Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
December flew by so fast. And here we are already half way through January.
We had a lovely Christmas. The kids both got home for break the second week of December and I have really enjoyed having them home....even though it's meant actual cooking and lots of laundry. Although, they can do their own laundry and cook their own meals, I like doing it for them when they are here. :)
We've spent a lot of time watching football (college and professional) as well as a lot of hockey (Carolina Hurricanes). We've eaten out, gone to breweries, watched tv, talked, laughed, and in general just enjoyed being a family of 4 again. Peter's classes started on January 6th so he left on the 5th. Sarah's classes start today but she left last Wednesday to go to State to hang out with her boyfriend and their friends. And I didn't blame her. Dan and I were both back to work last week (well actually before that even) so she was just hanging out around the house alone.
I'm not going to lie though. It was a little sad when I came home from work last Wednesday and the house was empty. It had been so nice coming home and having the kids here. Back to the empty nest...
On to the Christmas update...
I hosted the annual Christmas Eve party after the Lovefeast and Candlelight service at the church I grew up attending. Jennifer and her family joined us and we had a great time. And of course, I got zero pictures.
Christmas morning was our normal stockings, presents, lots of coffee and then off to Mass. Cathy and Eric made it in time from D.C. so that Cathy was able to join us at church. After church we had lunch with my mom and brother (mom prepared a Thanksgiving feast) and opened more presents. Then we came home and opened even more presents! Our dinner was leftover food from Christmas Eve and then we watched A Beautiful Mind. It was a very enjoyable movie. Peter wanted to watch Inception but that seemed to intense for me.
The next day we hung out around the house and I made chicken pot pie soup for lunch and then we piled into the car and headed to Raleigh. Peter wanted to show Cathy and Eric his beloved NC State Campus. It was a good time to do it too because we practically had the entire campus to ourselves.
We had diner at Player's Retreat and then we went to the Chinese Lantern Festival in Cary. We had never been so I had no idea what to expect but it was really cool. If you live in NC, I highly recommend it.
I had to work on the 27th and Cathy and Eric had to head back to D.C. so Christmas was over.
On New Year's Eve,we met the Waller's for dinner at Tokyo (our longstanding tradition). It was delicious as usual and I love when I get to hang out with Jennifer. I miss when the kids were little and we got to hang out every day!
I actually had to work New Year's Eve for a couple of hours after the store closed because New Year's Day meant INVENTORY! I worked a lot of hours but we managed to get it done by end of day on Saturday. 4 days isn't bad when you are counting and reconciling an entire store's worth of inventory!
And that pretty much sums up the holidays for me!
Happy New Year! Although at this point I should probably say, "Happy Valentine's Day!" ")
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