Well, we just returned from our ‘Holiday Tour of the South”. We have been gone for 8 days…we had a wonderful time visiting family. We are glad to be home, but it is depressing that the holiday season is over.

Last Friday, we drove to Statesville, NC to visit Dan’s parents. We stayed for a day and a half to celebrate an early Christmas before heading to Etowah to spend Christmas with my parents. Santa came early to drop off some gifts for Olivia at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We had a very nice Christmas and we all received some lovely items.


On Sunday, we headed towards Etowah to spend Christmas with my parents. my sister, Trudi and her husband, Jan, and their son, Christopher was there as well. We went to church Christmas Eve and then afterwards Santa’s elf dropped off matching pajamas for everyone. They were very cute and comfy! It was all fun wearing the same pj’s Christmas morning.


Olivia got everything ready for Santa, including food for the Reindeer sprinkled on the patio below and of course, cookies and milk. Santa was very busy that Christmas Eve!

Olivia,of course, woke up bright and early Tuesday morning and was so excited to see exactly what she asked for…a bike!

We were very happy to see tha Santa brought our family a Wii. Including some games for Olivia to play. We can’t wait to set it up and start playing.

The day after Christmas, the girls went to the little town of Bervard….some cute little shops. We were gone all day and Olivia was a little shopping angel.

The next day, we all piled into the car again for a drive down to Alabama to visit Trudi’s oldest son, Matthew and his family, and also Cameron, Trudi’s youngest son. Matt and his wife, Heaven, just bought a beautiful house and were very happy to be able to visit them. There we had another Christmas. Olivia had a blast with all her cousins. She basically disappeared for the two days we were there.

Heaven, Matt’s wife, is an amazing artist. She has the coolest art pieces she has collected all over her house. Some of her work can be found at http://www.thebaggirl.com/



We all drove back Friday evening to Mom and Bill’s house (a 6 hour drive) and then, Dan and I decided to just keep driving since Olivia would sleep the entire way home. We arrived home at 9am this morning.

We had such a wonderful Christmas visiting our family. Happy Holidays and now on to the new year!