Christmas 2006

Holidays were good……..no big deal which is how I like it.

Saturday (12-23-06) before it was light out, I did a 5 mile jog with the dogs. It occurred to me as I ran up the dark, quiet road that I actually find comfort in running in the dark. I feel like I am in my own world and nothing is real beyond the light of my head lamp. I spend a lot of time running in the dark, since most of my runs are at 5:30 am.
At 9am, I went to the gym and did my usual BodyPump class, then home for chores and stuff.
Saturday after it warmed up, I did a little exploratory bike ride on some gravel roads. There is a big section of Mark Twain National Forest (Cedar Creek District) near here and I have decided it is my personal playground and I must explore it all. Funny thing was, I ended up doing a big circle (due to poor planning and not reading a map) with out meaning too.

Sunday, I did some more mountain biking at Cedar Creek; this time exploring the Smith Creek Loop Trail. It is an interesting little trail (only 5 miles long) that mostly follows some very old fire roads and includes two creek crossings. There is also a cave and a few challenging down hill sections. The coolest part of the loop is the scenic view of the whole valley that can be seen from the trail where it runs along the bluffs above the creek. Also nice, is the fact that not too many people are out roaming around at Cedar Creek, so you feel like it is your own personal paradise.

Christmas Day, I opened gifts with my kids. They are old enough now that they don’t need a lot of presents, so I got them each $50 cash in a card (exactly what they wanted). They got me some new juice glasses, since Izzy knocked one of mine off the kitchen table the other day and broke it. Around noon, the sun came out and I got itchy to get outside and play, so I made Zoe go trail run with me. We did that same muddy 5 mile loop that I did yesterday on my bike, but this time we did it on foot. It was so much fun. She is a bit slow, but did 5 miles with only some very mild complaining. She takes after mom; she likes to GO and DO. We would run the flat, less muddy sections and then walk the more technical sections. I did a little trail maintenance while waiting for her to catch up so next time I head out there to ride; things will be in better shape. After our adventure in the woods, we wanted dinner and found the only place open on Christmas day was Waffle House. It was packed and we were lucky to get two stools at the counter. We had eggs and bacon, hash browns and waffles…………..YUMMY!

Tuesday (12-26-06) morning I said “Merry Christmas to me” and purchased a new I-Pod shuffle. It has only 1G of memory, but super small so it should be perfect for running. My BIG video I-pod is just too heavy to be convenient when I am really being active.
Back at work, my friend Cherie gave me a nice ceramic coffee mug that says “I don’t do Perky” on the side. I laughed and laughed……….it is so me.

Taking advantage of the good weather this week, I managed to get in two road rides; 40 miles on Tuesday and 30 miles on Thursday. Wednesday I did a trail run at Rockbridge and Friday I put in two hours of mountain biking at Cosmo. (I was only working 1/2 days)

So, with great relief, another Christmas is behind me. I was contemplating why I dislike Christmas so much and this is what I finally decided: I hate all the hype, the commercialism, the pressure to “perform”. It all seems so artificial, superficial and insincere. Do people really think their kids NEED more stuff? Do they really need to spend money they don’t have on a bunch of THINGS that are unnecessary? I know so many people that seem to buy into the idea that if you don’t spend hundreds of dollars on each of your loved ones, you have some how wronged them. PLEASE. I say, hug your kids more often, spend more time with them, show them that you love them and ditch the monetary insanity of Christmas……..it won’t make anybody love you more…….really!