Boxing Day!

I have no idea why it's called Boxing Day. I know that I could look it up, but just like Martin O'Malley's attitude toward all the concerns about the newly redrawn Congressional districts, I just don't care that much.

I weighed myself this morning and knew that I need to get back on track with running. I was on a nice pace through October. My goal was to run 35o miles by the end of the year. Then it got.....cold. I don't like running in the cold because it agitates my asthma. I'm not much of fan of running on a treadmill. It's boring. And I don't own one at home. So my year-end gola of 350 is looking more like 300 miles. But today I decided that I was going to go running. I got a new pair of Nike running gloves for Christmas (thank you baby Jesus!). And on Friday I bought a new pair of running shows from the Falls Road Running Store. I used my $100 gift card that I won for being the top fund raiser in the Port to Fort race this year. I bought a pair of Asics that cost $105, so with tax I paid about $11.
Anyway, I ran 6 miles this morning up at Liberty High School. I was set on running 3 miles. At about the 2 mile marker this cocky kid was running at the same time as me, then stopping in the inside lane to do push-ups and sit-ups. Seriously kid, get out of the freakin' inside lane!!! It's not yours! So then I decided to run 4 miles so that I could keep almost stepping on him as I ran past him. Then he left and I was at 4 miles, so to make sure he saw me still running as he drove away, I needed to trudge to 5 miles. Then a bunch of people joined me at the track, and I decided to push another mile to make it 6. I'm surprised that I did it. I haven't run more than 4 miles in

more than a few months.

Christmas was a blast as always. My parents got me a Ray Rice jersey. He's no Chykie Brown, but I still like the guy. I got an iron frying pan, pre-seasoned. It'll be nice not to have Teflon flakes in our food now. You know that stuff is terrible for you, right? I also got some Brady Chocolates from Trader Joe's. OMG. (am I too old to say that?) But they are so good!!! And finally I got an electronic rotating grill scrubber. My last one I left on the grill (on the inside under the cover) and the next time I used the grill I didn't open it first before I lit the burners and by the time I did it was thoroughly melted. Hmmm.....

My kids had a wonderful Christmas, too. My youngest got the hard-to-find Leap Frog Tablet. My oldest got a laptop (remember that story?). My son got an electric guitar that he thinks cost $600. If he wants to think that I'll be more than happy to let him continue thinking that. Now he calls himself "Guitar Lord".

Christmas day started with my son running in our room at 6am asking if it was time to get up. As always, I told him to go back to sleep (running joke). I ended up sleeping on the floor that night because my youngest kicked me out of my own bed and I didn't feel right about sleeping on the couch and accidentally running into Santa Claus. Let me tell you - sleeping on the floor at 39 is not the good-time sleepover that my kids think it is. My back still hurts!

Soon after opening presents, my youngest fell asleep, which is an open invitation for me to go back to sleep, which I did for another 2 hours. After I awoke we went to my wife's aunt's house - crab dip, cookies, cashews, refrigerated chocolate covered something or other. Cookies. Did I mention cookies? My wife's cousin has been baking the month away. And it was good indeed!

We finally baled about 7pm for our hour trip back to Carroll County. After a good nap on the ride home, the kids were raring to go! I ended up playing Uno for about hour or so, them some Princess gems fishing game, before finally collapsing at midnight. I have no idea what time my youngest fell asleep because she was still talking to me when I was falling asleep.

And that was basically our Christmas. How was your Christmas? What did you get?