Merry Christmas 2014

Let's be honest, when all is said and done there is always a Christmas gift that is your favorite.  We are not supposed to admit it but it is true.....and I am going public. Here are pics of my very favorite gifts this year.

                                                          Time with all of the girls

                                           Papa snuggling with Jack who was a little sickly

                                         My 2015 calendar - birthday gift from the Popes

                                                    A picture from Celia of Nana with her girls

                        A framed photo of me with my brothers at Billy and Christina's wedding

                          My very favorite gift is always time with the people that I love!!!!!!!

                                              Happy New Year and blessings to all!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me!!

Life is not always what you would expect it to be.....at 63, I am happier and healthier than I thought I would be, I cherish life and celebrate everything more than I thought I would and I love more deeply and am more grateful than I knew was possible.  We truly made it a weekend of celebration this year.  Not all of it was purely birthday but holiday festivities abound.  Thursday night John and I had dinner at Boston's Fish house, which was wonderful as always followed by The Morse Museum/Winter Park Christmas Concert.  I was a beautiful evening... Friday we attended Guys and Dolls, a Solivita event, and enjoyed Carrot Cake with Candy and Darryl and friends.  Saturday my Vine women's group in Solivita went to the Barn in Lake Alfred for our Christmas luncheon.  Sandy LaBram, my long time dearest friend join us for lunch and stayed for the weekend.  That evening we went to Celebration to see the flurry of soap bubbles a.k.a snow flurries while we enjoyed peppermint ice cream. These are just a few of my favorite things......  I am so blessed!!

We love our church...

Searching for a church in a new community is painful.....but when you find a place that feels like home you just know you are in the right place.  Thankfully St. Giles felt like home for both of us from the start.....welcoming congregation, incredible minister, wonderful heart for missions and on and on and on.  We are so grateful and blessed to be a part of this fellowship of believers.  We have both joined the choir ( they haven't asked us to leave yet ) and helped out with the pumpkin patch ( a fund raiser for the youth program).   Florida will steal us away for a while but we always look forward to returning.

Fall is here

Fall has been simply glorious this year.  Cool temperatures, beautiful color and believe it or not even snow in Greenville on November 1st.  We had no idea that ever happened here.  So with the new excitement and chill in the air we ventured out to Chicora Alley and found our new favorite downtown restaurant.  Great flavors, cute place and we look forward to trying something new on the menu next time.  Downtown is bright and vibrant, loud and interesting.  There will be new adventures to be had here!!

Just how much fun can one person stand??

Sometimes in life you just have to do a thing even if it doesn't really make sense.  This day Celia, Jack, Lily and Sam all spent the day with us.  The opportunity for total chaos is real but they divided , Lily and Sam had a blast playing with the parachute and Celia and Jack did big kid stuff,  and it was a great success.  I do love having so much love in one place at the same time.

            Jack celebrated his birthday at Paris Mountain State Park and we all joined in the fun.

Cars and more cars

John loves cars, and if you didn't know that about him you certainly don't know him very well.  So we finally found time to tour the BMW plant in the Greenville area.  No pictures were allowed inside the plant but the tour was incredibly interesting ever for a novice like me.  Did you know that every BMW that is manufactured is a custom car and this plants completes about 1,000 cars each day?

We also attended a classic car show to benefit Shriners Childrens Hospitals at Rumbling Bald Resort at Lake Lure.  Friends, Ken and Karla, from Greenville joined us for the trip and Billy, Christina, Caitlin and Jonathan met us there.  What a nice way to spend a gorgeous fall day!!

Grandparents Day!!!

One of the wonderful benefits of living close is the opportunity to participate in the lives of the boys in ordinary times. And this year for Grandparents Day, Papa got to join us.  As we arrived Jack told us, "Today is a good day because Nana and Papa came for lunch and I have a ball game tonight".  Life is good!!!

Sam's school had Grandparents Day too and I was the lucky Nana that got to be there.  Refreshments and good times.  The really special part of that day is that Sam leaves with me for the day and we play for the rest of the afternoon together.  I just love this kid!!

Boys, boys, boys

They grow so fast and even though this post will show lots of boys times, I somehow never get enough.

                                                         The boys loved Century Park

                  None of us will ever forget the  barefooted trip to McDonalds in their pajamas.
                                                     (details available upon request)

                                                    Jack had a great time at Gravitopia.

                                                                Sam turns 4 years old

                                Hollywild was a new destination and we were not disappointed.
   The animals were all out, the day was beautiful, out favorite picnic in the car and lots of smiles.

                                                              Hanging with Mama!!

The Popes move to Raleigh

Celia and Lily spent the week with us while the family made the move to Raleigh.  The busier the better so we started the week with a visit to the Greenville Children's Theatre to see "Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good very bad day".

                                                        Waiting for the play to begin!

                                                      Enjoying Greenville afterward

                                                                Cookout with the gang

                                                                  Happy Cow Creamery

We celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary during their visit so what could be better than taking the GTO convertible out for dinner at Sonic drive-in.  Limeade and tater tots please!!
Next we spent a day at Pump it Up, one of their favorite places to go followed by a trip to Otter Creek.

                  Water, water everywhere.......what a great way to end a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blue Ridge Fest and Cherokee Vally tours

Blue Ridge Fest is quickly becoming an annual event and friends, Buddy and Ginger Clamp accompanied us this year.  A little rain couldn't dampen the spirits of classic car enthusiasts.

Later that weekend they gifted us with a tour of the golf course at Cherokee Valley.  Since we are not golfers,  this was a new adventure for us and we were awestruck by how truly beautiful our neighborhood is.  We live at the base of the Blue Ridge mountains, simply gorgeous!!

Honey bees

Who knew that 8,000 honey bees would follow the queen wherever she went, creating a large swarm in our backyard?  Who knew that our neighbor Larry could not only lure them into a bucket with his bee keeper suit and smoke can, but also would find a new home for them?  And who could believe that hours later my curiosity would get the best of me and when I went out to check out the scene a very angry bee that was left behind would tangle with my upper lip!!  We ended up with a great story and a pint of honey from the new owner of these little guys.