After I finished my last final for school I headed staight to the airport to go home to Texas. I was pretty happy to be going home considering I hadn't been home in over two months. I was planning on being there for three weeks but it got cut short by a week when I got invited to go to camp back in Los Angeles at the ADT velodrome. My trip home was nice while it lasted. I got to spend time with friend and family I hadn't seen in awhile, I got to catch up with my two younger sisters, spend quality father daughter time with dear oh dad, and of course go Christmas shopping with mom. On Christmas eve my whole family went over to a family friend's house that I have known since I was born and we had a nice dinner and we all went to to midnight mass. The entire family was in totally shock when my sisters decided to bring home a puppy without asking and no warning. She was so cute no one really got too mad but instead except the fact she was now part of the family. As the puppy was brought home on Christmas eve we decided to name her Eve. 
Christmas morning was a little different this year with a new puppy to help us tear up all the wrapping paper. Other than that it went pretty much like everyother year, dad is up before the crack of dawn cooking Christmas dinner, my youngest sister and I are up waiting for my middle sister to get up so we can open presents while mom is lounging around in her Christmas pajamas drinking a cup of coffee. We had a lazy Christmas and both my parents took the whole week off of work so we could all spend time together as a family. The following week there are three major events that we partake in. My dad's birthday is on New Years eve, my birthday is on New Years day and of course the whole New Years celebration. Every year we have a big party with all our friends, this year was the same. Except, my mom and I did all the cooking to let my dad have his birthday to himself. The next day was my 19th birthday, I went to bed at 2am and woke up at 7am to do a group ride with some friends and ate breakfast at La Madeline's.
The next day, January 2nd I got up early to catch a flight back to Long Beach where I am living and going to school also where the camp is at. As I was saying bye to my dad he pulls out his wallet, hands me some money and says "Here kid, sorry I forgot to get you something for your birtday." As he is not the most emotional person ever I took it as him saying "I love you, please don't make me say it."
I was pretty pumped to be heading back to Long Beach, I was finally going to get see my boyfriend after two and half month of him being in Europe racing. I was home two days before camped started which was on January 4th through the 13th. The camp was ran by the national team coaches and had about 20 racers participating in it. We would have track sessions in the morning that consisted mostly of team pursuit work for the women and juniors. Then in the afternoon right after the track session we would go for a road ride anywhere from an hour to three hours long. I would go home devour whatever food was accessible, clean up and pass out for the night. This went on all week then on Saturday there was a track race in the afternoon that a bunch of locals and most people at the track participated in. I was pretty excited to race and it was my first race of the season. It was an omnium with three different races, tempo race, points race and scratch race, I ended up in 4th place for the omnium.
I started my second semester at Long Beach City College where I am taking 15 units.
Right now I am just trying to get better from this cold that is going around!
