The Fall semester ended for us on Thursday, December 13. We both finished with good grades, A's and B's; we both had B's in our Soils class which we were thankful for, it was one of the hardest college classes I have had thus far! We spent the next week in Cookeville enjoying our last break from school since John David will graduate in May and will enter the world of work! Yes, there were a few days of sleeping past 10, but we don't feel guilty for doing so! I worked on my Wedding Scrapbook during this week. ( I am hoping I will finish it before our second wedding anniversary!) On December 20th we headed to West Tennessee to celebrate Christmas with my family.
The night we arrived I decided to go ahead and give John David his Christmas present from me since he already knew what it was. I gave him an iPod touch which he had been wanting and he was very excited to get it and he played with it that evening!
One of the big projects at my parents house was building furniture. Dad had recently purchased a lathe to go along with some of my Grandpa's woodworking equipment and he was making my mom an oak coffee table and two end tables so we called Daddy's garage "Santa's Workshop" the entire time! John David also enjoyed himself in Santa's workshop. He made me two oak candle holders on the lathe, which are beautiful, I can't wait to use them! I also tried out the lathe which is actually very fun to work on!
My oak candlesticks! I think they are beautiful, especially since my husband made them for me!
Of course we took the opportunity to take family pictures in front of the Christmas tree!
Since Rebekah does not have a significant other and feels like the 5th wheel on occasion, we took family pictures of her and Zorro! I think this is a really cute picture of both of them! We all had a bunch of fun with Rebekah because she purchased a gift for Zorro and herself. Her gift was a keychain that said "I love my dog" and Zorro's was a collar charm that said "I love my human". Needless to say we laughed and laughed about the "I love my human"!
Christmas morning was fun, as usual stockings were fun to go through. Daddy make cake doughnuts which were wonderful and Grandma, Grandpa, and Nathan came down to visit. Of course exchanging presents was fun!
We left my parents house on December 27th and headed all the way to John David's parents, an 8 hour drive! It really wasn't that bad, at least for me, I was the happy passenger who got to play with the iPod!
We had a lot of fun opening gifts there! They gave us fleece sheets (which are amazing and very warm and I highly recommend them!) I also was given a luxurious microfiber robe and John David was given a new scope for his gun! We also enjoyed a carmel and sprinkle coated apple from Nana which was absolutely amazing!
While we were at John David's parents he worked on setting his Dad's new HD TV up and consequently since there was a big screen HD TV with an amazing picture we watched quite a bit of football!
While we were there, John David and I went gem mining at Gem Mountain in North Carolina with Josie and Mattie Roark. Josie and Mattie are 7 and 4 years old and they both absolutely love John David! We all had a lot of fun gem mining! That night after we got home John David went to the shop and put one of my gems in a setting for me! He did a good job and I feel so loved when he makes something for me!
The big event of the week was our trip to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. The night before it snowed and we woke up to a beautiful white snow! We bundled up and headed for North Carolina. While we were crossing the mountain on Interstate 26 it reached 7 degrees! So needless to say it was a very cold day but a very beautiful day!
I was absolutely amazed at the size of the Biltmore Estate! Everything was so large and extravagant. We read the dimensions of the formal dining room and realized that John David's parents house could fit inside it! That really puts things into perspective. I was amazed in every room, the staircases were grand (and a little scary since I don't like heights). There were so many bedrooms I lost count. My favorite part of the whole tour was the basement. The kitchens were big, the pantry was amazing but the most amazing part was the fact that there was a swimming pool in the basement of this house and it was built in 1899!
After visiting the estate, we went to The Olive Garden for a wonderful lunch! The hot pasta was perfect for a cold day! After lunch we headed to the Grove Park Inn to look at Gingerbread Houses from the National Gingerbread Competition! I was amazed at the details on some of these tiny houses!
This is a Gingerbread House! This one was my personal favorite, it looks just like a real house!
This fireplace was huge and so warm. If you look to the right you can see a child sitting on the hearth, that helps put the scale in perspective!
To say the least our Christmas break was very memorable. We enjoyed spending time with our families and have wonderful memories that we never forget!
