Happy New Year 2017

We woke up on our New Year with fresh snow and it was so quiet and beautiful.  I love waking up to a surprise like that especially since snow is so rare here.  It apparently snowed in the early morning hours, not last night while all the celebrating was going on. I was too tired to stay up until midnight but Bruce said he could see the fireworks at the Space Needle while laying in bed, a show that lasted 10 minutes - talk about watching fireworks in the comforts of your own home or should I say, own bed. This isn't quite our view but you get the idea.

I haven't had any food postings for awhile because I haven't been doing much cooking since Christmas.  With Nick and Sachiyo visiting, I was constantly cooking and eating, then Christmas, more cooking and eating...it feels good to just not think about cooking and eating for awhile.  I did, however, enjoy the feast we had on Christmas at my brother's house with my entire family, at least those who live here locally; 20 people in all. 

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy cooking and eating.  I just need a break after awhile.  For Christmas, I got a Fitbit so I've been playing around with that and instead of cooking and eating, I'm learning how to get fit. The thing does so much but mostly, I just look at the distance I walk and my daily steps.  It also keeps track of how many hours in the day you are active, how many calories you are burning, your heart rate, how many floors you climb each day, how many hours of sleep you get each night which is totally inaccurate, by the way.  I think I would have to purchase the Fitbit Premium to get more exact calculations, I guess. You can also do lots of other things with it like log how much fluid you drink, keep a food diary, log your weight and set a bunch of reminders such as reminders to get up and move every hour, alarms to wake up, etc.  It's way more than I want to do but it's interesting.  I keep exploring all the things it does and fiddle around with it.  I like the food diary feature because if you log your intake, it will tell you how many calories you have left to eat until you meet your goal.  Overall, I'd say a Fitbit is a no-brainer way to health, if you follow it's advise and do what it says. Too bad doctors just can't give all their patients one and say "Just do this"  And it's pretty nice looking, too.  It looks like a streamlined watch which, of course, you can change the face to many different types of looks.

Anyway, I've been way too occupied with it.  But it's nice to just veg-out for awhile and take it easy.  Actually, I haven't been taking it easy exactly but boosting up my steps and distance... because of that Fitbit.  Last night for New Year's Eve, Bruce and I did a New Year's Eve volksmarch sponsored by the Emerald City Wanders.  Our neighborhood had one going on and I needed to get more steps in so I dragged Bruce away from football for awhile and he went with me.  We walked up to a local church where it started and signed in.  It was advertised as a 5K or 10K.  The 5K took you around the neighborhood to view all the best Christmas lights.  The 10K took you down to Alki Beach to see the lights of Seattle skyline, Elliot Bay and Puget Sound.  We opted for the 5K since the weather was a little questionable.  (It did rain and hail during our walk but only briefly.)  They gave us the route and we began.

I already know all the best Christmas lights in the neighborhood so it was interesting to see where they were taking us.  Here are some of our sights:

Our favorite is a light and music synchronized display that is about 4 blocks away from our house.  We approached it right when they were playing our favorite,  Hawktown Funk.  It's a Seahawks theme song that is really popular here, a take from Bruno Mars Uptown Funk. When you drive by this house, you can tune in to a local radio station to listen to the coordinated music. Go Hawks!  We love Hawktown Funk.

The walk proceeded to take us through our local downtown called "the Junction" and we passed our favorite Easy Street following the posted signs as we went.

I liked this house with just the front window decorated with a wreath.  Simple, but effective. 

When we got back to the local church, we returned our receipts to let them know we finished and they had hot soup if we wanted to warm up.  But we had chili at home leftover from the night before (it tastes better the next day, you know) so we just headed back on our walk home.  Totals:  16,087 steps; 6.9 miles; 2,891 Calories burned. Now, you see why I was too tired to stay up until midnight.   Happy New Year.