Christmas 2011

Christmas was pretty good this year considering the emotional roller coaster that was our December. We first had a visit from Dad and Judy before Christmas. Then on Christmas Eve, we went to McGregor Baptist Church for their candlelight service.

After we got home we hopped on our bikes to ride through the neighborhood. On several streets the homeowners set up luminaries along the curbs each Christmas Eve. We discovered it by chance last year, and it will now be one of our Christmas Eve traditions. It's so beautiful. Here's my best iPhone photo of it.

our neighbor's house.

On Christmas day we woke up early to open presents from each other.

 

Then we went to mom and Billy's house for her traditional breakfast casserole. After that we went to Scott's parents' house for lunch. Mom and Billy joined us so we could all hang out together on Christmas. 

The boys all got lounge pants, and Byron couldn't wait to try his on. We should have gotten the three of them together.

Eric and Emily made it home from Puerto Rico, too, so all of the Whittamores were together.

I also wanted to throw in a couple of photos from Naples beach this week. Before an assignment, I hopped out onto the beach to take in the view. Then I had an assignment to photograph a house in Port Royal in Naples that was right on the beach. It was beautiful. And their wine cellar was bigger than my living room. And one bottle of their wine is more expensive than my couch. oh well.

This was the view from the driveway of the house in Naples.

This was their driveway.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody!

A visit from Dad and Judy

This week we were blessed to have Dad and Judy come visit. We enjoyed having them here to take care of us. And I'm sure they enjoyed our nice warm weather during their days on the beach. These are a couple of pics from our sunset spot on the river a few blocks from the house. I'm really glad they were here this week.

Our garden is also growing like crazy. The beans look like they are trying out for Jack and the Beanstalk. And these pics are a few days old. The beans and carrots are much fuller now. It just happens to be dark right now so I can't shoot fresh pictures.

pole beans

carrots

corn

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Here's little update from the past couple of weeks. I finally got an iPhone, so these are some of the photos from the last week.

We've got the garden growing. The green beans and corn are really growing fast.

I've been off work all week. I think it's the first time I've been off for a week at home. Usually we go somewhere every time we get the chance, but it was nice to be home for the week. We've been doing a lot of door painting. We got new interior doors a few weeks ago, and we've been slowly painting them white. They came in a nice primer-grey color. Some pics to come soon...

On Wednesday we went out fishing with Scott's parents. We had fun, but didn't catch many fish. I did catch the same needle fish twice. Those things are weird.

Here's a little sunset action on Wednesday night....

And here's Faith and Carter, my niece and nephew, learning to play chess with my father-in-law. So sweet....

Full Moon Paddle

Tonight I was reminded of why I love my job. I got to go on a full-moon kayak tour and get paid for it. It was a gorgeous night with flat water and a beautiful full moon. It was in the Four-Mile Cove area off the Caloosahatchee River in Cape Coral.

Chapel Thrill

Scott and I were finally able to make the trip back to Chapel Hill this weekend for a football game - UNC-Wake Forest. He has coached girls basketball for the past few years, and we haven't been able to get away in the fall before. It was a whirlwind weekend, but we had a great time seeing Dad and Judy and Amanda and Robert Stinnett. I was also happy to leave my "big" camera and laptop at home to take a break. So these pics are with my trusty simple Nikon point-and-shoot camera.

We left after work Friday and arrived in Raleigh about midnight. Luckily the game on Saturday was at 3:30 pm, so we had a little time to sleep in. It turned out to be a great game, and we also had fun hanging out on Franklin Street after. The funny thing was that it didn't get crowded until we were heading to the hotel around midnight. I should remember that college kids go out late. The street was full of college students in costume and a plethora of college girls wearing skinny jeans and tall riding boots. As we took our old selves home we laughed about the good ole carefree days spent in Chapel Hill. I miss it, but I'm glad to be a "grown-up" too.

 I had to take a picture of Carroll Hall - home of the journalism school - as we walked through campus.

 .........and a couple of the Bell Tower..................

Notice the season ticket holder taking a nap behind us. Too much fun too early for him.

We also got to see some fall colors, but I only managed to get a picture of it from the air leaving Raleigh.