I spent 12 days in North Carolina for the Christmas holidays. Although I love the city, it is really nice to spend some time in the mountains doing a whole lot of nothing!
Christmas day was pretty quiet with just the parents. We went to one of my favorite spots, The Dillard House, for Christmas dinner.
On christmas evening my sis, bro in law, and niece came to the mountains.
As soon as the Blakester walked in the door and saw presents under the Christmas tree she kept saying "open presents?" The little girl is catching on!
We made the 26th our Christmas day with a special breakfast, doing stockings/presents, and enjoying Christmas dinner together!
This was Mary Blake's 3rd Christmas and I think she's got the whole opening presents down. She not only wanted to open her own gifts, but she was all about helping everyone else. She definitely stole the show and was so cute to watch. It was fun to see her be really excited about her gifts and stop and play with each thing that she received.
She is really in to "the mouse" and loves everythign Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so I bought her a Clubhouse and then my parents got her a Minnie Mouse. She carried the Minnie Mouse all over the house and everything MB did she would say, "Minnie Mouse do it too". It was really cute!
My mom had a friend come over and take some family photos for us. I think this photo won the prize for me. I promise we were not trying to be this cheesy. Not exactly sure what's going on here....
We taught MB about throwing leaves
In addition to hanging out at the house and relaxing we walked around downtown Brevard, ate our favorite soda shop, went to Target, ate at our favorite steakhouse (Binions), went to a really cool Christmas light show in Asheville, saw 2 movies (Madea's Christmas and Saving Mr Banks), played games, and was completely entertained by the 2 year old. Due to work Gary was only able to stay 2 days, but thankfully Cat and MB were able to stay an entire week! It was nice to be together for an extended time.
It amazes me how each time I see Mary Blake she is different. She is growing and changing so fast! I know she is my niece, but man she is a cute kid. She is talking like crazy, has such a fun personality, and just really loves life.
Other than spending time with family, my friend Amy and her husband Corey were able to come spend the night in the mountains, which was great! Amy and I did life together in the city for 4.5 years, then in April she moved back to NC, got married in May, and is having a baby the end of February, so life has definitely changed a lot for her this year. It was great to get time with her and Corey before the baby. It is still weird for me that she is not sitting beside me at Redeemer and doing life with me in Manhattan.
I was also able to spend time with my college friend Colette before flying back. She was one of my first friends in college and still one of my best friends today. It was great to get a short time together to catch up.
It's hard to live so far from many of my close friends, but I'm thankful for the face to face time I do get with them when I go south. Thankfully I'm going to get time with some of my other long distance friends in just a couple week (more on that in another post)
Crazy enough, even with this artic weather we are having I was able to get back to the city with nothing more than a 45 minute delay. Let's be honest, that is not the norm for me. I am definitely feeling sympathy for all the people stuck in airports . Been there, done that!
And now I have the complete January blues being back in the city. It's always hard coming back and this year was no different. It does not help that it is frigid weather outside and Manhattan is in hibernation mode.
I keep telling myself it's going to get better and this feeling (and weather) won't last forever.
Happy New Year!
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