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we love to go out every year and look at Christmas lights.  dad created this urge in me years ago, when every Christmas eve we would leave granny’s house and on our way home we’d take about a 2 hour detour looking at Christmas lights.  i don’t care if your lights are “tacky” or your lights are subdued, if you have lights up – we wanna see ’em!

tonight we drove around wake forest to see what kind of lights we could find.  we bundled up in the car (since you have to continuously roll down the window to get a good shot), and headed down town to get some warm coffee for the riding tour.  we first toured the historic homes of wf, and then spread out into the neighborhoods that surround the downtown area.  we found it all – from the bright and colorful homes, to the purest message of them all.

enjoy!

today was the last saturday before Christmas.  our friends in VA and western NC were witness to (and participants in) about 18+ inches of snow.  however, down here – we’re just jumping puddles. 

anticipating bad weather, and a day full of being trapped at home, we slept in and did not worry about missing out on any big plans today.  we’d already run around all week like hurried soldiers attempting to get the packages in the mail, and everything polished off so we would not have to regret missing this weekend.  however, when we woke up we found out that we had no snow, not even a thin blanket of white to cover the grass. 

bahh-humm-bugg. 

will headed off for his hair cut appointment and i headed out to partake in the holiday madness.  we both ran our errands and headed back home for some wrapping of the pressies and just hanging out with the doggies.  we attempted to make beth’s famous biscuits and gravy recipe, but our plans failed horribly when we used sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated milk.  (some things just do not substitute well.)  i finished up some craft projects and then we rocked out on a rock band world tour.  roanoke better look out cause DS is hitting the road next week, and we’re coming to your town!  after rockin’ till i could sing no more i pestered the doggies to let me snap some shots. 

iliana really gets into it, but amelia is not so good at being still.  she’s got a lot of granny covey in her.

so, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!  we finally got our tree this week.  i was thinking we were going to have to skip a tree this year, but husband really wanted to make it work.  after all, he is right – it does not really feel like Christmas without it.  we’ve been so busy with work lately that we’ve been putting in some really late hours.  i just figured if we did not have it by last weekend, then we should probably skip it.  then thursday night i got a hair brained idea that i would paint the wall where the dry wall repair was holding us back, hang a picture on the wall that i’d been waiting to hang, we could run out and get the tree, and then come home and decorate it.  needless to say, we made it to lowe’s about 10 minutes prior to close and were frantically looking for a tree.  we scored a 9 foot tree and got it loaded up on the car.  we made it back home and planted it in the tree stand with some sugar water (man at lowe’s said this would help it live longer).  decorations finally ended around 1am, but all that matters is that it’s done!

friday kathy came over and worked with lisa and i to wrap up some items on our new project.  after work we planned a cookie baking extravaganza.  kathy had purchased industrial sized bags of flour, sugar, nuts, and chocolate chips.  i had her back with about 8 lbs of butter and 18 eggs.  we quickly got to work busting out some cookies.  lisa made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  kathy made snickerdoodles and snowy butter cookies.  i made cherry chocolate chip and mint chocolate chip cookies.  we had a great time making a huge mess and over 100 cookies!  saturday we’ll all head over to kathy’s house to have a bit of a holiday bash and partake in some of these cookies!

weather forecast for saturday:  rain from va to fl. 

chances of getting the outside of the house decorated for the neighborhood lighting of the houses = slim to none. 

however, around 2pm the rain started to slow and developed into a foggy mist.  will and i donned our gloves and coats and forged on.  we decorated our trees and front porch garlands with 1700 lights.  as we got all of our lights assembled we got the dreaded phone call that the neighborhood lighting of the houses was cancelled due to the bad weather, but we did not fret too much because we still got to push in the plugs. 

december sprung up daisies this year.  not really sure why, but this little guy just sprung into action this week.  we had some sun once this week (its been sparse this fall) and i snapped this little guys photo for his big debut.  drum roll please!

turkey time rolled around faster than normal this year.  it seems like just yesterday we were basking in the sun in the bahamas, and now we’re freezing our fannies off and stuffing turkeys!

we loaded up the car last week and headed out west to waynesville.  will and i were mesmerized by the sunset we encountered on the first part of our journey.  it was the most amazing thing i have ever seen.  however, after the sun went down it was just traffic, darkness, and tail lights.  the dogs behaved themselves in the car, despite the unbearable stop and go traffic we encountered on 40 west.  we pigged out on some junk food that i always justify eating when i am in the car on a road trip.  somehow that bag of spree just did not count when i was in the car.  thank goodness i do not take road trips often.  we arrived in waynesville around 10pm and got the 23lb bird into the brine.

after the turkey brining experience we headed into the living room so ethan could let us open our “on-line purchase” of a bouncy ball off his website.  i scored the lime green bouncy ball a few weeks back but could not justify mailing in the quarter so i told him we would do the exchange around turkey time.  ethan had wrapped the ball up inside a “free” yellow display kit, included two free game cards, and an invoice.  we got a kick out of the whole thing.

thursday morning came quickly and we got up to start the festivities.  we helped ma white prepare all of the thanksgiving fare and got the turkey in the oven.  we watched the asheville parade while we were covered to our elbows in tasty morsels.  pa white supplied us all with delicious wines so we could really get the celebration going.  when lunch time came we were certainly ready to partake in all of the yummy goodness!  we had quite the feast!  pa white carved the juicy and delicious turkey and set it on the table with green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, stuffed militon, cranberry sauce, carrot souffle, cranberry salad, waldorf salad, asparagus, deviled eggs (or as ethan would call them – “eggs with the devil in them”), and shrimp cocktail.  yummo!  we all stuffed ourselves until we could hardly waddle away from the table.

later that night we enjoyed each other’s company while playing some board games.  its so hilarious to hear your seven year old nephew pronounce words that you do not even understand the meaning to.  that kid is brilliant.  funny too.  we had all the fun we could stand, and called it a night.

friday morning we slept in and for once, i did not go out to get my bargain hunting on.  i checked in with dad a few times during the day to see how his bargain shopping was going, but he was disappointed with his finds.  bummer.  after we got up we headed into downtown asheville to the grove park inn.  its an annual tradition that at either thanksgiving or christmas, we head on over to check out the gingerbread houses.  this year we got to partake in their most amazing lunch buffet in the blue ridge dining room.  the views of the mountains are amazing and we really enjoyed the spread.  meri got her fill of cherries and i think i ate my weight in lobster bisque and smoked salmon.  after lunch we headed out to the large porch on the back of the inn to sit in the sunshine and enjoy the view.  will and i always love this relaxing time.  after hanging out and watching the kids run off some energy, we all headed inside to view the gingerbread house winners.  ethan made sure to snap a photo of every single gingerbread house, and it was a very serious matter.  we’ve got quite a little photographer on our hands!

saturday morning we headed with lynn and the kids to the sapphire mines.  here we watched them dig through a pickle bucket of dirt to locate some actual sapphires.  meri was about done with the entire project in about 10 minutes, but ethan could have sat there looking for “gems” for an eternity.  he really liked me taking photos of his finds.    later that evening will, lynn, pa white, and myself headed out to a pub for some kool-aids.  everyone else settled in on their favorite beers, and i went for my favorite vodka tonic.  i had a craving for nachos (i do not know where these things come from, but i just have to go with them), but the catch was that the nachos had to have EXTRA jalapenos.  pa white was on my team and helped me search up and down main street for a pub that had nachos with jalapenos on the menu.  so, when we ordered our kool-aids i told the waitress i also wanted the LARGEST PLATE OF NACHOS she’d ever seen, along with EXTRA JALAPENOS!  she politely obliged and delivered.  we all loved our crazy pub food and beverages and had some great bonding time.

sunday came quickly and we packed up all of our possessions and headed back across the state – thankful for another year together – thankful for each other – thankful for family – thankful for love – thankful for life – thankful for what’s to come.