[Tracking Every Minute]-Day 24 – Christmas Eve

This post is the twenty fourth post in the #trackingeveryminute challenge. You can follow along here.

My family is hispanic. So Christmas Eve, or Noche Buena as we call it is a big deal. It’s a bigger deal than Christmas. All of the family gets together. Typically, whoever is hosting roasts a pig in an outdoor oven or roasting box called a caja china.

I have no idea why we do any of those things. It’s probably worth researching.

Today I was able to get a deep work block in and get in some exercise. For a holiday, that is a really productive day.

7:15 – 8:15. Wake up and read. I love doing this. I need to get more consistent doing this when we get back to a regular schedule.

8:15 – 10:30. Got in the only deep work block of the day. Again, for a holiday, this is a win.

10:30 – 11:30. It’s below 75 degrees, dogs are coming on a walk.

11:30 – 12:00. Batched communication block.

12:00 – 1:00. Lunch with the family at home.

1:00 – 1:30. Communication block.

1:30 – 3:00. Lift some weights.

3:00 – 5:00. Hang around the house. Help prepare dishes for the parties later.

5:00 – 6:00. Hit a bit of traffic heading to our first outing of the night.

6:00 – 9:30. First family event. Santa came, it was great.

9:30 – 11:45. Second family event. This time on my side of the family.

Kids are Growing Up

The holidays are a time for reflection. I feel the reflection is caused by interacting with family that you might not see very often. In my case the reflection is the fact my kids are growing up. I’m hardly able to call them kids any more.

When I see family members with infants and toddlers it takes me back a decade, to a stage of life that I am no longer in. I can also see into the future. There are teenagers, college aged kids and even recent graduates in the mix. My kids are closer to this “table” than the baby one.

My kids approach their uncle in a Santa costume with a good attitude, but see it as a gag. Just ten years ago, they approached uncle Santa in awe.

I am not trying to say that growing up is good or bad. It just is. But seeing kids both younger and older than your kids really drives home the point to take advantage of the time you have with them.

This is probably the fifth time that my reflection of the day is centered around spending time with my kids while I have it.

I see this as a tremendous benefit of tracking how you are using your time. I was able to work for a few hours this morning because my kids wanted nothing to do with me. It’s natural, it’s the age they are at. But in 10 years, there is a good chance that none of them are living with me.

So instead of jumping on another call, sending out another email, or trying to do anything work related, I should probably just go lie on the couch next to them.

Main Takeaways

• Kids are growing up way too fast.
• Make the most of huge family gatherings.