Christmas in California

I have been living and working in West Virginia for just over two years now.  You would think that in that amount of time, and the amount of questions that my co-workers have asked me about home, they would have a clear idea of the place I call home.  No, it's not beaches and margaritas.  Neither is it movie stars and glitzy night clubs.  Rather it's a small rural valley 30 minutes from the Oregon border, with a population less than 5,000.  The valley floor sits just below 3,000 ft.  Most of my classmates grew up on ranches and our high school had a rodeo team.  Yet after two more than two years of spending 40 hours a week with my co workers, as I prepared to travel to California for Christmas, I got countless comments about the warm weather, big city Christmas I was going to have.

Clay and I had a really good trip.  We hadn't seen my sister or my brother and his wife since we got married a year and a half ago.  We went out for just over a week and it was really a breath of fresh air.  Since my family lives in a such a tiny little town, you don't really spend much time running around.  We got to visit with some old friends (Clay's buddy from high school who is married to my old youth pastor and their four children), I got to go for a run with a high school classmate, sat around and worked jigsaw puzzles, took some sewing lessons from my mom, went on numerous runs with Clay and my sister-in-law Lindsay, and ate some really great food.

Returning home to West Virginia felt good after being away, especially away from our two doggies!  Though almost a week later and we are still having a hard time switching back to East Coast time.  I am not one for New Years Resolutions, I guess I know I am bound to fail at them.  But I am always trying to better myself.  There are a couple things that I want to work on this winter however....

1.  Running - I would like to run a 50k in 2012.  Earlier I had been hoping that this would be at Promised Land 50k in the end of April.  However my IT band has flared up again and I have not been able to run more than 6 miles without pain.  So I know I need to hold off on really gearing up for any longer mileage runs until I get it under control.  I bought one of those Pro-Tec support band things, but haven't noticed much of a difference. 

2.  Non-running activities - since I will not be running as much, that means more time for swimming (which I have barely done since this summer) and biking on the trainer.  Also I am planning on doing more yoga.  When I was going to Yoga consistently, I noticed such a difference in my flexibility.  I got a Yoga DVD off of amazon so that I have no excuses when I can't make the Wednesday night class.

3.  House - The attic in our house is finished (basically a large room with some closets and a bathroom).  However we don't really use it, mainly because it is on a separate heating system.  I really want to make it into a functional room to keep clutter out of our downstairs living room and spare bedroom.  We recently had our cable turned off and our TV (which was actually Clay's dads) taken back.  So I have been re-arranging our living room and painting, and want to make the upstairs a sewing/office/workout room.  Putting it into words it sounds simple, but figuring it all out and getting it all organized without spending a lot of money is gonna take some thought.  And I am sure that as I start to spend more time upstairs, which has that awful vinyl wood paneling, I will want to hide those walls somehow...and yet another project.

Clay got his Dutch Bros Coffee! (Only available in Oregon, and Redding, CA)

Me running