Christmas with the Morrisons

This is only my second Christmas since my parents moved so things are a little different still from past years and we're still getting into the groove of what our traditions are now that we've moved house and we are no longer near a lot of our family.

Christmas means food and snacks all day

It was really nice to see my parents and to have some time away from training and Calgary and to have some time to relax.  Obviously I still had to train while I was away but I got to take a break from actually skating and it was oh so nice to sleep in and watch TV and read books that weren't for school guilt free.

with my mommy on Christmas day

Christmas day for us is always stockings and then pancakes followed by gifts and then enjoying those gifts whether they be movies, books, etc. This year my sister got How to Train Your Dragon 2 so we watched that (it was great).

And at the end of the day turkey of course!

she pretends to like me on Christmas

How was your Christmas? Any crazy traditions? Let me know!

National Qualifier 2014

The first competition that actually counted for something this season happened at the beginning of December.  I know that it’s the end of December now but after I got back from racing my life has been a whirlwind of training exams and practice races; this is the first chance I’ve had to breathe and it’s because I’m currently sitting in an airport waiting for my flight home for Christmas.

Pictures courtesy of my aunt who came to watch some races

If you’ve read my previous National Qualifier post you’ll know that it’s important for me to do well at that competition so that I can qualify for National Team Trials and the Canadian Open completion.  I’ve skated Canadian Open the past two years and have previously managed to qualify for it without too much trouble.  This year however, everything did not go as planned.  Qualifier wasn’t a terrible competition; I had some good races, and some not so good races, and a little bad luck like with any meet but unfortunately this time the best that I could do wasn’t good enough to qualify me for the next competition.  Obviously I’m disappointed because I want to keep working my way up the ranking lists instead of down them but I’m using this small setback to re-evaluate some things and to consider my options moving forward.

big outside pass

On a happier note I’m going to be taking a bit more time for myself over the next few weeks so hopefully I can try to get back into a routine of writing a blog post once a week!  Mostly I’m just excited to get a bit of a break from skating and school and spend some time with my famjam over Christmas (even if it’s only for a week).

Needing a Change

I was feeling a little stuck.  I was dealing with minor health issues, I was sick for weeks and I was struggling to keep up with school and then I was starting to struggle with skating.  I feel like a lot of people feel this way;  you get to the middle of the semester, you get stressed and then fight or flight kicks in.  For me the instinct to run kicks in, I want to quit, to change my whole life, to move somewhere else, just do anything to change the situation so I did the cheapest change I could and redecorated my room.

My room was an absolute disaster and I felt like it was a direct representation of how unbalanced and out of control I was feeling so the first step was cleaning up.

the before picture

I bought some new bedding for $12.99 at IKEA, new cushions, and I replaced my magazine clippings and One Direction posters with some more age appropriate decor.  Even though redecorating didn't cure me of being sick or make me caught up on homework it did make me feel better and less anxious and stressed out.

after

it's not perfect but it's more organized at least 

I put up a card my Grandma gave me to remind me what's important and a picture and old good-luck letter from one of my friends to remind me that there's people who are proud of me and who believe in me

no more 1D, I'm such a grownup