Christmas, 2008

I slept in rather late this morning. Till nearly 11am. The last several days, I think I've been sensing a primitive desire to stuff myself with food and hibernate through the rest if winter. Very typical behavior this time of year for me. And by the way, so far this year its been very typical winter weather. Temps in the 20s and 30s and several small snow storms throughout December.

There were no coffee shops open this morning, so Fern and I didn't engage in our usual sort of morning hangout for weekends or holidays. Instead, I invited her over to the house and we opened presents. I had a few for her-a couple pair of ear rings, winter socks, knitting magazines (including one subscription of her choice), and a very amazing work of art depicting memorable scenes from the first four years of our knowing each other. The gifts were no trip to San Francisco (which I had almost booked the week prior), but I think she likes them. Fern got me three sets of professional racing DVDs. Awesome! There was the 2008 Tour of California, 2008 Tour de France (12 hour edition!), and the exciting 2008 Giro de Italia. Also, Fern knat me a cozy ninja balaclava.

I received several presents from my Mom as well as a check for a certain sum of money. The presents were all good stuff, but I especially liked the big book "Questions and Answers; Countries and Continents". Its got perty pictures and easy-to-read information. Erin sent me a funny/cool T-shirt with a cyclist on it and the caption "Its business time". Dad and Janet sent me a Harley Davidson hooded sweatshirt-totally my style!

Eric was the last to open his gifts. I got him an Anthony Bordaine book (traveling food writer) and a comic book about Barack Obama and John McCain.

After presents, Fern and I cooked up some food for Christmas dinner and headed to her parents place. On the way we picked up her sister Joanna and Joanna's boyfriend Brian. We all had some pleasant and rather intellectual conversation before dinner, as well as during dinner. The meal consisted of ham (John), brussels sprouts with bacon (me), creamy scalloped potatoes (fern), and savory sweet potatoes (Joanna). Oh, for an appetizer we had stuffed mushrooms.

After dinner there was a little more chatting, as well as some dog patting/wrestling/hugging/dancing (John has a young dog that is ridiculously energetic and overly happy to see everyone).

On the way home Fern and I had to pick up some Starbucks frapuccino drinks because we thought we had caffeine withdrawal headaches. We went to my place and took a "nap". I never actually fell asleep, but I became so relaxed and comfortable I might as well have. Frankly, I had become so unusually relaxed that I didn't feel like doing much with the rest of the day when we climbed out of bed at 7:30pm. But Fern convinced me to do some indoor riding. It took a little while to set everything up, but we did ultimately get about 45minutes of riding in while watching my new Tour De France DVD. A good ride and totally necessary, considering the calories I've been taking in lately.

Now I'm looking forward to some deep, long sleep. I've stayed up late the last couple of nights working on my present to Fern (during which I developed a painful headache), so now that that's done I'm feeling totally stress-free and relaxed and looking forward to sleep and the next two days off of work.