Merry Christmas Eve blogland!

I safely made it home to Allentown on Tuesday night and enjoyed spending yesterday relaxing with the family and running some last minute errands.

It's cooooold up here as I learned on my run yesterday. Apparently my ear warmer is not in fact warm enough and my ears were killing me about a half mile in. My chin was pretty cold too, maybe I should have worn a scarf.

Either way, I got in 4.2 miles around the old stomping grounds. It was wonderful to run on nice open roads with minimal traffic and no stop lights.

But now, I think my body is telling me it's ready for the off-season. My right hip really started to get sore during the run yesterday, and it continues to nag at me this morning. I'm thinking maybe it's time to refocus my energy on cross training. Time to give the body a little bit of a break from running and focus instead on building a strong base for next year through strength training and other forms of cross training.

I may still try to sneak in another run or two while I'm home on roads I love, but only if my hip cooperates. If not I'll stick to riding my parents' bike and my Jillian DVDs.

In non-running news, I'm looking forward to spending the next few days with friends and family. Today is our big Christmas Eve party with very close family friends. I'm thrilled because I haven't seen many of them for several months. This party is definitely my favorite part of Christmas.

I hope you all have a fun time with friends and family. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!