Christmas Eve

Well, I made it through Christmas Eve Eve relatively unscathed. I wore my Santa hat to class to keep my holiday spirits up, which opened the door at 4:30 (which is like my new favorite class these days because it is always well attended with people of all abilities who are really eager to learn and challenge themselves to go deeper in the practice and understanding of the poses. It has been one of my favorite classes to teach lately.) to some interesting sharing about childhood Christmas and when we and/or our children found out "the truth" about Santa Claus. Here I am demonstrating cobra pose, Santa Hat and all.

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At 4:30 we worked with some basic principles in the shoulders and applied them to parsvakonasana, clasped parsvakonasana, maricyasana 1, parivritta parsvakonasana, clasped parsvakonasana and maricyasana 3. It was fun.

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At 6:00 I had a strong sequence planned but we did not make it through my plans because most of the people there were brand new to the advanced class and I think I was speaking a foreign language as far as they were concerned. They were great students just not trained in how to translate my directions into their bodies. But we did make some good progress toward padmasana. I want people to really be able to get into padmasana with no hands and upside down in headstand, shoulderstand, pinca mayurasana and handstand this year. However, once the New Year and the new session begins I am going to take a step or two back from the edge in that class and go back to the basics so that we can build again toward the harder poses. What happens with that class is that once we are well into the session it gets harder and harder for new folks to join us. So, if you have been scared to come to the advanced class, now is the time to join the fun, because we will be easing into things at the first of the year. That is may plan anyway. At least for the weeks I am here.

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Okay, time for a little asana practice and then up to Georgetown to hang with Mom and Dad.