Christmas in Pictures

Happy New Year!! I cannot believe that 2010 is already behind us and that 2011 is here! We have been so busy with work and spending time with family and friends that I haven't had the time or creative energy to keep up with the ole blog... So, I thought this would be the easiest way to document what we did over Christmas.... mainly pictures with a few much needed explanations....

My family came down to Pike Road the weekend before Christmas just so we could have some extra quality time together and do our traditional "ornament making." The following picture was used for my parent's Christmas card this year. And yes, I am looking quite pregnant these days as I am now almost 6 months along!

The "ornaments" we made were headed up by mom and they consisted of felted Santas as well as sculpy clay ornaments. The following picture is sort of what the felted Santas were supposed to look like but we couldn't find any flesh colored wool so they ended up looking a bit albino.

Ben took an original route and his Santa ended up being the "Zoro Santa from Texas."

Dad took one look at his Santa and died out laughing when he realized it looked like one of the band members of ZZ Top.

Oddly enough, the felted Santas provided fun for the entire family. This week I got more pictures of Matt than I have gotten in the last 3 years since he actually allowed me to take pictures of him! He and Cara decided to use the sculpy clay to make their Santa's faces instead of making wool faces. They were the creepiest things I have ever seen. (Pictures of Creepy Santas further down)

Then things got a little crazy with the sculpy clay.

Here we have Creepy Santas (Cara's on left and Matt's on the right) and the sculpy elf that happens to look exactly like President Obama.

And here we have the final cast of characters.... yes, we did set up a scene, complete with backdrop, to photograph them. In case you are wondering, the green balls with faces are "Christmas Peas."

The family visit was a lot of fun and it was nice to get to spend some "extra" time together since we no longer have those long breaks that we once got when we were in college!

Ben and I opened our gifts to each other on Wednesday night before Christmas so we could get rid of our dead Christmas tree before we had to go out of town. Here is our attempt at a photo of ourselves. Thankfully I got a tripod for Christmas so no more having to prop the camera on various pieces of furniture!

Christmas Eve was off to a great start with breakfast at Ben's parent's house for the Lassiter family Christmas. Ben and I were so proud of ourselves for leaving our house on time that I ran out the door without my camera!! I stole this family photo from Jessi's album on facebook.

In one of my previous posts I accidently said that our baby would be grandbaby #5, I meant #6!

Ben's parents even gave our baby Christmas gifts including cute little clothes, a book, a toy, and a stuffed animal! He is already spoiled and he isn't even here yet! We had such a good time with Ben's family and really enjoyed watching all the kids open their presents.

After Christmas Eve breakfast, Ben and I loaded up the dogs and headed North to Florence. We woke up on Christmas morning to a beautiful winter wonder land! Snow had been predicted but it was really a surprise that it actually came and stuck!

Of course, we had to take our traditional Christmas picture on the steps. It's a good thing that mom and dad's new house has stairs since we have been taking this same (or similar) picture on Christmas morning for about 20 years. We used to all three sit on one step. Those days are obviously long gone. Please excuse the sleepy looks and the strait out of the camera shot much in need of editing.... I just found it too funny not to share.

Christmas morning was complete with Santa hats and reindeer antlers for all.

Matt was thrilled. This is my favorite picture of the morning.

Berkley had never played in the snow before and didn't know quite what to think. He took off running in it like a maniac and he would lay down and stretch out all four legs. Then he would eat the snow and lay in it. We all got a good laugh out of him and if I can figure out how to edit and share the video then I will do so later. When it was time to come inside, Ben and I had to blow-dry Berkley for about half an hour to get all of the snow balls off this pompoms because they were completely frozen to his fur. You can see them in this picture...

I enjoyed getting to take some pictures of all the beautiful scenery:

Our Christmas festivities ended with the "Cousin Bash" with all of Ben's first cousins, siblings, and spouses. Ben wore his festive Christmas sweater and everyone was jealous. I again failed to bring my camera and I got this picture from facebook that Tori snapped of Ben in his Christmas get up. (My mom bought Christmas sweaters like that a couple of years ago for all the guys in our family as a joke. You can find them in the women's department at Wal-Mart. Don't all rush out at once.)

The "Cousin Bash," complete with Dirty Santa and multiple games, turned out to be so much fun! I wish we all could get together more often. Ben and I racked up in dirty Santa with a gift card for me and a Shake Weight (that we actually brought) for Ben. We will both be extremely buff in 2011 from working out with our Shake Weight. Get excited about pictures to come!

A LONG Post

Well, it's finally fall! Don't get me wrong, I like summer, but fall is my favorite time of year! I will do my annual "Things I Love About Fall" post a little later, but for now I need to recap a few things and post some pictures for memory's sake... Remember back in July when I wrote A ((as in singular) post and mentioned that I was in Blue Ridge at a cabin waiting on my family to arrive? Well, here are the events as follows.... And following those events... the trip to Elijay for Ben's family reunion!

(All of these photos (except 2 of them) are strait out of the camera taken with my 50mm lens. A lot of them could use some touching up, but I love the pictures that this lens takes! )

Blue Ridge Family Vacation

My family, part of which were supposed to arrive around 5, arrived well after midnight due to several various setbacks including that the Garmin is a liar and tells people to turn onto roads that don't exist. Anyway, I was sitting in the mysterious 3 story cabin surrounded by woods for several hours at night alone. Thank goodness I had the dogs because it was creepy! No blinds or curtains on the windows... not sure what was in the basement... etc. Anyway, the rest of the family (except Ben who had to work until Sunday) finally did show up.

Matt was exhausted from his summer job as a landscaper in the 100+ degree heat. In fact, that is probably the only reason I was able to get any photos of him on this whole trip. He hates it when I try to take his picture. But I got some. Sucker. Oh, and the little white dogs, Henry and Scooter, LOVE him. And they drive him insane. I think it's hilarious.

This is my sister at breakfast the next morning. We laughed at this picture for an hour.

We spent most of our time at the cabin just playing in the creek, fishing, and walking in the forrest that surrounded the property. It was a beautiful place and we definitely left saying how much we look forward to going back.

The boys watching Matt fish...

Matt is so excited that Pete got in the water with him while he was trying to fish.

I really love this picture of my dad.

When my family got into town, my dad and Matt were in charge of going into the store and picking up the things that were on the list Cara and Mom made. Cara put "large sunglasses" on the list. These are the ones my dad picked out. I would say he followed her instructions exactly.

Here is the cabin's kitchen. It is by far the best cabin we have stayed in. I wish I had taken more photos of it!

So, for a huge surprise, mom hired a chef, yes, a chef to come in and give us a cooking lesson! Our chef's name was Chef Douglas and he came around noon and brought everything needed to prepare a gourmet meal. He taught us how to make crab cakes with sautéed spinach and portobello mushrooms, peach champagne soup, goat cheese bruschetta, and a berry tart with Chantilly cream for dessert. It was amazing! For some reason, Matt and Dad didn't want to stick around for this so they went canoeing and fishing instead.

Chef Douglas actually has a business called "Cabin Cuisine" where he will come to various cabins and prepare meals for the guests or do cooking lessons. I think it is a great idea! Mom, Cara, and I had the best time, loved the food, and learned some good cooking tips!

This swing in the backyard was a favorite spot of all.

Matt and Cara at dinner one night. I really am their sister. We really are blood related.

The dogs absolutely loved playing in the creek that ran behind the cabin. Berkley was a little timid about the water at first but eventually warmed up to it and then turned into a reckless maniac. Berkley and Pete spent most of their time chasing balls that were thrown into the water.

Henry and Scooter wanted to get in the water and play with the big dogs so bad. It was hilarious watching them trying to participate.

One day we took a walk into the surrounding forrest and enjoyed taking a lot of fun nature pictures. This one is my favorite.

My dad was actually wearing a "Bama" shirt here, but I might have taken that out...

Ben and me ready to go out for dinner... I was so glad he didn't have to work the whole weekend and got to come to the cabin for 2 nights. It just isn't the same when he's not around.

Me and my Berkley Baby Poodle.

Lassiter Family Reunion at Amicalola Falls

I should start by saying that 1. I did a horrible job of taking pictures on this trip and 2. from the beginning I was very concerned about how this trip was going to turn out.... there is a Highfield family curse when it comes to taking trips and I was afraid I had inherited it.

It all began when Berkley and Pete (who were supposed to go on the trip which includes a 4 hour car ride) both got diarrhea the day before we were supposed to leave. I have no idea what caused this, but needless to say we were stopping every hour so or so to ensure that the dogs did not have any accidents in the car. On top of that, the night before we left, Ben discovered that some money had been taken out of my pay check without my permission for a "garnishment." So, we spent the drive up to GA stopping to let the dogs have diarrhea and on the phone with WalMart's garnishment office, a law office, and my district manager. Turns out that some man named Cedric, who also works for Wal Mart, has the same last 4 digits of my ss# and Wal Mart mistakenly took money out of my account instead of his. We are talking about 800 dollars. If we had not caught this mistake, the grand total would've been about 2300 dollars. Soooo, we are off to a great start!

We finally arrive safely to our Cabin in Elijay with no accidents. It was kind of tricky to find and we had to follow a very narrow gravel road to reach it. Ben and I dropped the dogs off at the cabin and went to pick up a few items from the store for lunch and for the reunion cook out the next day at the park. While we were at the store, a huge storm came up with a lot of thunder and sky to ground lightning. When we returned home we discovered that the power was out at our cabin. It really turned out great because we just relaxed, read, and took a nap. It'll be back on in a hour or so, right? Wrong.

Ben's parents made it to the cabin around 8 or so. I am not sure how they were able to find it in the dark! We lit a bunch of candles and sat and talked until Ben and I realized we were really hungry. However, how would we cook anything? Ben had a fabulous idea to cook our frozen pizza on the grill by the light of his cell phone. It was actually very good!

The power stayed off until around 11 AM the following day, just in time for us to get ready to go to the reunion at the park. Almost all of Ben's dad's family was there. Ben's dad is one of 7 children and we were getting together with his parents, the kids, and their families. It was fun getting to know them and we enjoyed hiking the trails at Amicalola falls. I didn't get many good pictures because I was mostly worried about Pete and Berkley. Bringing them to the cookout probably wasn't the best idea, but Ben's little cousins had a good time walking them around on their leashes.

The following day we didn't have a specific check out time so we spent some time walking the road that our cabin was on and playing in the creek in front of the cabin. The weather for the rest of the trip was beautiful and it really wasn't too hot... at least not compared to the stifling heat of Montgomery!

Before we left, Ben and I decided to set up the camera to take some family photos. This is the first try. The second try was better and that is the picture in my header above. The funny thing about this set of pictures is Pete. He drops his ball while the camera is shooting. My camera was set to take about 6 frames and you can see Pete watching his ball fall and then roll off the porch. It is hilarious because he is OBSESSED with the ball.

Anyway, that about sums up our summer trips with the families. I hate I didn't get more pictures of Ben's family while we were with them. Hopefully next time Ben's brothers and their families will be able to come too and I am sure there will be plenty of photo opportunities then!