Christmas...DONE!

I love my family and all, but I'm always glad when the Holidays are over. Stress from traffic and running hither and yon taking care of random stuff wears me down fast.

We rearranged some furniture to fit the tree into our tiny condo and The Monster learned a new trick:
That's what I get for putting the end table behind the door. THIS is why I hate leaving him alone for more than a day; he's likely to do something stupid and hurt himself. I swear he's either an evil genius or a complete moron.

Anyway, a quick furniture switch-a-roo and problem solved.

Holly and I spent Xmas at my folk's house in Orange County; we headed up late afternoon and made it in time to grab a snack before heading over to her parent's place for Xmas Eve dinner. It was my first time meeting her grandparents and one set of Aunts/Uncles. Dad's advice for dealing with your girlfriend's relatives: "she drives...you drink; it worked for me." My Dad rocks. A few Rouge, Dead Guys later and we were off. They turned out to be much nicer than Holly made them out to be.

Best friend Alex (since we were 11) and his "roomie"/ex-fiance/girlfirend/whatever Jennifer cam over to Mom and Dad's after dinner at Holly's folks house. I've been friends with Jennifer for many years and I seriously hope she and Alex work things out. They're practically family and it was awesome to see them. I tossed back a 22 oz. "Arrogant Bastard" in the process.

Little sister Christine and her fiance, Steve, made it in from Cupertino around 10. A few libations and we called it around 1 AM. Iwas thrilled to have them come down since I only get to see them every 12-18 months.

Xmas day was NUTS. Gifts at Mom and Dad's, over to her folks' place to open gifts with them, over to Gramma dna Grampa's to say Hi while we were in town and back to Mom and Dad's for Xmas dinner (22 oz. Stone IPA with it) and then back home to SD so Holly could get to work Friday morning. We walked in the door around 10 PM, totally exhausted and absolutley crashed.

We raked in some amazing loot, though...
Highlights:
De Soto Black Wave bibjohn (replaces my 2003 Tres bibjohn with the holes and rips in it)
Rudy Projesct sunglasses (replaces my frames that broke over a year ago)
Crockpot (yes!)
De Soto gift cert
Memory Foam slippers
about $200 in gift cards
HUGE check from Mom and Dad

IOU's for: a TP Massage kit (something about an FDA hold?) and a gift cert to Kiefer's (swim stuff).

As with any trip to Mom and Dad's we always get leftovers.

Just the cookies!

Chocolate covered graham crackers, oatmeal peanut butter toffee, sugar cookies, something peanut-like with chocolate frosting on it and Mom's rum cookies. I'm getting fat just inhaling the fumes.

I forgot the reen Chile Stew mix from comfortfoods.com that Mom threw in and the toilet valve Dad hooked us up with (ours leaks...f'ing annoying!).

Thankfully it's a recovery week, otherwise I can't imagine how tired I'd be.

Speaking of training: did a 3 mile TT on the track today. I'm not divulging the results, but I'm in good shape considering the running troubles I've had since August; if the leg holds together I have a chance to do some amazing stuff in 2009.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

E.