There's no place like home . . . part 3!!

Unfortunately my favorite holiday had to come to a close too soon, and I had to leave one of my favorite places, Wilmington, to go to the next location. What made it easier to go to that next location, however, was being able to see the man of my life, Jake!! I can never get to much of him!! We had some bonding moments, and he is definitely going to be stylin'!! Plus I am THAT aunt that brings back random stuff which you will see further below!

Below you see the process of being happy to about to cry to happy again because of his awesome sombrero!!

After a quick day in Raleigh, I headed back to High Point for a couple of days! I got to see a lot of old friends like the Cronins that I had not seen since there wedding the year before, Carolyn, and Jordania!! My time was way to short with them but I am also thankfully for every minute with them. It is sooo nice knowing who your friends are and even though you may not talk with them for a long time when you get back together with them it is like time had never passed!

Sarah, Chris and I playing some disc golf

Another fun thing that I did back in High Point was help decorate for Christmas. My mom was very adamant in getting everything up before I left since I most likely would not make it back for Christmas. I went with her and bought a real Christmas tree which was fun!! It was the first time I saw a real Christmas tree in my house in forever (more than 15 years)!! She spent the rest of the day putting all the ornaments on with a little help from me! It was nice getting into the Christmas spirit!

Poor Lily!!

Again the time went way to fast, and I did not get to do everything and see everybody that I wanted to, but I will take any time that I can get to be with my family and friends!! I left again from Raleigh, so I got to say goodbye to the little man as well. We decided it would be appropriate to dress him up in all his Mexican attire for a little photo shoot before I set sail! I have to say that this might be one of my favorite pictures ever!

There's no place like home . . . part 2!!

Home is such a get place. Every time I get to go back I finally feel like I can take a deep breath and be quiet for a time. I don't know about you but the feeling of being in your mom's arms is magical!

The weather throughout my break was great and Wilmington was beautiful like always. One of the main reasons why I love Thanksgiving so much is because usually the weather is good enough to hang out side. Yes, it is really cold sometimes but that is when you just hunker down closer to the fire, and we always seem to have some quality family time out there.

Besides the fire and eating, one of the favorites to do is a good game of cornhole. We can get pretty competitive because of course no one likes losing!! There always seems to be someone that ends up not playing anymore!!

Even though not everyone was around for Thanksgiving and my Papa had to have major heart surgery (thanks be to God all went well) during that time, we seemed to have a very entertaining, relaxing, and loving time together!!

Of course a good round of wrestling brings the family together, too!! Becca, I am sorry to say but I think Jay won that round!!

Great minds think alike . . . Purple, blacks and greys must be the new fall colors!!

Another normal specialty for Thanksgiving is playing a round a golf with Dad and Uncle John. Usually Dan tags along too if he is there but this year Jay came out to play which was fun . . . we ended up stinking together which helped the round go faster!! The round was not all bad since I did out drive my dad one hole!! I ended up getting a birdie on that hole after the best approach shot of my life!! Oh how I miss playing golf . . . especially since I was just starting to get the hang of it before I started with SLB!

Yet another great tradition is having an oyster roast the day after Thanksgiving. We go buy local oysters at the local fish market. We hang out at the fireplace that now as a place that we can steam the oysters. My uncle used a wet burlap sack on a hot iron sheet. The oysters tasted very yummy. I never thought I would say that since I had a very bad experience with my first one I tried when I was younger!! It is a great way of ending Thanksgiving with the fam!!