Merry Christmas!

Done!

Woohoo! I have finished all the physical gathering of the gifts!

Now, I haven't wrapped them yet, but that can start tomorrow morning before I head off to Middleton Plantation for my volunteer shift!

And, on top of that, the Christmas cards were just delivered by FedEx, so I can start those tonight and hopefully get them in the mail by Friday!

I hope you are getting lots done on your to-do lists!

A Week's Already Gone By?

Last Saturday we had Christmas with husband's side of the family. This photo is of his parents with all their grandchildren. Our daughter is the only granddaughter, on both sides!

It was the first time we had all been together in many, many years, but this year my MIL decided that she wanted to host everyone and we picked a date and made it happen!

We had a great dinner with turkey, ham, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, rolls with pumpkin pie and Bourbon Chocolate Chip pie and assorted cookies.
We exchanged gifts and went home with quite the loot!
Now we go to my family's this weekend for our celebration. 
I just took the photo for our Christmas card on Saturday! Since my tripod broke, I just did a photo with the teens. I told them this would be our last photo card since next year teen son will be off to college and teen daughter will hopefully be studying in France. It didn't turn out too bad considering it was kind of just thrown together!
And today, I finally finished putting the lights up outside! It wouldn't have taken so long but, someone who shall remain nameless, thought I was taking too long to take them down last year and "helped" me and took them off and just wadded them into a huge mess! It was so bad I almost just threw them all away and bought new ones!
I got my first batch of Christmas cookies baked last night:

How are your preparations for the holiday coming along?

Taking Advantage of Our Surroundings

Husband and I have decided that since we live a short 30 minute drive into Charleston, we should take advantage of that fact!

Saturday night we headed downtown to watch the boat parade and then grab a bite to eat. 

It was fun, just the two of us!

Last night we decided to head downtown again for dessert and a walk. 

This time teen daughter came along so we headed to King Street for some yogurt and window shopping!

Do you ever find yourself not taking advantage of the things around you?

Our Thanksgiving

Here it is already December 2nd, and I am just getting around to posting about our Thanksgiving.

That jury duty last week really threw me off! 

Thanksgiving was good. It's always a crap shoot with my family!

We headed up to our little house in the hills on Wednesday around noon. Lots of traffic on the way, but it didn't delay us too much.

We made a quick stop at my parent's house to drop off the teens, because "OMG. there is no internet. Or TV. Or cell phone service at the Hilly House! And we will be so bored!" 

Husband and I had a nice, quiet dinner at the club near the house. It was already decorated for Christmas and there was a big fire in the fireplace.

All was great until we went to bed that night. Not long after turning the lights out I heard a scratching and scurrying in the wall! It continued ALL night and I could barely sleep just imagining whatever it was clawing it's way through the walls and getting on me while I slept! I never told y'all the story about the field rat that fell out of our attic one night in a little rental house we lived in about 23 years ago, did I? Well if I had you would understand my fear!

The next morning I sent husband under the house to see if he could figure out what it was and how it got in! He couldn't but he did find some unopened rat poison and put that out!

I was in charge of making the pies and my sausage dressing for our family dinner. I made a pumpkin and a pecan pie on Wednesday night and got up and made an apple pie and the dressing. 

We headed over to my parents and had a great time!

On Friday my two sister's and I took my mom out for the day for her birthday. She had turned 70 on the 6th of November.  We started off with a mani and pedi at a great place in downtown Greenville. Then we headed over to the West End for a latte. After we finished we headed back over to town and stopped for a drink in a restaurant that overlooked an outdoor skating rink that had been erected for the holidays/winter, I guess.

We had dinner reservations at Soby's. Such a great place! The food is fantastic. 

After our leisurely dinner we headed over to the Peace Center to see Million Dollar Quartet.

My mom really enjoyed it. It was a one act musical that had a lot of music from her youth! My sisters and I were probably the youngest people there!

Saturday we headed to Clemson for the big game. Husband and daughter had tickets, but son and I didn't and we didn't want to pay over a $100 a piece to get any. So, he and I went to husband's and my favorite haunt in Clemson and watched the game on TV. It was warm and I could get to the bathroom quickly and I could have as much beer as I wanted, so I was a happy girl. Unfortunately Clemson did not win so that wasn't much fun!

We came home on Sunday afternoon and then I had to report for jury duty at 10:00 on Monday morning. And that's a story for another day!