Crazy Holiday Times

With the kids being gone for the last week, you might think it would be calm and peaceful around our household.  And you would be right!  Kelley and I have been running around getting stuff done.  I've been able to work in peace and quiet.  Still, they come home today and I am ready to see my girls again.

We ended up changing gyms.  The Gold's Gym I was going to before got bought out by another company, and their promotions/pricing was too good to pass up.  I have completely lost all motivation to do the yoga and strength training at home like I was doing before Ironman training.  I used to roll 5 days a week, hitting strength m/w/f and yoga t/th before work.  The Planet Fitness was so cheap because they didn't have group classes, or any other kind of amenities.  And $10/month made it worth giving up all of that stuff I never used anyway.  The new gym is Fitness Connection, they have 6 locations, some with pools, and all with group fitness classes.  So I'm going to start hitting the yoga and pilates classes there to make up for my home motivation loss.  And it's only $20/month, well worth it.  Of course, we signed up on Saturday and I haven't been there yet.  but really, it is going to happen.  someday.

Monday was Kelley's 40th birthday.  I give her a lot of crap about being older than me by more than 3 years, and she deserves it.  But she also deserves a chance at a nice birthday, which meant I had to keep my trap shut.  Our solution was to get together with some friends.  Friday night we went out to the Flying Saucer in downtown Raleigh with Joe, Gina, and Kayte.  I had a blast.  Kelley had a headache.  And being old, we called it a night about 10 pm.  Lots of fun with great friends is always a fun way to celebrate a birthday.  Our friend Robin also has the same birthday (Dec 19) and was supposed to meet us out there, but she never made it.

Saturday is completely a blur.  Neither one of us remember anything that actually happened on saturday.  But I know something did happen.  surely.

Sunday I got in my 12 mile long run with a pretty fast negative split.  I did the first 6 in 48 minutes, and the last 6 in 45, so it got 30 seconds per mile faster as the run went on.  Nice little split there.

Monday was Kelley's actual birthday so we went to her favorite restaurant Porter's, and got her favorite drink, a Cosmojito. It was lovely.  Afterwards we went to visit with her dad for a bit.

Yesterday was quite interesting.  We went to the ballet to see the Nutcracker.  I love going to broadway shows, operas, and orchestra performances.  but I had never been to see a ballet before.  It was incredibly well done.  The dancers were great, orchestra was flawless, and Tchaikovsky's music came to life beautifully.  It was a lot of fun.  We even ran into some old friends from college while leaving.  And luckily one of Kelley's cousins is doing an internship with the ballet company this spring, so he was able to score us some great tickets, and we had dinner with him and his parents before the show.  Good times all around.

Once the kids get back here today the doors of insanity will fly open again and the Christmas whirlwind will begin. We're going out of town some, going to be here plenty, and have fun all the way around.  Have a great holiday if I don't get to post again before Sunday!