Tag: holidays

Categories
Family/Travel

Easter weekend {part 1}

Both my grandparents & {just within the last few months} Jason’s parents, live close to Myrtle Beach. One set north & the other south. We decided to take an extra day off {Monday} & split up our Easter weekend visiting both.

Since I took over 200 photos within the four days, I figured this weekend’s wrap up is definitely going to encompass at least two posts. It all started with a pack list {I make one before all trips}. As the first beach trip of the year, I packed all my new Lilly favorites! {I grossly over-packed!}

We left Friday morning and got down in time for a chilly rainy day of shopping with Mom & Nana {successful as Mom bought the dress for my brother’s wedding!}.

Followed by shrimp appetizers, pork bbq along with roasted rosemary potatoes. Dessert was from a recent church bake sale: homemade chocolate cake & cheesecake with farmer’s market fresh raspberries, blackberries & strawberries.

Mom borrowed my Allora necklace. I love it with her yellow cardigan!

We ended the evening on the couch watching Morning Glory {even cuter than we expected}.

Saturday was beautiful. The beach was breezy so mid-afternoon we headed to the back porch lounges for naps, reading {I finished Black Heels to Tractor Wheels!} & more sun!

Bocce proved to be a willing model though Nana & I couldn’t get him to jump again. How awesome is the view from their back deck & Nana’s flowers?!

We had easy peasy chips & salsa for appetizers. Dinner Saturday night was fresh off the boat baked blackened grouper with farmer’s market corn on the cob, cucumber & tomato salad, & green beans.

Pawpaw, Bocce, Suz self-portrait, food & Easter baskets!

Easter weekend isn’t complete without dying eggs. Mom & I were the most excited about this tradition. I welded the craynon {though some names showed up better than others} while Mom was hands on with blue & pink finger tips at the end to prove it. Dad wanted an ugly dipped-in-all-the-colors egg. Instead he ended up with the prettiest deep purple one!

We redbox’d & watched The Social Network then part of Due Date {before the DVD player messed up & I fell asleep}.

We woke up to Easter baskets with candy & coin filled eggs {since we were leaving after church Nana skipped the usual hunt & hide them inside at the bottoms of our candy filled baskets}. Sadly, I left my phone on the charger so no photos of the 5000 person beach church service from Easter morning. I never feel the Spirit closer than on the beach. Hope you & your family had a happy Easter!

{part two coming tomorrow}

Categories
Everything Else

Christmas Decorations

I just realized I didn’t post the photos I’d taken of our other Christmas decorations.  I also took a few photos with my new camera of my parents decorations & tree I thought I’d share.  After these I promise to move on to 2011!

B aka Annie gave me this ornament for my birthday! Love it!  Thanks B!

Below are the two end tables on our den. I usually spread some of these decorations out in different places in the house so they aren’t as cluttered, but that didn’t happen with all the traveling this December.  The one of the left is more funky/pink & the right is more classic (I think they’re all hand-me-downs from my mom!)

I’ve done this for the past couple of years: place plain, brightly colored ornaments in a pretty crystal bowl.  I first put in large ones, then midsized & finally top it with tiny balls {yes, I did type tiny balls! ha I’m 12!}

This year I added red Pottery Barn small laterns to the mantel & I can’t remember putting that silver ornament shaped dish or the silver ornaments in the greenery before.  I really like the way it turned out.  My favorite: waking up after Jason on a weekend morning & coming into the den all lite up!

Here’s a few of my parents house & their tree.  I took some of the tree pictures using the candlelight scene setting & some on auto. I love the romanticness {yes I’m making that a word}of the candlelight setting.

I love Mom’s Santas on the old-school cabinet TV & end table in the den.  The Pottery Barn deer are a mix of gifts from friends & after-Christmas sale last year. Also check out that *vintage* {aka old} Christmas card holding stocking.  Our stockings are hung in the basement with the same prelit greenery I have as well as the Pottery Barn holder spelling out PEACE & JOY.

I’ve loved getting ideas from all your decorations post. Guess mines better late than never right?!

Categories
Family/Travel Photography

Our New Years Weekend aka picture overload

We had opened spouse gifts going oldest to youngest order (I was last), so we did family gifts youngest to oldest (I was third). My brother opened a video game, golf club & Santa gave Steven & Beth a wine frig. Thanks to Beth’s Amazon & Crate & Barrel registries, she received a lot of things she really wanted. Mom & Nana both opened more Pandora charms as well as a few clothes & nick nacks.
Dad’s big gifts were a Tassamo coffee maker from the kids & $$ towards building a computer from Nana & Pawpaw. Jason & I’s BIG gift was the Nikon D5000 {I saved it for the last gift opened!}. We also received a NCSU welcome sign that I want to frame, an owl ornament, a Lilly agenda, lip glosses, Amazon gift cards, a polo, scarf, pj pants. Everyone received OIB Floatilla long sleeve Ts!


So from now on {actually you saw a few preview photos in my last 2 posts}, expect to see a lot of photos! Hopefully they are much better than the ones I’ve take myself on our old Sony point & shoot, or worse my 3 year old cell phone, or borrowed {read stolen} from friends picasa/facebook/blogs. I look forward to looking at my first days pictures in a year or two from know and being even better.

So, thanks to picnik, here’s a few collages of photos from New Years Day & then once I returned home last Sunday. ps- dogs are much better models for trying out the Pet Portraits than cats. Oh and my parent’s old bird Nick & his cage were tough models too.
I stayed on AUTO for most, but ventured on the SCENE mode for pets, party mode, candlelight & even made my brother try out his new golf club so I could use the sports mode. 🙂 I watched the how-to DVDs Sunday afternoon. I’m no where near brave enough to go to the P, M, A or S modes yet, but I plan to take enough photos this year that I hopefully get comfortable with them sooner than later.

Jason & I came back early Sunday so he could watch the Falcons at home. We also HAD to take down our tree. After being gone 10 days & it receiving little water during that time, it was beyond looking rough. Thanks to the dead tree shedding so much & Moe puking up a bag Jason left out, our carpets also got cleaned & vacuumed Sunday.


I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Saturday & Sundays meals. In case you missed it on my twitter feed, I tweeted the Pioneer Woman {remember we’re friends since we met last June} & asked her what we should pare with her mashed potatoes & a beef tenderloin. She said {AHH that’s right, she wrote me back!} her burgundy mushrooms so we went with them as well as my mom’s broccoli casserole. Mom & Nana traditionally do something different with the meat, but since we were kinda having a PW meal already, we tried her roasted beef tenderloin recipe from her cookbook which is pretty much this recipe.


Since I don’t eat pork/beef, I didn’t try it, but even as he ate it Sunday night for the second night in a row, Jason continued to oooh & ahhhh over it! Guess that’s something we’ll repeat for next year.

Categories
Family/Travel

New Year morning aka Christmas Day morning

Since we were unexpectedly/expectedly in Charlotte for the Christmas holiday, my parents decided to host our immediate family & my dad’s parents (our usual Christmas crowd) over New Years weekend.

While we were all as you would expect tearful at times, we did have a good time together. My brother & Beth arrived around 930 Saturday morning. We made our normal Christmas Day breakfast of bacon & I made from scratch pumpkin pancakes {another recipe I need to snag from Mom}. After breakfast/bunch, we opened stockings! The pups received Christmas bandannas {Moe got a Christmas tie} & were willing models in them all day.


We read our People magazines, ate candy, used lotion & stashed away fast food gift cards. Pawpaw ran to Lowes {one of the toilets was leaking} and I showered & put on a {recycled, but now at least clean} outfit.

Beth, Steven & I played Santa and divided up packages. 🙂

{to be continued…}

Categories
Family/Travel

goodbye Ma

We arrived back home today from being gone since last Friday 12/24. How can I sum up these days?! Certainly not the holiday traditions I wrote about in the Christmas Quiz post. I’m going to try with a couple of posts. Beware, there’s some emotional vomit/trying to journal out my thoughts…

I received a text then phone call from my Dad 12/23 around 10a saying that my Ma has slipped into a coma and that my parent’s where heading back to Charlotte. {I thank God so much that I had this chance to say goodbye while she was able to know it.} I believe most of y’all know that from my tweets & facebook {thanks for the love}. I called Jason, we finished up our work for the day and headed home {I was kind of a mess}. After talking to my mom, I decided to spend Thursday cooking, baking & packing. I made SIL chicken casserole {which we ate Christmas night}, these Kris Kingle cookies, and packed all the bread, crackers, chips etc we had in the pantry as well as clothes for us both for at least 5 days.

We left Friday morning after picking up my aunt’s husband in North Ral. I went straight to the nursing home; meeting my mom & aunt at the door. I held Ma’s hands, read her Christmas stories, gave hugs & whispered “I love you”. My Dad & other aunt stayed with Ma while my Mom, aunt, & I went to 11p Christmas Eve church service. Her breathing had changed that afternoon/evening and the CNAs advised we didn’t have her for much longer. My mom had stayed with Ma Thursday night, so my aunts stayed Friday night and sent my Dad, Mom & I back to the condo to sleep around 1:30a. We left after tearful goodbyes as she lay appearing to be peacefully sleeping.

Around 2:30a, my mom got a frantic phone call from aunt Sue saying she wasn’t sure Ma was still breathing. By the time, my mom got back to the nursing home (2:30ish Christmas morning), my Ma had passed away. Mom arrived back to where Dad, Jason & I were staying around 4:45a and told us the news. We tried to go back to sleep for a little while. I went back over to the nursing home {Papa is living there for now while in rehab from his recent surgeries} around 11a. I thought I was ok until seeing the one of the awesome, amazing women who had cared for my Ma for almost 2 years. We hugged & cried together. Papa & I did the same that morning as I let him talk about Ma. Ma loved Christmas; in a way her passing Christmas morning is fitting. How special is it that she was able to meet Jesus on the day we celebrate His birth?!

Another wonderfully sweet SHC employee took care of Papa & I, then Mom & Sue too, as they joined us for lunch. It meant so much to us that Donette was able to make us smile and she gave us the gift of more food than we could have imaged eating that day {turkey & cranberry sauce, stuffing, beans, carrots, cookies, pie, & peppermint ice cream}. The rest of the day is a blur. I remember a few random people saying “Merry Christmas” in passing & either not remembering that it was Christmas or just doing all we could not to cry in reply. It began snowing that evening. I shared my Ma’s Hands post with my family that night.

Sunday we woke up to winter wonderland {I think at least 4 inches}. Photos below from Sunday evening then the Phillips Place frozen fountain from Tuesday.My parents, aunts & I tried to rally around my grandfather. My mom, Sue & I cleaned out Ma’s room Sunday mid-morning. My mom, aunts & Papa met with the minister to plan the funeral. My brother Steven & future-sister-in law Beth arrived Sunday evening. My aunts, Mom & I wrote the eulogy that night.

Steven, Beth, Jason & I took a little break to go out to lunch {at Upstream}, see The Fighter, & have a little Pinkberry. Mom & I also ran to Crate & Barrel Monday evening; that sale was one holiday tradition we didn’t miss. More family arrived Monday afternoon including my cousin Preston & his wife Krissie. It was very good to see everyone as we hadn’t all been together in a long time.

flowers from my aunt’s friends & my mom’s friends

My family had planned to have the funeral, visitation & graveside all in the same day. We gathered together Tuesday morning. My mom helped get my grandfather ready for his first time in public since his surgery 2 months before. Papa is one of 6 children. The family on his side met us at the church. Another gathering of supportive family; most of which we hadn’t seen since our wedding 3 years before or even longer. The funeral was complete with beautiful hymns, the readings of Old & New Testament passages, Preston reading the eulogy perfectly, Psalm 23, and wonderful prayer. Papa chose to have Mom, my aunts, brother Steven, Preston & I receive the 200 family & friends who came in support & love for my grandmother. It was so nice to see familiar faces, hear their stories, receive their hugs. Ma was cremated and just immediate family gathered at the snowy graveside service. The minister said a prayer, we hugged each other & said a final goodbye. Here’s a copy of the obituary from the funeral home website.