Snow Day!

Yesterday, the weatherman began to predict 2-4 inches of snow in the triangle. Because snow is so rare here, schools began to close and my office sent out a "no drive" snow policy. The weatherman was right and Willie got to play in snow the for the first time this morning and I got to work at home in my PJ's.

Baby Moses

Baby Moses!

Chesapeake Bay - notice that it's FROZEN!

Downtown Annapolis

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Inauguration Signs on our way out of DC

Willie, Doug & I took a road trip this weekend, north of DC to visit our friends Justin & Holly and their new baby Parker. We were worried about the traffic because of the inauguration, but did not run into any problems. Besides meeting Parker, Willie got to see his best friend, Jada. We also traveled to Annapolis on Saturday for a drive through the scenic town and a few choice photo ops. It was extremely cold there on the Chesapeake Bay, so didn't spend much time outside. We had a great lunch downtown and even drove across the Bay Bridge. By far, the biggest hit of the weekend was Parker - so we didn't need much more entertainment.

Friday Night? Never fear!

I don't usually write about this sort of thing, but I'm going outside my comfort blogging zone to urge folks to watch Friday Night Lights. The third season of this show starts tomorrow night on NBC. It is not important that you didn't see the first two seasons (it's not not a puzzle like Lost). But you will WANT to watch the first two seasons- because it's a great show. And you can watch online for FREE!

You might how I got into this show so late in the game? I blame the writer's strike. Those pesky writers are also to blame with my watching Gossip Girl, but that is a whole separate post, right Mo? Does anybody remember how awful winter was last year with nothing to watch on TV? Doug was on night float and I ended up watching several new shows that were playing reruns.

Most importantly, why is this show so great? It reminds me of high school. And not unrealistic Gossip Girl high school where they go to Pinkberry on their lunch hour and wear white cashmere coats. Real high school, where everybody wears jeans (gasp!) that they bought from the mall (gasp!) and the most exciting thing in the town is high school football. The kids have jobs at places like Applebees & the local ice cream shop. See what I mean? Realistic. And it's really great TV.

Do yourself a favor, set your DVR and watch one episode. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

New Years in Charleston

Happy 2009!

James, Kim, Doug & Katie - on the waterfront in CharlestonBeautiful Cooper River Bridge from the rooftopsPosing with Bill after our Carriage Tour

Patrick, James & Doug on Duke campus

Doug and I have been talking about going to Charleston since we moved to North Carolina. Only a five hour drive, but it never seemed to work out. Finally, we decided to make some plans and go to Charleston for New Years Eve this year. We were lucky to have our friends James & Kim fly in from St. Louis to celebrate with us. We stayed at the great Andrew Pinckney Inn downtown in the historic district and really got to explore Charleston on foot & by carriage, of course.

Wonderful meals at the many restaurants downtown (including Pearlz Oyster Bar & Anson's), shopping in the market and our own personal pub crawl - we rang in 2009 in style with friends. We can't say enough about this great city - we are looking forward to going back soon (maybe when it's a tad warmer!)

Our friend Patrick flew in and joined us in Durham Friday, where we showed our friends around our new hometown. It's always so nice when our friends make the trip out to North Carolina to visit us. We look forward to the next time we can all hang out again soon.

Christmas in Durham

Mom & me at the Carolina Inn - part of their 12 days of Christmas exhibit - we are in front of "Two Turtle Doves"

This was an amazing sand castle sculpture at the Inn - the detail was amazing!

We enjoyed our 3rd Christmas in Durham - this year was fun because my mom came to visit us on Christmas Day! Doug was on backup much of the week, but thankfully didn't get called in. He did work the two days after Christmas, so it was nice to have company.

On Christmas, we opened presents and enjoyed the beautiful weather with wine and cheese on the patio. Mom left below freezing weather, so she soaked up the North Carolina sunshine. Later, we made and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner.

On Friday, Doug worked a 12 hour shift, so mom and I hit the after Christmas sales and saw Marley & Me. One of those great days where we were gone all day and did a ton of stuff - but I have no idea why we were gone for 7 hours.

On Saturday, we all went to the Carolina Inn to check out their holiday decorations & eat a great lunch at their beautiful restaurant. The afternoon was filled with playing our Wii and Wii Fit. Doug went to work a night shift and Mom & I went to see the Nutcracker in Raleigh.

Sunday included Church, a bit more shopping and movie watching, taking Willie on a walk, a nice afternoon on the patio with a great fire in the fire pit and a great dinner at a local restaurant. Such a wonderful, relaxing way to spend Christmas! It's always hard to see mom leave, but we're already looking forward to seeing her in New Orleans in February!

The perfect way to sum up our Christmas! Three of my favorite people, napping on one couch!

Happy Holidays

To get this Christmas Card picture:
(P.S. Can you tell we put treats by the camera to make him look in the right direction? That also explains the pathetic face - please let me have the treat!)

We had to go through all of these rejects:

Dogs make EVERYTHING more interesting! Wishing you and yours a very Happy Holiday!

Beautiful Biltmore

We packed up the truck (including the dog) to head to the mountains this past weekend. We stayed in Asheville- two summers ago, we had met our friends Brigette & Jaime up there and had such a great time. We got into town around 9:00, checked in and walked to find some dinner. It was a little chilly up in the mountains, so we didn't go too far.

Saturday, we had tickets to tour the Biltmore. For those not from NC, the Biltmore is the largest private residence in America - built by George Vanderbilt. It is now open to the public for tours. 250 Rooms, 175,000 square feet, this house covers 4 acres. The daytime tour was really interesting, as was the garden & winery tour.

That evening we had dinner at the Inn at Biltmore (AMAZING!) and returned to the house for a Christmas Candlelight Tour. The holidays are the busiest time at the Biltmore, and you can definitely see why. Beautiful Christmas decorations, all lit up at night - was really amazing to see.

On Sunday, we walked around Asheville's fun downtown area for a few hours before heading home. Such a fun town and great weekend getaway...

Biltmore house overlook

Garden Greenhouse - I thought it was so beautiful. And you couldn't take photos in the real house. I settled for the green house.

Garden Building

View from the house

Willie loves vacation!

Biltmore House at night

Beautiful tree Christmas Tree on the lawn

Our official Biltmore photo