It's Beginning to Smell A Lot Like Christmas

I am in shock that it has been over two months since I last posted.  Apparently our Anniversary celebration was too much for me and I fell off the blogging face of the earth.  So much has been going on that I can't begin to fill you in on everything, but here are a few highlights of the past two months:

Late October, my girlfriend and I spent a "girls weekend away" in Berlin, Ohio where we shopped until we dropped, ate delicious "home cooked" meals and stayed in a beautiful inn in a remote Amish community, enjoying the escape from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

The Serene Ohio Countryside

I found some really cute country things for our house, including a wooden bookcase for the living room and some neat lamps.

I was home for a few weeks before Hubby and I took off to NC to meet up with my sister and her family to cruise The Bahamas and Key West, FL for 6 days aboard the Carnival Fantasy.  The weather was perfect and we had a TON of fun together, exploring Freeport and Nassau, Bahamas, and old Key West, FL.  In Freeport we lazed on a beautiful sandy beach...

Enjoying the beautiful sands of Freeport, The Bahamas

In Key West, we took a "hop-on, hop-off" tour that allowed us to find our way to a beach where we could do this...

Floating over the open waters of Key West

After we got off the parasailing boat, we continued our tour of Key West where we found ourselves at the most southern tip of the continental U.S:

As low as we could go in the U.S.

The next day we cruised into Nassau and docked not far from the view of the majestic Atlantis resort but we didn't head that way.  Instead, we grabbed a local bus (which felt rather scary at times when we ventured out into the boonies of Nassau) and went to the other side of downtown Nassau to a place called Cable Beach where we found a remote beach along Goodman's Bay.  We were the only tourists on the beach but found some locals renting out jet skis so we made a deal with them - $40/30 mins and Hubby and I hopped aboard and tooted all over the Bay... running out of gas waaaay out, and were rescued by the local who we later found out was trying to rip us off by wanting to call us in after 20 minutes.  Unfortunately for him, this savvy tourist looked at her watch before getting aboard the jet ski and we he no choice (much to his boss' chagrin) but to give us another vehicle and let us ride out the remainder of our time.  Despite all that, it was a BLAST!  We had arrived at the beach in a light rain shower, but while out in the middle of the bay, saw a faint, but still beautiful, rainbow.

Can you see the rainbow... ever so faint above our heads?

We had one more day at sea before heading back to Charleston, SC where we had embarked the Fantasy 6 days before.  My Sister and her family head straight back to NC that morning, but Hubby and I stayed in the city and toured around.  We took a carriage ride tour around Historic Charleston on the Friday we got off the ship, and the next morning we toured the Boone Hall Plantation, which was wrought full of slave history (and movie trivia... as part of The Notebook was filmed here).  It was fascinating to learn about the Gullah culture as shown by a very interesting presentation given outside of one of the former brick slave homes.  Two weddings were being held at the plantation later that day, but as we wandered down to the dock along the river, we witnessed them setting up the reception in the boathouse for one of the bride and groom's festivities.  

After the plantation, Hubby and I head to North Myrtle Beach, where we took some quiet time for a few days before heading back to Raleigh for our very first American Thanksgiving at my sister and brother-in-law's place.  Full from our Thanksgiving feast, we divided and conquered as my sister and I, Hubby and my BIL plotted our paths and implemented them starting at midnight when Black Friday shopping commenced.  Having never done it before (and only seeing the crazy stories of Black Friday on t.v.) I was a little frightened but once out there, I LOVED it, even though I wasn't really in search of anything particular.  My sis and I started at Kohl's at midnight, then to Macy's and Walmart.  We were going to go to Bath & Body Works but we were done in Macy's at 2:40am and Belks and B&BW weren't opening until 3am.  Didn't want to waste precious energy waiting around so we left that mall and head to another section of Raleigh to check out the deals in Target and JC Penny.  Not finding what she was looking for at that Pennys... my sister and I head to another one, on the other side of town.  By the time we were heading home, the giddyness was setting in... and the sun was beginning to rise over the horizon when we turned down my sister's street.  Were we ready to stop though?  No way!  We still had Michaels (they were opening at 5:30) and the Lifeway Christian bookstore (they were opening at 7am) to conquer.  Grabbing Hubby (who had been home for a short while and trying to take a quick nap) we were off again to Michaels.  It was in Lifeway... shortly after 8am that both my sister and I hit a wall.  We were DONE!  We got back to my sister's place by 9am and slept for about 3 hours, grabbed a bite to eat, and then were back at the mall mid-afternoon where I found some great deals at Bath & Body Works and Hallmark.  Phew!  The only drawback of that Black Friday craziness was that Hubby and I had a 14 hour drive home the next day to get through.  With God's protection, and little cat-naps in the car (when we weren't behind the wheel of course), we made it home from our 18 days away and brought home some great treasures along with our treasured memories of a time well-spent with family!

I just made it home in time to wrap up the semester of Abide at our Christmas Brunch on Dec 1 and I busily prepared my house for Christmas and Hubby's Mom's surprise 80th party Dec 3.  Amazingly, I was able to get everything from the trip put away, all the decorations out and placed in their rightful spots, the boxes of everything I replaced with "Christmas" put back in storage, and goodies made for the big party... and all without being unbearably stressed.  I totally give God the credit for all of that!

Mom's party was a HUGE success and since then I've slowly been putting the finishing touches on Christmas preparation.  We're hosting Hubby's family this year so I'm trying to get my brain together for Christmas Eve, Christmas dinner and making sure I have everything I need for entertaining and gift giving.

The past two days I've been baking up a storm.  The smell of Christmas baking always puts me in the Christmas spirit.  This year I've scaled back on my baking, only baking 3 of my favorite cookies and 1 new "experiment" cookie.  It's an "Italian Sugar Cookie" and it's... okay.  I don't think I'll ever do them again.  They taste okay but the texture wasn't what I'd hoped it would be.  Hubby likes them so that's good.  Hopefully those who receive them as gifts enjoy them too!

So... that's the update.  I'll try & do better at keeping my blog up to date ... (just for you Tania & Tammy! hee hee)