Thursday, December 22, 2011

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!

13 comments:

Karen said...

Happy Birthday Kelley! mmmm cosmojito - sounds awesome :) Have a great Christmas.

B. Kramer said...

Happy Winter Season Celebration! Cheers!

Being Robinson said...

merry christmas! and happy birthday to kelley. :)

Unknown said...

Have a great holiday and happy birthday Kelley! Older = wiser, more sophisticated, better patients, and more capable of well crafted slowly inflicted revenge. ;)

Amber said...

I didn't realize Kelley was more than 3 years older than you!

Happy birthday to her and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas with the girls! I bet they're so excited!

Alisa said...

Be nice to your wife there mister =).

Sounds like she celebrated 40 in style.

Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful new year with the fam.

I love group exercise classes they are great for staying motivated. Be prepared for them to be super crowded during the next few months though =(

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

I have to say, Kelley does NOT look like she is 40! She has aged well!! You both look younger than your age, IMO.

Sounds like a great week! That is cool that you took in a ballet. I saw a ballet in Paris set to Vivaldi's 4 seasons and it was incredible. I haven't seen the Nutcracker in 10 years, I'd like to see that again, though.

merry Christmas! Have fun with Kelley & the girls!!

Badgergirl said...

Happy birthday to Kelley and I hope your family has a great Christmas!

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Cosmojito with a link? Ballet? Nutcracker? Son, there's some question as to whether you actually have any nuts to crack! You're supposed to be merry at Xmas time, but you bypassed merry and went straight to gay. Or should I say "gayer"?

Not that there's anything wrong with any of that.

Have a Gay Xmas, Cletus, and Happy Birthday to your more masculine spouse. (<-- Not a slam on her because a warehouse of Fallopian tubes would qualify as more masculine than you.)

Seriously, have a good one, brother.

Wes said...

Glad you enjoyed your Kid-cation! Happy Birfday to Kelley! and Merry Christmas to all of you!

joyRuN said...

Happy birthday to the best eye-candy photographer of the blogosphere!!!

Sounds like you guys got to spend some wonderful quality time together :)

Have a wonderful Christmas, CJ!

Unknown said...

I hope Kelley had a great birthday... I'm a bit late to the party! :(

Yay for new gyms!!!

And hope you all had a great holiday John!

Being Robinson said...

your comment was hilarious. i'm not pregnant just yet, which i suppose means that you can congratulate my husband! ha. so it was an announcement that we are attempting to get pregnant. YAY! no marathons for this girl this year.