 

Decorating continues. The cleaning people just came on Friday, and we have been systematically destroying our house all day yesterday and today in the process of dragging in trees and wreaths and all sorts of the decorations that we have collected over the past 12 years. I do love the tradition of decorating. The kids get SO excited, and are at ages where everything actually HAS memories attached to it. They know where the "JOY" goes. They talk about each ornament, they know which are mine and which are from Nate's childhoods, they were excited to put up the new one from the CM ranch, from Jackson hole, from Naples, from Cape May. They get it, now. It's always thrilling to see it through their eyes. 

Need one more nail for poor Luke's stocking. He's cozying up to me in the interim. 

The homework room and Julia's "piano". She is learning Christmas carols for her upcoming recital. We need a real piano but nothing sounds more annoying than buying a piano only to move it in a few months, so we are holding off. 

Today. Todays theme was attention.  Paying attention. 

Paying attention. A reminder that I am not the boss. I am nothing more than someone making suggestions. Their job is to pay attention ~ not to me, but to their bodies. That while we come together to practice, to share the good energy in the room (And man, do we have good energy in the 8 am class) their practice is their own. They are there for themselves. They know their bodies better than I do. They have to pay attention, they have to listen to their breath, they have to know when their bodies are telling them to back off, when today may be the day that they can go a little deeper, or that RIGHT.NOW is when they can or should enjoy child's pose. We have a beautiful group. Three teachers were in the class today. One woman who is 30 weeks pregnant with her first. Older men, younger women. Many friendships have been formed. I love the chatter, the camaraderie. I am so, so grateful to this class, as this is really and truly where I got my start as a teacher. 

It's been a good day. Three classes under my belt.  An entire house decorated. Nate is gone all week, so I have the whole week to re-construct the deconstruction that comes with decorating. I can't wait to see what the outside decorations look like once the sun sets. I teach tomorrow at 12:30 and again on Wednesday night. 

Have you set up your tree? Do you have a day when you traditionally do it??? Please, spill!