Yep, still here!

So, to recap the last month or so...

We had a great Thanksgiving in South Carolina with John's parents and sister.

Will has done really well with his wrestling.

We were actually sociable, going to two Christmas parties this year.  They were both fun.

John's parents came up to see my choir concert and Natalie's play.  We had a good time with them and my mother-in-law got to come up to the elementary school for a couple of days and wrap presents for the PTO's Santa Shop.  That's always fun; the kids have such a great time picking out presents for their families.

Natalie did an outstanding job in her role in A Christmas Carol.  Opening night, she was a little hoarse, but when she spoke her lines, you couldn't tell.  She said later that she just "Spoke through it."  We saw the play twice and she was awesome both times.  Didn't miss any of her cues and you could understand all of her lines perfectly, even though she did not have a microphone.

Our Christmas was good, but John and I were sick, so we decided not to go to my parents' house.  I really missed spending a few days with them and my sisters and their families.  My sister Chrissy was unable to go as well, due to bad travelling weather.  So the kids don't feel like they missed out on quite as much since all of their cousins weren't going to be there.

We had some snow on Dec. 21 and the girls went sledding in it for a little bit.

Will had his 13th birthday on Dec. 22.  He was supposed to have a couple of friends ride the bus home with him on the 21st, but since school was cancelled due to snow, we'll have to reschedule that.

And that brings us up to today!

We had some snow accumulate overnight and I actually felt well enough to go out and get some pictures.

Mama and Daddy stopped by on their way back to Ohio early this afternoon.  We had lunch and exchanged presents before they hit the road again.

Daddy made some wonderful things in his workshop, the girls both got some jewelry music boxes, I got a beautiful wooden box and Will got some new tools and a gorgeous toolbox to put them in.  We all loved our gifts.

I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sweep the Leg

This is the first year that Will has ever wrestled.  Thursday night was the first time I have ever seen anybody wrestle.

It was... interesting.  I still have no idea what's going on, but I do know that one opponent has to pin another opponent, and they look like they're trying to kill each other (some of the time) in order to do so.

Will's team competed against two other schools the other night, so I got to see him wrestle twice.

The first match, the timer went off 5 times without anyone (let me be honest; Will)  being pinned.  Will was not giving up.  When he was on the ground, he held his shoulders up every time until the timer went off.  The other kid was trying his best to pin those shoulders and just could not do it.

During the last two rounds, Will's teammates were all standing  in front of their chairs chanting his name.  His coach was standing at the edge of the mat encouraging him, saying "18 more seconds!" and stuff like that.

Will lost his match, but he did not get pinned.  His coach gave him a big hug and then his teammates mobbed him after he came off of the mat.  The  lady sitting behind us said, "They don't love him or nothing, do they."

After it was over, his school team won by 2 points.  If Will had gotten pinned, the other boy would have gotten another 3 points and the other school would have won by 1 point.   So I think Will was proud of that.

The second match, the other boy pinned him in 3 rounds.  But he made him work for it, too.

Will is really enjoying wrestling and the boys on the team seem like good kids.  There is a kid with Down's Syndrome on the team and when he goes out, he gets lots of applause from his teammates.  It is awesome to see them encourage him.

'Tis the Season?

Laura had her birthday party at the roller rink last Saturday.  She was so excited; she'd been talking about it for months now.  I think a good time was had by all.

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We are going to be crazy busy for the next month.

Will was recruited to join his school's wrestling team (which he is enjoying), Natalie auditioned for and won a role in a local community theater production of "A Christmas Carol", and our community choir is getting ready for our Christmas concert.

It's all fun stuff, but we'll be putting a lot of extra miles on our cars and I may go a little nuts trying to balance out everyone's schedules.

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The kids were out of school for election day and the Biltmore started celebrating Christmas this past weekend so I decided that yesterday would be a great day to maybe see the house without the big crowds that will surely be there on weekends, since apparently a lot of people like to visit during this season to see the house all decorated.

Will's coach decided to have a wrestling practice yesterday since they missed so many days last week (due to weather) and John offered to work from home and chauffeur Will so that the girls and I could still go play.  I have the greatest husband.

It was snowing at the house and starting to dust the ground when we left.  It was a chilly, rainy day down in Asheville.

Natalie, Laura and I had a wonderful time at the Biltmore.  I've never been there at this time of the year.  And the three of us really loved seeing all of the Christmas trees in the house. 

The girls always want to get a picture with one of the lions.

One of the two Christmas trees in the entryway by the front door.

 There are a few signs at the entrance saying that no cameras are allowed inside, so I always put mine away.  It's probably a good thing, otherwise it would take me more than four or five hours to get through the house.  And I would have even more pictures to go through than I already do every time I go there.

Lots of the rooms had Christmas trees, some more than one.  Natalie's favorite was the big one in the banquet hall.  It was the biggest one in the house.  The gift-wrapped boxes underneath it were porportional; some of them were as big as Natalie.  The banquet hall had a total of seven trees in that room.  And it was not crowded at all.

Laura's favorite was the one in the music room, it had musical instrument ornaments and rolled up sheet music tucked in the branches.  We had fun figuring out the themes of different trees and admiring all the ornaments.

It had stopped raining by the time we finished touring inside, so we took a walk around some of the gardens and the conservatory.

Yes, it is still fall!

I love this tree.  It is so pretty!

Those flamingoes were just cool.

Natalie decided that Will and her Daddy need to come see the house and she, of course, wants to come back with them.  So we just might get to see the house with a crowd next time.

A New Beginning

Hi there.  Welcome to my new home.  Apparently I posted too many pictures on my other blog and I do not care to pay for more storage space.  Hence, the new place.

John wrote me an awesome script so that I can easily resize my ginormous photos so maybe I can keep this blog for more than 4 years.  (Wow, I've been blogging since 2008?)

I write some, but most of my blogging is just sharing photos.  I can't promise that I will post regularly, but we will see.

If you want to visit my old blog, here is a link: www.formerbubb.blogspot.com

I love to hear feedback, so feel free to leave comments!