Christmastime 2012

Like I said, I spent Christmas in Santa Fe with my family. Here are some highlights:

Friday we decorated the tree and house, since my parents waited for Ryan and me to get home. That evening we went to a great choral concert at the Cathedral downtown. Since I had been busy with school and then getting ready to leave town, I never really got in the Christmas spirit in Charlottesville, but this concert sure helped.

For Christmas Eve we did our usual family tradition, which is invite the grandparents over and eat posole and tamales. Then Dad and Ryan and I went downtown to walk Canyon Road and enjoy the farolitos. As you can see, we made some friends on our walk.

After Canyon Road we walked to the Plaza to see the lights, and then we stopped in a cozy hotel bar for warm drinks. Oh, and it was snowing lightly all evening. When we got back home all of our own farolitos were still lit! I think it was a Christmas miracle, since it was snowing. That or a neighbor relit them.

On Christmas morning the grandparents came back over for breakfast, then we opened presents. Here's our pretty tree.

Later more family came over for Christmas dinner, for a total of twelve of us. It was nice to have all of my Dad's side of the family together. Speaking of Dad, check out our Christmas coordination.

Wednesday night Ryan and I went to see Django, and Thursday night all four of us saw Les Miserables. 

Friday we all took the Santa Fe Rail Runner train to Albuquerque. While there we ate a nice meal, then took a bus to Old Town and walked around a little. Then we had a drink at a hotel before getting back on the train and heading home.

Saturday (today) I ran ten miles outside in 20-something weather on a rail trail outside of town. My Dad wanted to see me run, so he dropped me off and then met me a couple times at various cross-roads before picking me up at the end and driving me home. The temperature didn't really bother me much, but most of the trail was still covered in snow (and ice), so it was a much slower and more tiring run than usual. It was fun to get out there and do something different though. Dad said he saw a coyote on the trail while waiting for me, but I was looking where my feet were going too much to look around and didn't see one. Alas.  

After the run and a hot shower we all went out for one last New Mexican meal for Ryan and me, then visited a little more with my grandparents.

It's been a real nice trip and holiday.

recent-ish goings on

I figured before it was time to blog about Christmas I should squeeze in one more post, so here is a hodge-podge of what's been going on in my world, but not necessarily in order.

I'm on school break! I spent the semester working on my minor in the American Revolution and Early Republic, which meant I read a bunch of books and met with my professor every other week or so to talk about them. Then during finals week I wrote two ten-page papers, and I handed those in on Monday the 17th. I enjoyed the readings and learning and all that, but it's always nice to have a break.

I ran a 5k at Monticello with some friends on December 1. I haven't run very many regular flat 5ks, so I was able to set a personal record of 24:24. The run started right in front of Monticello, went around to the lawn in back, wound down by the gardens, and ended up on the parkway trail before coming back up to the Visitor Center. I run on the trail that heads up to Monticello all the time and of course I've done the Montalto Challenge, but it was fun to actually run right next to the house and gardens. Before the race started a friend got some man to take a photo of us in front of the house on her iPhone, but unfortunately the man was not so savvy with the photo-taking. So here's a finger, a glimpse of Monticello, and us runners!

I'm also training for a marathon again, in hopes that I can run the race in April I couldn't run last year when I injured myself. So hopefully this time will go better. 

My brother didn't get married in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago. He thought it would be funny to change his FB status to married while he and his girlfriend spent the weekend there, and my family fell for it (for the most part). I let him know it wasn't funny though. It was just dumb. Boys, ugh.

For a potluck Christmas dinner party with my girls' small group I made a beet, pecan, and goat cheese salad. I'm pretty sure that was the first time I actually cooked stuff and did intricate preparation for a salad (like toasting the pecans on the stove and adding maple syrup, plus cooking the beets and making the dressing from scratch). I thought it was pretty good, but the problem is that not everyone likes beets, so unfortunately there was a lot of salad left over. (Which turned out to be fortunate for Josh, who ate all the leftovers.) Some people just don't know what's good.

I had a pistachio sighting again! Actually, I had two, but for the first one there were several shells lying around, and Josh (rightly) pointed out that it doesn't count when there are lots of shells, so he didn't even let me take a picture. Luckily just a few days later I found another one in the parking lot of the UVA Law School. It was right next to my car near a mysterious bone thing, which was kind of creepy. 

I'm in Santa Fe! I came here Thursday. It's nice to be here, hanging out with my parents and Ryan. I'm also running here (marathon training!), and am surprised how decent the runs have been so far considering the temperature has only been in the 20s. The first day I overdressed and pretty quickly had to shed a couple layers, but the next day was better. The sun here seems so much bigger and closer than it does in Charlottesville, so I think that has a lot to do with it.

Thanksgiving

I know Thanksgiving was a while ago, but I still want to tell you about it. So here goes.

My parents flew out from New Mexico to Richmond, and my brother flew out from Arizona. So we were all here! Wednesday I drove to Richmond to help get ready for Thanksgiving. Jay helped me make rolls, Ryan and Sunni tracked down some tapered candles, and several of us peeled lots of stubborn oranges for ambrosia.

Kneading some roll dough. With supervision.

That night my parents, Ryan, and I went to dinner. Ryan wanted to carb up (more on why coming up!) so we ate spaghetti at Joe's Inn. Then Ryan and I drove to Charlottesville, where we met up with Josh and went to see the No BS! Brass Band and Love Canon. It was pretty fun. And Ryan ran into someone he knew back in Santa Fe, so that was exciting.

Love Canon. They play 80s music bluegrass style. Which is awesome.

Thursday morning (Thanksgiving!) Ryan and I got up early and headed out to...get excited...Ryan's first race! We both ran in the Turkey Trot 5k at the Boar's Head Inn. It was pretty hilly, but Ryan did great. My watch said we finished in 29:something, but somehow our official time came out as 31:something. We're sticking with the under-30 minutes time.
 

Chilly (high 30s), but excited to run!

Proud finisher! (And only a little annoyed at the photographer.)

Stretching. Always important.

Cute siblings.

I was super-excited to be running with Ryan for his first race. Hopefully he'll keep it up and it won't be our last!

After the race we headed back to my place to shower and get dressed for Thanksgiving, then drove back to Richmond for the big meal.

We ate this.

Sitting at this.

After eating, family time, and cleaning up, it was time for a nap. My nuclear family napped in my parents' hotel room, then went back to my grandparents' for pie. Then Ryan and I hung out with my cousins for a while and played Taboo.

Friday we hung out with Grandma a lot and moved her into a new place. We even played  a game of Rook. She was in a good mood and funny, so it was fun. Friday evening the whole family went to the CineBistro to see Lincoln and eat dinner. I hadn't really cared about seeing the movie, but I'm glad I did. After the movie Ryan and I joined Jay and Josh for a beer at Capital Ale House.

Saturday morning Josh and I grabbed Ryan and worked out at a park. Huguenot Park has a fitness trail, so we ran around and did the exercises it told us to do. Similarly to how I felt about the run two days before, I was excited to be working out with those guys. After our workout we showered and got changed, then went with my parents to lunch at Kitchen 64. Then we visited the Chihuly exhibit at the art museum. I saw so much of his stuff back in Tacoma that I had gotten tired of him, but I enjoyed the exhibit. From there we went to the Imax theater at the science museum to watch a movie about the Canadian Pacific Railroad. That was my dad's pick (the art museum was mine), but it was actually pretty interesting. Later in the evening Ryan and Josh and Jay and I hung out at my aunt's house for a while.

Sunday I went with my dad to take Ryan to the airport, then we met up with more of the family for Chinese food for lunch. Lunch was followed by me taking a long nap on the couch. Sunday evening my parents and I watched a Sandra Dee movie with my aunt and grandpa. Then I spent the night in my parents' hotel suite. They left town on Monday and I did some work in Richmond before heading back to Charlottesville.

It was a pretty fun holiday weekend with my family.