The Night Before Christmas

The Most Wonderful Time of Year?  I would say a reserved yes, but is it just me or is Christmas becoming more and more commercialized each year?  Just look at all the riots and fighting surrounding the new Nike Air Jordan shoes - precious little goodwill being shown there.  Not wanting to sound all commie or anything, but isn't there something a bit wrong with a society that is willing to duke it out over a pair of pretty ratty looking shoes?

I have to admit, when I saw the news footage of that madness my first thought was to wonder if they offered decent pronation control.

How do you know if you're a running geek?  If you just read that last paragraph, and are laughing and nodding your head, you probably qualify.

Wandering through stores for the past week has been an interesting exercise in watching stressed out parents try to control their little monsters, who in turn are screaming their lungs out and demanding toys.  Thankfully Gavin does not seem too bothered, and is pretty laid back on the whole thing.  In fact he enjoys seeking out "naughty kids" and pointing out to me how much better behaved he is, and thus how he deserves chocolate when we get home (though he did mention yesterday that he would like some bigger and heavier chess pieces than the little plastic ones we currently have.  Brilliant - see my last post to understand).

And Dylan is still a little too young to figure out what's going on, though he did holler when we let him try out a new trike in the store and then took it away "for Santa" (though I will hold up my hand and take the blame for that).

"No Santa", he protested between screams, "bad Santa".

I'd better stop there before I get accused of going all Scrooge.  Though speaking of Scrooge, I did get a chance to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Carol the other night (last year's Christmas special).  It was a really good variation on the old story, with some unique twists and a great blending of genres (after all, they are both based on time travel).  And the fact it guest starred the gorgeous Katherine Jenkins (from my hometown no less) was an added bonus.

To all you folks out there who decry Doctor Who as being geeky (including some of my running buddies, you know who you are) - humbug yourselves!!!

On the running front, I had a great early morning 15 miles on this cold and rainy Christmas Eve with Meghan, Teresa and Clea.  And as an added motivator to keep up my midweek runs, I have signed up for the Marathon Talk Jantastic motivator.  If you don't know about Marathon Talk, it's a great weekly podcast run by two British guys.  The idea for Jantastic is that you commit yourself to running a certain number of runs per week, and you log those runs on their website.  You get points based on how many of your planned runs you actually did each week.

If you sign up for it, feel free to rival me.  Just search for participants in Austin, Texas - there's not too many of us.

Ok, time to close blogland down - I have things to do.  Despite my earlier rant, I am very much in a Christmas mood.  I have had my jukebox playing Christmas music for the last week, and am looking forward to some fun family time. Tonight we will watch our traditional Christmas Eve viewing of the Muppet's Christmas Carol, and tomorrow I will traditionally not watch the Queen's speech.

Yesterday I made some Jack Daniels Chocolate Pecan Pie, but it is mostly gone.  So today I am making absolutely the best dessert ever - one I only make at Christmas.  So if you have a few hours to spare dear readers, consider this my Christmas gift to you - try this super yummy Mocha Buche de Noel.

Merry Christmas and happy trails!!!