I can not believe that this month has only a few hours left! I had such great intentions of blogging more, but life is busy and here I sit wondering where the time has gone.
Nevertheless, here is our month in a nutshell:
Twenty years ago, it seemed like getting married in December was a good idea. It was nice that first year, however, most years we just promise to celebrate in January. But with this year's milestone anniversary, we decided to let Christmas organization take a back seat and celebrate our 20th anniversary in style. We took a trip to Charleston and had a wonderful time.
We came home to find out that our trusty van with 189,000 miles on it was DEAD. I had prayed that it would last until everyone was out of high school and my people hauling days were behind me, but I guess God said no. Actually he said, "NO!"
The silver lining was that the guys at the garage we use let the boys and their friends come have a little fun before they took it to the salvage yard...
They kept the grill to pass around to each other for the "He-Man Award"!
Thrown into the usual Christmas events, we had two sets of company come into town. First my parents came for an early Christmas.
The kids were excited to get to open some presents early!
The boys couldn't wait until morning to try out their new roller blades.
While they were here, I had them walk me through making my first turkey. We have spent most of our married life celebrating the holiday at someone else's home, so I had never done one. Also, my mom is famous for her cornbread dressing and I needed to learn how she does it.
In the middle of our turkey dinner, The Captain announced that he had his finger stuck in a napkin ring and couldn't get it out. I could give you the hilarious details, but for the sake of time, I will just say that a visit to the local fire station was needed for the jaws of life.
Just kidding about the Jaws of Life, but they did have a handy little tool!
He was smart enough to know to laugh about it, because it was on his brother and sister's Facebook statuses before we could finish dinner!
We also found our favorite Christmas lights of the season:
Then it was time for Grandma and Grandpa to head home and we had a couple of days to celebrate with just the five of us.
Which pretty much meant that we never got out of our pajamas.
I threw together our annual Christmas letter on Christmas Eve. It was the latest I have ever gotten it out. Our address list was all messed up, so I know that some of you didn't get a letter that should have. I am trying to fix it, but since I already mailed what we had on Christmas Eve, now I don't even know who we did send them to! If we missed you, I apologize!
Here is the picture we sent out this year:
We kept getting told we would have a white Christmas, which I found very doubtful. Most of the people around here say they have never seen a white Christmas, but Christmas evening it started to snow! The kids headed out to play in case it was gone by morning!
Next, my sister and her family came on the 26th.
It was their first time to visit since we moved to the Carolinas, so we had fun showing them around. They thought it was warm and I thought it was cold, so I now know it only takes one year for your blood to thin and become a southerner. (I also made cheese grits for Christmas breakfast, so I think it is official!)
On their last day here, we took the light rail into Uptown Charlotte to look around. The cousins enjoyed their togetherness. They are really growing up.
They used to beg for Happy Meals, but this time they all wanted to stop at Starbucks!
While we were looking around, the boys found next year's Christmas cards:
I vetoed the idea, but maybe I should have bought them for a head start on next year!
May the Force be with you!
