So, go get you a cup of hot chocolate, get comfortable and get ready for your update.
This update begins all the way back in October.
I turned 35!
Michael planned a super fun trip to the mountains for my birthday surprise. He packed a picnic and everything without me knowing!! We had so much fun. It was a beautiful, relaxing, fun fun fun day. I love him so much.
My love and my girls.
My girls.
Me with my YUMMY YUMMY birthday cake!
We made a couple of other trips to the mountains just to have fun. I wanted to share two of my favorite pictures with you of the girls. They are growing up so quickly.
Hannah
Cari
Here is a picture of all of us in the mountains. The girls always have so much fun playing with Pop in the creek, but not on this trip. It was a bit too cold for laying in the creek. But, we still have a WONDERFUL picnic. (Thanks Nana and Pop!)
We made a trip to the Dixie Classic Fair with the girls and all their cousins. They had TONS of fun!
Cousins.
The dreaded swings. My babies are up there somewhere. Oh dear....
We also went to the North Carolina State Fair. Are you hungry? You better be. There was food as far as your eyes could see. DEEP FRIED (whatever you can imagine). That is about as southern as it gets...
Here is the grinding wheel for making fresh cornmeal.
(... to make fresh DEEP FRIED hushpuppies!!!)
We moved - again.
We moved the week of Thanksgiving. Do you feel sorry for me? Don't. Once I moved into a home on December 14th. I felt sorry for me then.
We have had a lot of fun making this home ours. The owners left a lot of stuff. You know how I feel about stuff. We had a lot to clean out and clean up and move in and move out. We are still combing through our boxes. We are going to have one MONSTER size yard sale this spring!! (As a matter of fact, we have already sold a washer and dryer, dining room table and vacuum cleaner!)
Here is a picture of our new home.
Next on our list was Thanksgiving. We always have so much fun at Thanksgiving. My uncle Lamarr and aunt Bobbie always have the family over for Thanksgiving. As usual, LOTS of food, LOTS of shooting, and LOTS of loving on each other.
My second mother and father. Lamarr & Bobbie.
Forget the turkey.... we have BBQ!!!
Skeet shooting.
Teaching.
Lunch.
Fun.
The close of Thanksgiving Day kicks off the Christmas season. This year, we bought a real live Christmas tree. We had a living Christmas tree the first year we were married. Then, my aunt was ditching her artificial tree for a new one and we saved that tree from a life in the dumpster. We have had that tree every single year until this year. Since we moved into a small home, and we have a small living room, we needed a small tree. (Our old one is in pieces, living in seperate trash bags - but not in the dumpster.) The girls LOVED going to pick out the tree and watching them shake it like crazy and wrap it up in a net and drive home with it attached to the roof of the car. My camera battery was dead - so I only have mental memories of that. But, I did get the camera charged up in time to take a shot of the girls decorating the tree.
Here they are. Ear to ear grins. They LOVED their 'real live' tree.
We traveled to West Virginia to gather with our family there for Christmas. As we drove out of the second tunnel, it was snowing and did not stop the entire time we were there. We did not see clear skies until we drove back home and back out of that same tunnel. West Virginia is AMAZING in the snow. We LOVE it. We also LOVE getting to spend a little time with our family that we don't get to see that often.
West Virginia Snow.
The rest of our Christmas is spent at home. We get to spend time with Jesus. The girls and I love to worship Him by singing old hymns and Christmas carols that honor Him. This year, we served Him by baking cookies for all of our new neighbors and delivering them to their doors. The whole delivering process was spent in constant prayer. We prayed for our neighbors. (And we prayed for our own lives - as we were chased and barked at by almost every dog in the neighborhood.) When we returned home, we thanked the Lord for keeping us safe and for having so much fun baking and delivering.
Rolling out the dough.
This is our Christmas morning breakfast.
I always make cinnamon buns because...
- I can make them the day before.
- They only take 30 minutes to bake in the morning.
- They make the house smell SOOOOO YUMMY.
- They taste VERY YUMMY!
- And, if you don't eat more than one, you won't be too full at lunch time.
Lunch time is when all the Nifong's have their family Christmas gathering. And if you thought there was a lot of food at the NC State fair.....
One of my most favorite pictures...
Cari got some Tinker Toys for Christmas.
I don't think you ever out-grow Tinker Toys.
My dad doesn't think so either.
Sisters.
It snowed on Christmas Day. I do not ever remember it snowing on Christmas Day. It was beautiful.
Us
It snowed all night and we woke up to this.
Our home in the snow.
My girls in the snow.
Cari said, "A snow flake just fell in my eye!"
My love.
Me sledding with Hannah.
The snow sledding crew.
We lost power at our homes for most of this day. But, we still had TONS of fun. We went sledding, made snow cream, heated soup and made grilled cheese on my Dad's wood stove.
The girls loved eating supper by the lantern.
We polished off the kid's 'perfect day without electricity' by letting them spend the night together at our house.
So, now go start supper. I know it took you a while to read this. Love you all!!!