Bee, Myself and I: "What've you been doin' lately?"

Disclaimer: Incredibly looooooong post ahead.

I'm still alive, I swear!

Merry Christmas!! Happy almost New Year! I've been a bad blogger as of late, so please forgive me, but I've been enjoying my Christmas break.

Santa was very good to us this year, and we had a very blessed Christmas day, visiting with my dad's family all day. Here are some highlights:

For Dad:

A snazzy argyle sweater

For Mom:

Flannel plaid pajama pants

and

her Tar Heels in a bowl game

For Big Brother:

Sperry Topsiders

For Little Brother:

A Harry Potter Lego castle... that he put together in less than twenty-four hours, let me tell you.

And for Bee:

An iTouch

and

a new watch.

All in all, it was a wonderful day filled with food, fun and family... Exactly what it's supposed to be! AND, we even got a few snow flurries!! We were definitely excited.

Our house in the snow!

The snow continued to fall throughout the day on the 26th, but that didn't stop me from hitting the after-Christmas deals... online, of course.

I ordered a couple of skirts and a pair of cords from J. Crew and Old Navy. Also, later in the day, Dad, LB and I ventured out to Target, where I picked up two pairs of knee socks for $2 each. I was ecstatic and can't wait to go back for more colors. I got a green argyle and a solid white pair, but I definitely need to go back and get a black pair and maybe another fun argyle? Hmm...

Monday morning, I babysat for a little while, played with HB and WB and saw what Santa brought them (a new playhouse, oh boy!)... So cute! Then, we loaded up the car and headed to New Bern, NC for a couple of days with the whole crew on my mom's side... There were 17 of us!

Tuesday we ate brunch at a cute little restaurant called Baker's Square, that was featured in Our State magazine for their breakfast menu. Well, we missed the breakfast menu by a couple minutes, but it was worth a visit anyway. Then we headed to Tryon Palace, the seat of the colonial North Carolina government (New Bern was the capital of NC until 1792) and it was absolutely gorgeous in the snow.

The view from outside the gates.

Some of the gang outside of the kitchen building. (Note the excessive amounts of Caroline garb... Love it!)

After touring the palace and some of the surrounding houses, we headed back to the condos for a delicious "home"cooked dinner. We had a ham, green bean casserole, biscuits, sweet potatoes, etc. True southern cooking! Yum.

Wednesday, we sort of split up and our family (just the five of us) went to visit Mom's college roommate and her family, who live in New Bern. She has three daughters who are all so sweet and a great visit was had by all!

In 1984... (Mom's the brunette in the stripes and her roommate's the blond on the far right in the blue)

...in 2010!

It was so neat to listen to their stories about college, and I know it meant a lot to both of them to catch up after all these years.

Nope, still not done. That night, we went out to dinner at a really yummy place called Morgan's Tavern. I got shrimp scampi and it was so delicious! Since it was our last night, there were pictures galore.

Coco (cGd), aGm and BB (aAd)

dGb, cGd and LB (cAc) being very silly

Some grown-ups (tGr, jGc, kGk and dAf)

Grandma (mGa), cGd and nGr

(Can you tell I'm loving monograms? Haha...)

Then we headed back for a viewing of Inception (anyone else incredibly perplexed?) and bed.

Thursday we woke up, packed the car and said our goodbyes. It was such a nice getaway and such a pretty place!

Sunset at the marina

I've already decided that I'm going back in May!

On another note, however, with today being New Year's Eve, I thought I'd showcase a couple of Polyvore sets I made... Yeah, I know I have way too much time on my hands.