Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Posts Tagged ‘Christmas Eve’

Beauty From Below

Posted by terrepruitt on December 2, 2016

These are my favorite wine glasses.  A dear friend gave them to me.  I have a story if you would like to hear.  I was working Christmas Eve because that year we didn’t get it off.  My fiancé called me and asked me where I was.  I told him I was working.  He said, “We are all waiting for you.”  And I said, “Who is waiting for me?  Waiting for me for what?”  And he said his family for Christmas Dinner.  And I said, “Christmas Dinner is on Christmas.”  Ahhh.  He neglected to tell me that his family has Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve.  The job I had at the time was one of those jobs where you worked 12 hours in a day at the office and then still took files home to work on.  So I grabbed my stack of files and the Christmas gift my friend had given me.  I put the gift on top of the files where it promptly slipped off.

When I opened the gift I was so sad to see that the foot of the wine glass had broken off.  I told my friend and she was sad too.  But for some other occasion she bought me replacements.  So I have always loved these glasses.  I think we bought two more because we loved them so much, but we only have two . . . so they do break.  A well loved/used glass . . . that’s gonna happen.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit

 

Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

2015 Christmas – May It Be Merry

Posted by terrepruitt on December 24, 2015

So it is Christmas Eve.  I spent the evening with family.  We had a nice time.  The Host and Hostess always have a very beautiful home and serve a wonderful meal.  I don’t know how John’s brother-in-law and sister do it.  But even though I didn’t have anyone over I still have a lot of things to do.  So I will wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.  I hope your celebrations were joyful and bright.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit

 

 

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Shocking Spinach Dip Discovery

Posted by terrepruitt on December 24, 2013

For many it is Christmas Eve.  Some might not celebrate Christmas or it is past the day, but here, where I am, it is Christmas Eve.  It is Tuesday so normally I would have had a Nia class in the morning, but the Park and Recreation Department of San Jose took the day off so there was no Nia this morning.  They also have instituted a very abbreviated Group Ex schedule so my Nia classes with the City of San Jose are done for the year.  We will be back Thursday, January 2, 2014.  (WHOA!  2014!)  I have one more Nia class in Willow Glen this year and one more class this year that I am subbing for the YMCA.  Then onto the next year!  So today I had a very relaxing Christmas Eve Day.  Probably thee most relaxing Christmas Eve Day I have had in a LONG time.  It was nice.  One thing I had to do today was make spinach dip.  In my world this is a common party treat.  I have been making it for as long as I can remember.  Although I had not made it in a long time.  I think I first heard about spinach dip when I worked at my first mortgage job in the mid ’80s.  So that is a long time.  Spinach dip seems pretty common and timeless.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yoga, YMCAOne thing I notice over Thanksgiving when I made a quadruple batch was that the recipe calls for a 10 ounce package of frozen spinach.  Well our big green friend now makes his frozen spinach in 9 ounces sizes.  I thought that was funny.  Then today as I happened to be READING the recipe I noticed something that had me saying, “WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!”  The directions actually say to COOK the spinach.  I have never heard of such a thing.  I have NEVER cooked the spinach.  And as I mentioned I have been making spinach dip for YEARS.  Cook the spinach?  Really?

I prefer the Knorr Vegetable soup mix.  But one year I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE and I ended up with the SPRING Vegetable mix and that was awesome because it had mushrooms in it.  Now I can’t find that.  I have also used other soup mix and have not been as happy as when I use Knorr.  But this “cooked” really made me laugh out loud.  Here is the recipe I am sure many of you are familiar with:

___________________________

Knorr Spinach Dip

Ingredients
1 box (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, cooked, cooled and squeezed dry
1 container (16 oz.) sour cream
1 cup Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
1 package Knorr® Vegetable recipe mix
1 can (8 oz.) water chestnuts, drained and chopped (optional)
3 green onions, chopped (optional)

Directions
1.  Combine all ingredients and chill about 2 hours. Serve with your favorite dippers to your favorite people.

___________________________

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yoga, YMCAAlso, for me, the water chestnuts are NOT optional!  They are a requirement.  In fact, to me, the are the best part.  If you watch me getting some spinach dip you will probably see me pushing my cracker/bread/veggie through the dish just trying to get at that chunk of chestnut.

In addition to the change in weight of the spinach they also now package it in a plastic, which helped when squeezing the water out.  After I squeeze the spinach it is all clumped together so I use forks to pull it a part.

So I have two main questions for you:

1)  Do you COOK your spinach?
2)  How do you squeeze all the water out of the frozen spinach?  To me that is the worst part.

Let me know because I am soooooo curious.

And to all I say:

Merry Christmas!

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments »

December 30 Minute Movement Challenge – Day #26

Posted by terrepruitt on December 26, 2012

Oddly enough, most of my Nia Students don’t even celebrate Christmas.  Most of them belong to a different religion that does not participate.  So why not get together and celebrate the end of the year, the holiday they celebrate, the holiday I celebrate, and just ourselves as a Nia Community!  Since today, Wednesday, is a day I have a Nia class regularly we are dancing, just as we did on Christmas Eve . . . . . Joy as Usual (a take off of “Business as usual).

And you?  You are here to check in for the 26th day of the December 30 Minute Movement Challenge!  Yay you!

I’ll be back with my check in!

Posted in December 2012 30 Minute Movement Challenge | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Christmas Brilliance

Posted by terrepruitt on December 25, 2012

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaIt is Christmas, and while I did not have to “work” — as in teach a Nia class, I still have to “work” — as in post a blog post.  Had I been a little more organized I would have had it written and had it post on a timer, but I was not that prepared.  I had been thinking about what to write when last Monday after Nia one of my students was talking about one of her family’s traditions.  I had asked her to give me more info or to write about it.  But as I had been interrupting her story, I stopped my line of questioning/instruction and she finished her story and then I never got back to asking her more information.  Then on Wednesday I forgot.  I was thinking I would see her on Christmas Eve, but I did not.  So I am going to share her tradition without a lot details as to how it works for her family because I don’t know them.  I think the idea is so cute I wanted to share.  THEN, I got one of the greatest Christmas gifts ever last night and I wanted to share a bit of it too.  So Merry Christmas.  This is me sharing a tradition of one of my students that maybe you would like to do yourself and a beautiful gift I received.

First the cool tradition.  I haven’t heard a lot of the details but it sounds as if my student’s kids are going to moving out soon.  I believe that is one of the reasons she shared with us the tradition she started when they were young.  She has had her kids gift each other a Christmas ornament every year.  She was saying, when I came into the conversation, that this way they will have a start on having ornaments for their tree when they move out AND they will sentimental value.  Each ornament will be a memory.  She had said that one year her son crafted a little birdcage and put a picture of a bird in it to represent their family pet.  I thought that was so cute.  Not only did her son have an ornament for his sister, but he had made it.  You may know from reading some of my previous posts that I LOVE Christmas Ornaments.  I love the entire process of unwrapping each one to hang on the tree.  It is as if I am receiving little mini Christmas gifts with each ornament I unwrap and place on the tree.  And many have memories attached, so to me decorating the tree is a lovely process and tradition.  So I really, really, really, really, really LOVED this idea.  As I mentioned, I loved it so much I wanted to share it.  I think it is great to have kids receive “their own” ornaments that they can take with them when they move out and that will have meaning for them.Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba

Now one of the greatest gifts I received was a book.  Apparently my nephew-in-law has a brilliant girlfriend.  She had a book made for his sisters that contains their grandma’s favorite recipes and a party tip.  His girlfriend designed it to have the actual copy of the recipe placed on the page along with family pictures.  You might have read some post on my blog that shared the fact that their grandmother (my mother-in-law) died last year in November.  My sister-in-law (John’s sister) is a smart cookie too and she knows a great idea when she sees it and she asked if she could use the book template for gifts also.  So SHE swapped out some of the pictures to include more of the recipient’s family.  So the ones made for the girls have more pictures pertaining to them.  The one made for my husband and I has more pictures pertaining to us and so on.  FANTABULOUS!  It is awesome!

I am in awe of BOTH of these things . . . . the ornament tradition AND this wonderful recipe book.  I hope you had a Merry Christmas and the rest of this season is grand for you.

Do you have any holiday traditions to share?  Maybe you have had a custom for a long time?  Maybe you just started one?  Did you get a gift that you are excited about that you want to share?  Tell us!

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

December 30 Minute Movement Challenge – Day #24

Posted by terrepruitt on December 24, 2012

Whoa-ho-ho-ho!  It’s Christmas Eve!  WOW!  Ok, we were talking about this last week in my Nia class —- TECHNICALLY (!) it is Christmas Eve MORNING!  Funny that!  Anyway . . . . here we are the day before Christmas and, yes we are still on track with our December 30 Minute Movement Challenge, right?  YES!  Keep on going.  Let’s finish this up!

Thank you for being here.

Do I hear sleigh bells?  I’m gonna go look.  I’ll be back . . . . I might get my 30 minutes in chasing a sleigh!  But actually I have a Nia class to teach today, but only one.  I will probably end up counting that as my 30 minutes since it IS Christmas Eve and I have “Christmas Eve-y” things to do.  😉

Posted in December 2012 30 Minute Movement Challenge | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »