Holidays in NYC and Latest Favorites

Hi and hello out there! I hope you had a great holiday season and were able to stay relatively healthy. And by this, I mean that I hope you were able to dodge the sicknesses that are going around. I’m all in favor of eating and drinking your favorite things throughout the holidays … healthy and not-so healthy foods included, hehe.

In case you missed it, I don’t post as often here on the blog these days, and it’s because I’m working hard behind-the-scenes to create my first online course and cannot wait for it to launch this year! You can read more about that here.

It’s been a hot minute, so I thought it would be fun to check in with a catch-up of what’s been going on over the holidays that includes a recap of Christmas, New Year’s and a few exciting outings in NYC.

It’s a Friday Favorites sort of post, and thank you so much for checking in and Happy Friday.

I’ve missed typing here!

Holidays in NYC and Latest Favorites

• Christmas at home in 2021

Let’s kick things off in chronological order with a very low-key Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Brooklyn.

I grew up attending a candlelit service on Christmas Eve every year, but we haven’t found that tradition around our parts yet. I took Skyler to a nearby church a few years ago with some friends while Scott was working, but he didn’t sit still and it was a bit of a disaster. Needless to say, we left early and decided to circle back on that tradition in a few years. Like last year, we tuned into our church’s virtual caroling service from home instead. And while we usually spend the day before Christmas with friends and loved ones, we thought it would be best to stay at home, just the three of us for the full holiday this year.

We put on matching pajamas, watched Christmas movies like Home Alone and Home Alone 2, cooked whatever meals we had prepped in the refrigerator, video chatted with several family members and really just enjoyed some quality time together at home. It was super chill.

Santa showed up in a big way this year, and I am very grateful for everything we were able to surprise Skyler (and ourselves) with. Skyler got a pretty awesome lego/activity table, and we all got new sets of Bombas (the best socks, hands down). My favorite present was definitely the original Peloton bike, and I’ll be sure to share a full review of the bike and app soon.

We missed being around extended family, but we had a great little holiday celebration that we’ll remember for years to come. And that’s all I can ask for.

• visit from mom + New Year’s Eve

Scott traveled to France twice in December, so my mom planned a trip up from Florida to hang with Skyler and I during his work trip, just two days after Christmas. We spent a lot of our time at home and walking the neighborhood, and she commuted into the city with me to walk around and explore a few times while I trained a client and Skyler was in school. We went to lunch at Village Taverna in Lower Manhattan, and it was superb! They were very accommodating to her food allergies and even lived up to the claim of having the “best chicken” in the city. I mean, it was really, really good.

That was our biggest outing, since we wanted to feel safe in where we went and the weather was cold and rainy for the rest of her visit. And that was okay with us. She got to spend a lot of time with Skyler, which was the main point of her time here with us, and we spent our New Year’s Eve toasting early at 8 p.m. before he went to bed.

We had a dance party, leftovers from ordering out from the week, and again, stayed in with a low-key itinerary. It wasn’t the wild NYE celebration I was invited to, but it was memorable for different reasons.

Did you stay at home, and if so, did you stay awake until Midnight? (I barely made it, lol).

• Macy’s windows

It’s always a treat to walk by something iconic like the Macy’s window displays that will typically draw a crowd.

We had Skyler in his stroller, and we peeked at the festive decorations for just a minute or two.

The streets weren’t as crowded as they usually are, but we didn’t really venture out much further and the outing below in regards to holiday sightings this year. (Once again, we have been pretty low-key, ha). Even so, this stop is worth mentioning!

• Empire State Building

There are a few big things left on our NYC bucket list, and it was fun to cross one of them off last week as we visited the Empire State Building with a couple of friends, Chad and Holly, who were in town visiting over the New Year. We went up to the Top of the Rock with them in 2020, and it was just as cool to see views from this epic building this year.

We made sunset ticket reservations that allowed us access to the building and observation deck from 4:15 – 5 p.m. and it was the perfect window of time to catch the great lighting for both light and night time pictures.

Stunning right?! We didn’t spend much time outside, however, because it was cold and very windy.

That said, it was an incredible experience worth seeing. I highly recommend it!

• training updates

This one isn’t holiday related, but it’s something that has been taking a lot of my work time lately and deserves a mention. I’ve been training a new in-person client in the city three times a week! I enjoy our time together, but it does require a bit of prep work, as most training jobs do. My background and speciality is in barre and strength training, and we do a bit of those formats mixed with yoga and Pilates for an hour at a time.

Along with training, I am currently co-coaching online with my dear friend and excellent Nutrition and Macro Coach, Giselle. I just started sharing more about the concept of Macro Tracking on social this week, and I would LOVE to chat with you if you’re interested in hearing more about it or think it might be a good fit for you. I have more resources to share, and I’m inviting you to join our 8-week live bootcamp called The Macro Way that starts in just a few weeks. More info here!

This is an old photo from 2019, but it was taken at the conference that sparked my interest in becoming a Certified Nutrition Coach with two of my fitness friends Ashley (left) and Giselle (right) who both went through the program, too!

I haven’t been one to count or track calories in the past, so I took this on as a new experience and opportunity to learn and coach out of my comfort zone. I’ve gained SO MUCH from going through the program myself with Giselle, and I have to admit that it’s not complicated at all, which is not how I felt about tracking anything in the past. In fact, it’s pretty neat and I’ve geeked out a few times showing Scott how I can eat what I want to still hit my macros and get the results I’m looking for. You can get on the waitlist for the bootcamp here, which is zero obligation to join and gets you early-bird access to think about it and sign up at a discounted price! And, of course, I’m here to answer any questions you might have.

---

So that’s a peek into what we’ve been up to! Always something, and never enough time to share it all with you. But I hope that entertains the percentage of you who like reading these catch-up type of posts.

Let’s end this round-up with two favorite posts from the archives, for nostalgia’s sake!

» Top Beautycounter Safe Swaps

If you’re looking to start switching over to non-toxic products, this post will point you in the right direction and includes a lot of personal switches I made. You can totally start switching over to safer a little at a time, and I’m here to help you save the most and get what your skin really needs.

» 15 Workouts You Can Do In Under 45 Minutes

Here you will find a collection of my personal no equipment workouts, minimal equipment workouts (using bands, a stability ball, or a few sets of dumbbells, etc.), and then a section just for gym equipment like exercise and cable machines. Save and turn to this post the next time you need a workout in a pinch, and you can even pin each photo or right click it to save it to your camera roll!

---

Okay friends, I think that just about does it for today.

It was so great to check in with you, and thank you again for clicking over to read the latest on Life In Leggings today. Just a reminder, you can keep up with our adventures on Instagram in between the posts here, since I am spending a lot of my work time developing my first online course! I now have a personal page as well, and it’s been fun to share different content on both spaces. Have a great weekend and talk soon!

---

*Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post, but affiliate links may be included. Also, I am a Beautycounter consultant and love what I do with the company. By using the links provided in this post to order products, you are supporting my business. I appreciate you so much!