44. Your Favourite Holiday | 52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge

This is a tricky one for me; I love celebrating everything and I love holidays! I suppose the typical answer would be Christmas- which I LOVE, don't get me wrong. But I think I'd have to say my favourite holiday is Family Day. This holiday was February 15th and so has just passed. It was a lovely day spent with most of the people I love. I really like family day because it's a chance to spend time with family without the stress that comes with preparing big, fancy meals for holidays like Christmas or Thanksgiving. It's simply a day where the government recognizes that families need more time together, especially during this time of Winter Blues.

This year, my family day began with a four hour snow machine ride with my cousin and his girlfriend through the bush trails around our city. Then a good portion of my extended family came over to our house to enjoy home made lentil soup and cake in celebration of my twenty first birthday! It was a perfect day from start to finish.

Does your country have a family day holiday? If so what'd you get up to on yours? Please do let me know in a comment!

Thanks for reading & check back to see what KatieDidd, xo

15. Holiday Morning Routine + Updated Workout! | Blogmas

Now that school is out and I'm finished with work, I've got four more days completely to myself until I fly home. I've been really enjoying having mornings to myself to relax and take my time starting the day as mornings really are my favourite time of day! If every day could be Sunday morning I'd be in heaven. 

In the spirit of the holidays and blogmas, I thought I'd share with you my chilled out, holiday, no rush, no fuss, morning routine! 

I've been waking up naturally- no alarm- around 7:30am. Instead of getting up straight away, I've been spending some time in the morning reading The Fault In Our Stars (for about the eighth time) in my bed until around 8:15am or so. By this time getting out of bed is a MUST as my bladder will be screaming haha. Once I void my bladder, I fill up my water bottle and do a little 15-20 minute workout. 

For my workout as of late I've been doing:

100 high knees

25 jumping jacks

20 leg kicks

20 standing knee to elbow crunches

15 squats

50 mountain climbers

10/side fire hydrant donkey kicks

10 pushups

10/side one leg raise with crunch

5 pilates roll ups

Repeat entire circuit x3

Sun salutation

Big stretch

Once my workout is complete, I will wash my face, brush my teeth, and put my water on the stove to boil for a cup of cinnamon tea. My makeup takes no time at all, so once that's done my water will be boiling to make my cinnamon tea. I then take my tea into my bedroom and sip it whilst I do my hair and get dressed. Hair wise, I've been doing one of two things: curls with my straightener (which you can see how I do in my holiday hair post) or dutch braids!

By the time I'm all ready for the day it's about 9:45am-10:00am; time to prepare some breakfast! Like always, I make a bowl of oatmeal with raw cacao and cinnamon, topped with a dollop of greek yogurt. Whilst I eat my oatmeal I will write in my journal and spend some time with my Bible. This morning I read through Thessalonians 1 and 2. 

After breakfast I have been enjoying going for a little stroll around my neighbourhood (still bitter about not having snow in December!) as well as writing blog posts and catching up on social media until lunch time!

I hope you all enjoyed my very relaxed, holiday morning routine! What is your favourite thing to do on a morning when you're not rushed? Please do let me know in a comment!

Thanks for reading, xo, Katelyn