**Caution....LONG post!**
I hope everyone had a merry Christmas!! Ours was rushed, to say the least. My dad and Robbie's family are still in Elizabeth City so we always head home for the holidays to spend time with everyone. The drive isn't bad, only about 3 hours. The first kink in our plans was Robbie's schedule. Normally his work is pretty good about giving him decent time off, but this time it was just his turn I guess. He had to work christmas eve, resulting in him not getting to our house until almost 4:00. So of course I had everything packed and in the car so that we could make it by 7:00 to EC for our dinner reservations with my dad's family. We made it with about 8 minutes to spare. We had a wonderful seafood dinner and then headed to my dad's house to open presents! My sister got the biggest surprise...a MacBook!! She had been begging for one!
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| Tree at my dad's |
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| Scarf from my dad!! |
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| Robbie loved his retro Redskins hat |
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| Daddy with his girls |
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| Robbie and I |
Late that night, Robbie, Hannah and I headed to Moyock to stay with Robbie's parents. My mom met us there also. We stayed up until 1 in the morning talking and going through our stockings. Robbie always gets me the best stocking stuffers and this year I really tried...but I still came up short - forgot to include candy!!! Sidenote- have I told you how wonderful my inlaws are?! They are so great to always include my mom and my sister in our family occassions. We woke up early Christmas morning and all exchanged presents. I have so much fun shopping for Robbie's parents and my mom. They always (seem to) love everything we get!
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Robbie's parents tree |
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| Robbie's dad makes the nicest furniture! I found a table I liked at Pottery Barn, but didn't like the $700 price tag...so he made me the table...it looks exactly like it!!! I LOVE IT!!! |
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| Stockings on Christmas Eve |
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| Hannah and I Christmas Day |
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| Hannah, Mama and me |
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| Robbie always spoils me!!! New Coach bag! |
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| I have been dying to read the Chelsea Handler books! |
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| Robbie's new watch from me. |
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| This is going to look great above our fireplace!!! Thanks to my great inlaws! |
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| Riley's new mat for her bowls - love it!! |
Later that afternoon, we made the decision that we needed to head back to Raleigh before dinner because of the impending snow storm. :( I didn't want to!! We had planned to stay the night with my inlaws and watch movies and leave the next morning. But some things are out of our control! So we got ready and headed to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house for lunch. She had a GREAT spread of turkey, ham, mac and cheese, etc. It was DELICIOUS!!!! We then opened presents with her family. I was sad to have to leave early because we had one more stop before heading back to Raleigh.
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| Scott and Pam's Christmas tree |
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| Me with my mother-in-law, Linda. |
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| Robbie with his mother-in-law, Mama!! |
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| Who needs Christmas presents when you have {your wife's} iPad?! |
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| Robbie was excited to get grilling accessories! |
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| Our nephew, Jeremiah |
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| Me and my sweet hubby! |
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| My wonderful sis-in-law, Pam |
We made our way back to Elizabeth City to stop in and see one of my best friends from high school, Shelley, and her family at her parents' house. Shelley had a sweet baby boy, Conner, in April. He is my godson and I love him to pieces!!! So of course his GM (Godmother) and G-Dad had to drop by and deliver some goodies!!
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| I think this is my new favorite picture of us! |
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| He loved his workbench! |
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| And his music table! |
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| And let's not forget the mailbox!! |
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| BFF since 7th grade!! |
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| Add caption |
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| Conner with his G-Dad, who is enamored with him as I am!! |
We finally pulled onto the road for good around 5:30. Thankfully the roads were clear until about an hour outside of Raleigh...we made it home as it really started coming down. We really consider ourselves lucky to have made the decision to leave early and certainly blessed that we made it home with no complications.
It was a wonderful holiday, but too darn short!!!
