happy new year

It's already the 4th and I am just now getting around to posting a new years message. Lame, I know...but first things first, Christmas...

Christmas was fantastic. Three years ago I had my first Christmas away from home. When I was first faced with that prospect, I was pretty depressed. I had always been able to go home to my parents for the holiday and not going was an adjustment. It turned out to be a great Christmas and the two since then have also been away from home but they were just as good.

We left France early the morning of the 20th. It wasn't snowing but it was -16 Celsius and we were most definitely going to run into snow and ice along the way. It was along trip, 9 hours total with heavy snow and a detour along the way. We thankfully didn't have any trouble crossing the Channel and I made all my trains to Bath. Ada and her husband, Bryce, arrived the next day from Japan. The days leading up to Christmas were filled with secret shopping trips and yummy food. We also went to the Roman Baths (third visit for me) and we took a train to a nearby village to get pub food. I realized once again that you don't have to be "home" for Christmas. If I am with family it feels like home.

My New Years was quiet as usual. We stayed up and watched the fireworks in London on TV and then went to bed. There were some noisy neighbors but for the most part things were pretty subdued. I gave more thought to resolutions than I usually do. I've always kind of been against making resolutions as I never seem to keep them but in the last year or so I've learned that if I set a goal and work hard I can achieve what I set out to do.

I have one major goal this year and I've decided the more people I tell the more people will keep me accountable. I want to run a full marathon, I'm thinking Baltimore in October. That's right, 26.2 miles of pure torture. So my faithful blog readers, you are now charged with making sure that I stick to my goal!