Christmas Break

Yet again, I'm dropping the blogging ball.  Oh well.

Christmas this year was fantastic!!!  I was able to get three days off work (plus we were scheduled to be off for four days) so we took the red-eye out of Salt Lake City on Monday the 22nd and arrived in NC Tuesday morning.  Chelsea lent us her car for the duration of our trip and it was such a blessing!  We picked her car up in Charlotte and then drove north to Greensboro.

My family just moved to NC at the beginning of November and so everything this Christmas would be new.  They bought a house just a few minutes from my dad's parents and his brother so for the first time in my lifetime, my family is living close to other family!  I loved being able to see my grandparents and cousins this holiday.

Zach was supposed to get home before we did but a job interview held him up in Ohio.  He finally got there late on Christmas Eve.  My family doesn't have a ton of Christmas traditions but one of my favorites is watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve.  It took some finagling this year for us to all fit in the living room but it was worth it.

Grandma and Grandpa Tucker

 
For most of our visit, we slept at my uncles house down the road but Meredith wanted us all to sleep at home on Christmas Eve.  Since this house is significantly smaller than our last house with less than half the beds, we slept on the living room floor...  We were actually going to sleep in Noah's twin size bed but then just fell asleep watching Everybody Loves Raymond (what else is new) and stayed on the floor.  I'm so glad the majority of my siblings are teenagers or older now and appreciate sleeping in on Christmas.  I used to be a grouch when I was the only one who wanted to sleep in!

I think I'm still sleeping...

Nate finally got the Ipad he's wanted since before we were married!

Isn't he precious??  Socks, candy and scented candle wax in his stocking.  I'm the best.

We spent Christmas day lounging around and then went to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas dinner with the rest of the family.  Why didn't we get a group picture with everyone?!?!

My immediate family hasn't been all together since our wedding so we took the time to get a family picture.  Of course, not everyone wanted to be in the picture but that's what happens with six kids.  We took this picture on the land that they are going to start building a house on.  Next year we could have Christmas in yet another house!

Eli and Meredith decided to have a photoshoot in the field.  I wish I stole some of their pictures but I only have a few of the ones we took on our phone...

Our family gift exchange...I got a baby name book from my cousin.  It's the same baby name book I got him a few years ago and he just had a baby so he told me it was my turn.  He was nice enough to cross off Everett, since that's the name they used haha

The day after Christmas we headed to a cabin 2.5 hours away where Nate's family was staying for Christmas!  What a treat that we got to see both families even though they technically live in different states now!  While there, we went to a gem mine, watched some movies, played some games, went out to eat and just had fun!

View from the cabin.

 Breakfast (which was really lunch).  We found a FANTASTIC place to eat which was totally worth the forever wait.  The kids didn't love it as much as the adults as the food was a twist on regular breakfast flavors.

At the "mine"

We would steal her if we could...

On Sunday we left the cabin and headed back to my house.  We made it just in time for church where I happened to run into one of my friends from the Hill Cumorah Pageant and school.  After church we went to an extended family dinner with my grandpa's brother's family.  It was fun to meet some more of the Tucker clan!  The next few days were spent playing lots of games, watching movies, and relaxing.

Playing Five Crowns.  Obviously I was the only one who knew a picture was being taken...

Playing Charades.

This is how we fell asleep one night.  We're so cute.

One day we went to downtown Greensboro.  While we were there we went to the Civil Right's Museum.  The museum is located in the old Woolworth's dime store where the Greensboro sit-in's took place in 1960.  It was amazing to see this little bit of history and it is so well preserved.  Of course, you can't take pictures sooooooo yeahhhh.  I learned that my dad's middle school principal was married to one of the original college freshman who started the sit-in.  I also had never thought of the fact that my grandma grew up right in the midst of the civil rights movement in the south!  She remember the sit-ins happening and having to use separate bathrooms etc.

Both of the above pictures are from Wikipedia.

Walking around downtown Greensboro...

Meredith with her imaginary boyfriend.

If you're still looking at these pictures...you're crazy.  But I'm going to keep going!

The Monday after Christmas Zach left for Germany (that's a long story...) and then on Wednesday Meredith and Eli left for Ohio.  So with just Nate and I left at home we decided to abandon the family and go visit his family for the rest of the trip.  Back to Charlotte we went!  It was really great because not only did we get to see Chelsea's family, but Jessica's family drove up from Georgia for the New Year so we got to spend more time with them too.

The Smith's traditionally have appetizers on New Years Eve and throw a fun party for friends.  Since it was just us three families, we decided to do our own version of this and buy our favorite appetizers from local restaurants.  We got apps from probably 12 different places and it was delicious!!!  Such a fun idea!

Playing Tripoly to pass the time.

Getting ready for the big moment!

Peter put on a fireworks show for us so we all cuddled under the pergola Nate built when we were in Charlotte last year :)

Annndddd a few more pictures of the cute kiddos to finish the trip off...

Bailee doing my hair

 Just look at this face.  Adorable.

Ohio Middles

We flew from Charlotte to Ohio on a Saturday and since we didn't go to sleep the night before (on account of working on the yard) we slept most of the day.

Before I forget...in the airport this random lady sat right next to me on the floor.  And there was space all around she could sit.  But she sat a foot from me.  Awkward.

And continuing... The only reason we got out of bed was to see Meredith get ready for her senior prom that night.  She looked beautiful!  We weren't going to go see her get pictures taken but decided to in the end and I am so glad because we got a great picture together!

On Sunday, Noah gave a talk in Primary and I helped him out!  He included a line saying that yesterday was a perfect day because I came home.  It feels good to have a little person like you so much.

I also had the chance to catch up with two of my friends, Shelby and Sarah.  I had breakfast with Shelby on Monday at IHOP (yum!).  It's been a while since we've been able to just sit and chat and it was great to see how she was doing.  Then Monday afternoon Sarah came down from Wauseon to see me!  She just returned home from her mission on the previous Wednesday so it had also been quite a while since I'd seen her.  Although not the whole 18 months because I hunted her down at General Conference in October :)

I was hoping to see Seth run in his track meet on Monday but it got cancelled due to rain.  Instead, Nate and I went to see Captain America with his family.  I only fell asleep for like 5 (maybe 10) minutes so it must have been a good movie!

We spent Tuesday night visiting Eli at the gas station (he was refilling the beer when we arrived...the picture was totally posed) and eating Chinese which has become a tradition when we go home.

Charlotte Endings

Well ladies and gents, we are back in Rexburg and doing well!  Before I get to that, I have to wrap up our lives in Charlotte.

Oh Charlotte...we love you and miss you!  While our move there was very last minute, we have no regrets.  The experience was wonderful.  Nate was able to do an internship for a month and I was able to just relax and enjoy being with family.  We met so many amazing people and actually made some friends!

This is us with some friends from the ward after Sam's baseball game one evening.  We are eating at La Unica which is an amazing restaurant that we ate at three times in one week...and probably like 10 times while we were there.

IS SHE NOT THE CUTEST THING EVER.




















Eating custard/ ice one lovely afternoon.



















We matched but she was not in a picture taking mood.













She just sits there and smiles and I love it.

Okay enough pictures of that cutie...for now.

We were able to visit with my cousins in Fort Mill, SC twice although I fail on the picture front there.  We went to their house once for dinner and to play games and then a few days before we left, we met up with my Aunt and Uncle in Charlotte for...Mexican!!

One weekend I drove up to Greensboro by myself to visit my grandparents and some other cousins.  Nate stayed behind to work on the yard (which I will blog about eventually...).  It was fantastic to see everyone!  I got to meet my cousin Chris's fiance as well as catch up with everyone I haven't seen since our wedding.  I really enjoyed having everyone in my grandparent's house sitting around talking who-knows-what.

The weekend before we left both Nate and I were able to make the trip up there and spent the night at my grandparent's.  We got in fairly late because Nate had to work that day but they stayed up and fed us and played Five Crowns.  At the end of the game, the person with the lowest score wins.  Here was our scorecard...

I think it is safe to say that Nate CREAMED the rest of us.  I had more points after two rounds than he did at the end!  The next day was General Conference so we watched the first Saturday session at my uncle's house and then everyone went to The Grill for lunch (it's tradition!).  We left after lunch to go back to Huntersville so Nate could work some on the yard that evening.

I almost forgot to mention that Friday was our one year engagement anniversary!  We got engaged the Friday before General Conference.  I think the actual date was April 6th...

Our last week in Huntersville went by quickly.  Nate went to work during the day and I hung out with Chelsea and Sawyer and then Nate would work in the yard in the evenings.  The day before we left we made one more trip to Greensboro to return my grandparent's car they graciously let us borrow while we were there.  Chelsea came with so she could drive me home and it was fun to take her and Sawyer to the dairy farm next door to see the cows and chickens.  Sawyer was skeptical of the cows at first but she warmed up to them.

Aaaaand some more pictures of Sawyer because it was our last day and I couldn't stop taking pictures of her!!!!