And the Winner Is...

Christina!  Email me your address at  katiea801@yahoo.com and I will send off your calendar!  If Christina does not respond by Thursday, December 31, 2009 11:59 PST I will pick a new winner!

Whew!  Where do I start?  I did not blog, I did not read blogs, I hardly even updated my FB status for almost six days and it was awesome!  I really needed to disconnect.  Actually, I packed so much fun and family into six days that I need a vacation from my vacation!  Tahoe was perfect, the weather was just awesome and the house we rented had plenty of space and nooks that we didn't have to always be on top of one another.  On Tuesday when we headed up it was snowing lightly and that got us all excited!  My SIL, Mom and little niece and I  all went grocery shopping when we got up there and when we came out it was snowing again!  What memories!  I know all you peeps that live in snow could probably care less, but this was just magical to us. 

We snowboarded and skied on Wednesday and again on Saturday.  My brother who hadn't skied in almost 12 years was right back at it with my hubbs and I.  My hubbs also played a trick on my Bro and I and took us down a double black diamond.  I can do one black diamond, but not two!  My Bro and I stood at the top of the run that had a 10 foot drop in and freaked!  My Bro almost strangled Ari at 9,000 feet!  But by the time we got down we were all friends again and did the run about 10 more times that day :)  My little nephews, 16 and 7 took skiing lessons and my little niece, 17, took snowboarding lessons and by Saturday all three were going down the intermediate runs with us!  The snow was PERFECT!  Packed powder!  It was cool in the mornings but by the afternoon it usually warmed up so much that our big ski coats were almost too much!  Awesome California weather!  Christmas Eve we all went snowmobiling.  That was my Bro's gift to us all and it did not disappoint!  We went up the Nevada side of the lake into area's that are hardly seen by people even in good weather!  The views of the lake were just stunning and it was an adventure none of us will ever forget!

All of us at Zepher Cove (w/ Lake Tahoe in the back) before snowmobiling.

The tall one is my little 16 year old nephew Chuck, he is 6'2"! My mom is dwarfed by him!

Snowmobiling at the top of the mountain. That is Carson Valley, NV behind us!

My big Bro and Little Sis with Lake Tahoe behind us :)

Can you see the family resemblance?

Santa was good to us all, bringing me tons of running gear for running in the rain and a much needed new running hat.  Oh, and my hubbs got himself me a PS3 for Christmas!  Can you tell how excited I am? It plays BlueRay's so that I am actually excited about.  All in all, all 12 of us had a blast.  No one argued (amazing if you know us) and no one got injured (also amazing if you know us). Well, almost no one.  I got knocked out by a ski falling out of the car yesterday.  I have a nice shinner on my head.  It was a headache that I will never forget.  The funny thing is that it happened at home!  While unpacking the cars at my Bro's!  I should be fine, but let's just say today I shouldn't really tackle any major tax problems at work :)  For all you peeps wondering how I survived with the MIL, let's just say she came up late Christmas Eve, left early the day after Christmas.  She did attempt to backseat drive on Christmas day to Mass but I stomped that out quick.  I really just stayed out of her way and let my mom and Ari entertain her.  Probably a smart move on my part, I just know I would look hideous in an orange jumpsuit. :) 

I actually managed to get three runs in while we were gone and will be doing a review of the YakTrax later this week.  I didn't use my Garmin as I just went out to enjoy the run.  The altitude killed me the first run but after that I felt a ton better.  I ran a five mile loop and averaged around an 8:15 pace each time.  Not too shabby for not running in altitude since September.

I am slowly but shirley catching up on all of your blogs!  It looks like a lot of you also decided to take some time off from blogging so that made me feel a bit less guilty.  Thank you to all of you who have become followers!  And thanks to my faithful readers, it sounds like we all have a very busy 2010 in front of us! 
Have a great Monday!  Happy Running