Sightseeing

After relaxing and skiing we headed to Boone and Blowing Rock for some sightseeing and shopping.  We had lunch at a great place in Boone (a friend of a friend owns it) and took a peek at Appalachian State's campus.  It was a dreary, rainy day and we walked around Blowing Rock. They had a cute little park and we used a timer (and self portrait stance) to snap a few photos of ourselves...

We also found a great little knit shop (eek! - and um, not by chance) where Eric picked out yarn for his new hat (old one was itchy) and I found a little something for myself too!  You can check out hat details here and here but the yarn...I'll go ahead and share a sneak peak with you...

mmmmm....Malabrigo.  lol.  All you knitting people know what I mean!
We had a great trip to the mountains and came home refreshed and ready for all the Christmas festivities!

Holiday Skiing

After we recuperated with our napping and knitting we did hit the slopes at Sugar Mountain in NC.  Eric tried to teach me how to snowboard, and once UP I was quite successful, but getting up off my butt... well that was a different story entirely.  After about an hour on the bunny hill (50 minutes of which was like horrendous situps trying to go from laying flat on your back to standing on a awkward board on slippery icy snow) I gave up and put skis on (Eric kept his snowboard - b/c he knows what the devil he's doing) and up the lift we went...

On the first trip down Eric remembered the 'secret' to getting from your ars to standing on a snowboard.  Yeah, that would have been good to remember before.  Alas, I skied - he snowboarded (it was 11 degrees with blowing snow) so we both froze, they closed the slopes to groom and home we went to warm up (with dinner and some wine). 

Skiing vacation....check!

Now onto the sightseeing....

Christmas Vacation

Before the big holiday and things getting really crazy, Eric and I decided to use our vacation (well - use it or lose it) and take a break.  We opted for a trip to the mountains in NC for some skiing, and sightseeing and ruckus.  But before we could get to that, there was alot of unwinding and by that I mean....
Napping...

and Knitting...

and more napping...

and then more knitting...

(sorry there are no pictures of me actually knitting, but the other one... well he was napping!)  LOL.  We enjoyed relaxing and unwinding (and knitting and napping) and then we did get to all that skiing and sightseeing business.  Next time...

Christmas Party

This year my new work friends had a fun wonderful Christmas party.  We did a potluck dinner and it was complete with a white Elephant gift exchange.  VERY FUN! (my new work friends, Michelle, Lisa and Barb).

Eric ended up with a snuggie - but it was short lived - and promptly stolen form him.  We had a great time stealing and re-opening.

 They had a beautiful Christmas tree in the room we rented and we took full advantage and took a great Christmas photo.

It is so nice to be enjoying my job and working with fun people and preparing for Christmas in such a fun way!

Christmas Tree Hunting

Christmas traditions continue and we went Christmas tree hunting with my BFF and her family again this year to the same Christmas tree farm.  I think this is three years (or four?) in a row now.  I love it.  This year I let Josie take pictures with my camera and got some new perspective on things...

We all did find our trees though - Brandy and Dave got their big ginormous tree...

 

And Eric and I found our teeny tiny tree.

 

 A good time was had by all!

Indeed

Indeed.  Life is Good.  We are spending our last day of Christmas vacation slow simmering some homemade french onion soup (my second try - so fingers crossed), hunting (well Eric is) and general catching up (cleaning, laundry etc) before getting back into the normal grind.  But we are also spending it grateful for what an amazing Christmas we had. 
The house was full of joy, smiles, wrapping paper and amazing gifts from wonderful family and we are just so grateful for all of these things and for the salvation of our souls offered in the gift of Christ.
Life is Good.  Indeed.  and Merry Christmas!

So Much to Say...

So much to say, so much to say, so much to say....
We've been gone (again) for quite some time (maybe the longest dry spell) but I'll try to start catching up...
We've had some big happenings this Fall...
Eric shot a great deer at his new hunt club this year (a 6 point buck even)

 Nikki got a brand new Subaru (*eek!)  I LOVE it!

 Eric's cousin Jesse got married (to his beautiful bride Elizabeth)

 They had a perfect southern wedding complete with cotton for decorations, boiled peanuts and bottled cokes, and Lauren even came back East and joined us for it.  It was a fantastic occasion.

 (Logan with his coke - couldn't he just be a commercial?  Too cute!)

Eric and his sister

Up next - Thanksgiving (prepare yourself for the nephew cuteness) and even lots since we've been home.  Hoping to be in this space a little more (so you don't get to missing us so much!)