Christmas Travels

Our Christmas trip: Maggie Valley, North Carolina; Athens, Georgia; Manassas, Virginia.   1500 miles!  The Suburban hit 100k and is still going strong.

The first leg:  Oreland to Maggie Valley, NC to see Cris’s parents and sister.  They have a house in the Blue Ridge Mountains and it was beautiful.  No real snow, but beautiful mountain views.  We hadn’t seen Huldah since Eleanor was a baby, so that was exciting.   Google maps said that trip should be about 10 hours; it took us 13.  We need a lot of rest stops, I guess!

Next, we drove to Athens, GA to visit my sister, 3 of her 4 kids, and her 2 grandkids.  We had never met the grandbabies so that was exciting too!  It had been a few years since we’d all been together.  Her son and his wife were on a long-awaited honeymoon so we missed them.   It was a little chaotic with the babies missing mom and dad.  The 5 dogs added to the fun.  (They were outside.)   Eleanor loved the attention from her “big girl” cousins.    That trip was only about 3 hours, easy driving through small towns.

The very next day we went to Manassas, VA so we could go to the National Air and Space Museum facility at Dulles Airport.  This was a long-promised trip for James.  Back when we were driving cross-country, we had planned to visit the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH.  We had to change those plans, and while he’s not still made about it, it was a big disappointment.  I think this museum made up for it.  There were a lot of planes there!  Eleanor and I spent as much time as she could stand looking around, then had some time reading and sewing in the car, so the boy got as much time as he needed.

That was probably our longest driving day, ever, with a rainstorm following us all the way.  But the  drive home the next day was easy and beautiful.

We had a good trip but it was sure nice to get home.  And, yes, everyone said “Yea! Home!” when we crossed the Pennsylvania border.  So, I guess this is home now.

Now, it’s time to start finding a dog!

If your Christmas card is late…

don’t blame me.  I don’t know who you should blame, just not me.

Christmas season doesn’t end till January 6, remember!

We survived the first semester!

Whew!  Finals are over!  Cris has a few weeks till the 2-week winter term starts January 8.   The spring semester starts in February.

So, lots of relaxation time, right?  Hahahaha!   We need to:

- finish raking the leaves before the snow comes!  At least the front yard is done!

- get a Christmas tree.

- empty the garage, put in a new storage rack, and refill the garage.

- clean out the office and rid ourselves of a few stray boxes of junk that followed us here.

- go through some boxes of books and try to part with a few more.

- start some of the reading for the upcoming classes!

- hang some more pictures.

Fun plans include our trip to North Carolina and Georgia for Christmas visits (there will be relaxing moments here), and Cris and James’s long-awaited visit to the Battleship New Jersey

Oh, and I forgot the first order of business when we return from our trip:  start looking for a dog!

I think today will be the only day he gets to sleep in!

************

If you get tired of checking in here for new updates, and finding none, you might start using a feed reader, such as  Bloglines or Google reader.  I’m sure there are others.  You can subscribe to this or any other blog you feel obligated like to read, and you will see when it’s been updated.  So, sporadically-updated blogs don’t have to be frustrating!

Quiet days

It’s finals week!  Cris has been studying almost nonstop.  There is so much reading…

Kids have gotten their first winter colds.  So, we’re laying low, trying to get healthy for Christmas and our trip to North Carolina and Georgia to see family.  James is excited – about the visits but, more importantly I think, because when we get home we will start our dog search in earnest.

We’re starting to decorate, and trying to figure out where to put the Christmas tree.  I tried to convince the kids that our little, skinny fake tree would be fine for this year, but… no.  We’ll probably go out Friday after finals are over, to get one.   Next week before our trip we have a few adventures planned, so I hope to have reason to update here soon!