Christmas and Trials

A little late I know, but Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!! I hope you all enjoyed your holidays as much as I did mine. I had a great 2 week visit with Jacquelyn and my family, it was so nice to see everyone again. And a huge thanks to everyone who came out to the Snow Dance on the 19th!! Not only was it a great night of music (big thanks to all the musicians who played) and getting to see everyone again, but I can't stress enough how much I appreciate everyone's support in what I am trying to accomplish. And on an organizational side of things, thank you so much to Jacquelyn, the Parent family, and of course my parents. This event never would have happened without you guys, so thanks a lot!

As I mentioned before, I had a very nice visit home. Christmas day was definitely a highlight, what with having both my family's and Jacquelyn's family's Christmas dinners in one night. And just getting to eat my mother's home cooked food every night was a very nice change of pace.

After my visit home I traveled straight to Val Cartier, Quebec for World Junior Trials. This event consisted of three races, a 20km pursuit, skate sprints and a 15km classic race. While none of these races were very spectacular for me, they weren't bad races either. I ended up 16th in both the 20km pursuit and the 15km classic, and qualified 14th in my sprints.

With the last of these races being this past Tuesday, my journey back to Canmore began Wednesday afternoon. With a 3 or 4 hour lay over at the Montreal airport, my flight didn't arrive back in Calgary until just before 11pm Wednesday night. From there I said farewell to my teammates and found my way to one of the hostels downtown Calgary. This was my first time staying at a hostel, so I was hoping for some excitement. However, I was only really there from 1:30am - 6:45am, so needless to say, it was pretty quiet. I then made my way to the Passport office to take care of some better-late-than-never business, then I managed to catch the early bus and be back in Canmore by 10:30am. It was a very busy, yet fun and productive morning.

So I am now back at my place in Canmore, and my newly constructed mattress bed, our new couch, and of course my new can opener and magic bullet, are all making it feel even more like home. I am going to be staying here for another 5 days, and then I am off to Winthrop, Washington for a couple Supertour races! Being both my first time to Washington and my first Supertour races, I am very excited.

So, I think that about covers this past highly eventful month. That's all for now, Happy 2010 everyone!!