Claremont Yoga Party

Another holiday weekend starts. Yesterday Claremont Yoga hosted its second Holiday Open House with chair massages, cello music, food and wine and adorable babies.

I particularly enjoyed the chair massage . . .

Baby Shower

It hardly seems possible that it was a year ago that we had a tie-dye baby shower for one of our yoga teachers. Yesterday we celebrated another one of our yoga teachers with a more traditional baby shower. We played a few fun games and enjoyed the lovely weather.

Christmas Eve in the Kitchen

After a rousing yoga class this morning (27 people in one small room! - that's what you get for offering a free class...), daughter C and I put aside the afternoon for baking for tomorrow. We tried to use every baking dish or bowl at least twice. I think we succeeded. First we started with the zwiebach (pictured here), making only a half batch since there will be only four for Christmas dinner tomorrow. We also made our favorite company potatoes (dairy products with some potatoes thrown in for good measure) and started the pumpkin pie. Tomorrow will be the turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and brussell sprouts.

If it sounds a lot like Thanksgiving, then you get the idea of what we like around here....

Holiday Parties Begin!

I know the holidays have started. I went to my first party of the season this afternoon at Claremont Yoga. We were promised food, wine, tea, chair massages and henna, and they were delivered. Since I only go to one class a week, I do not know everyone who comes to the various other classes, and I was surprised to see people I know from other places at this party. I shouldn't really be surprised. It's a small town.

I had henna done on my right hand, and if I follow the directions well, after this flakes off, the reddish/orange color of this design should last 7-10 days.

Tie-Dye Baby Shower

Where else but in California would you go to a tie-dye baby shower for your yoga teacher?

Thoughts on Birthday Week

I really like the idea of celebrating my birthday for a week.  Not a straight week of party with cake and balloons, but doing things that I truly enjoy.  This is how my birthday week has played out this year.

Monday - got a massage.  Oh, yes.
Tuesday - played duets with Lynn.  Always enjoyable.
Wednesday - enjoyed sitting under the Turrell at Pomona College at the end of a lovely walk
Thursday - yoga
Friday - BIRTHDAY Day: hanging with my daughter for a few hours, going to a party (a dear friend's retirement party), going out to Bangkok Blue for dinner with my honey.

So, yes, many of these things I do on a regular or occasional basis, but when I think about it as doing something special each day to celebrate another trip around the sun, it makes these events a little more special.

Sanskrit

Yoga seems to be in the news lately, probably because it has become fairly popular in mainstream culture.  I read about the problems that some people have when practicing yoga too strenuously (not an issue for me, that's for sure!).  Just last week I read that some purists are concerned that the word Hindu does not even appear in yoga magazines.

I understand that my once-a-week yoga class does not, in many ways, mirror a true yogi's practice, but I do know that I feel good after a class, and the physical stretching to keep my muscles from becoming too stiff is part of the three-pronged approach to exercise (with aerobic and strengthening exercises also important).

My yoga teacher does, actually, hint at Hinduism at the beginning of every class.  We start with three Ohms and then chant the Invocation to Patanjali.  Over the past two years I have gone from the "repeat after me" mode of the chant to almost having it memorized, even though I really don't think about the meaning of the Sanskrit.  I have looked it up, and you can read the chant here in both Sanskrit and English.

Yoga Pose with Props

This is not me, but it IS the pose I did yesterday in yoga class - hanging headstand with ropes.

A New Year for Yoga

I haven't been to yoga for the past two weeks. And now it's a new year. Our teacher, Tracy, has decided that we are going to reach out into more challenging poses. Here is the triangle pose that we have been working on. I don't remember starting it, but I was probably not very good at it when I first started a few months ago.

Today we started the twisted triangle pose. I felt completely out of my realm! I'm sure that as we work on this one little by little, it will become easier, and then maybe I won't stumble. . . . It certainly makes the regular triangle pose seem "easy."