Our first Christmas in North Carolina

2011 has been a big year for the Womacks. This is our first Christmas in another state. We love our apartment. It has a great brick fireplace that is perfect for Christmas.We are blessed to be able to go home to Arkansas for Christmas weekend. We are looking forward to celebrating with our families, but we have had lots of Christmas cheer here!

Last Thursday night we went to a special Christmas service at Duke for United Methodist students. It was a Wesleyan Christmas service and a potluck!  Last weekend we had two big Christmas parties. One of my coworkers is married to a former Duke Div student who is now in the ThD program at Duke. We live like a block away from them and they had the best Christmas party. They are from South Carolina and their home has the best southern charm. They are a huge blessing to us. Saturday night we had a Christmas party with my coworkers in Chapel Hill. We exchanged gifts and enjoyed time outside of work. I have some wonderful coworkers who are exceptional therapists but more than that they are just very kind people.

Here are some pictures of our home decorated for Christmas.

 

Front porch with a wreath made by my sweet Momma.

grapes in the wreath

red bird

Our tree

 Stockings, Christmas cards, light up stairs, trees..

 Love my "Santa stops here" sign that I picked up at Purdy's last year.

fireplace star

 My very favorite - my Nativity scene that Gran got me the year we got married.

 Our First Christmas 2008 ornament

 I love this cake that we got the year we got married. The little sign below says "We do."

 Gran gave me two of these beautiful intricate snowflakes.

 We get a new ornament for every year we have been married. This is year 4!


 staircase

 

Christmas table. I love the picture of my Dad and Beth at Christmas
several years ago in the frame above the table.

 Callie got me this hand towel. Love it!

 All of our Christmas presents that we bought here are in this suitcase to be checked. We also had some shipped home. Dane is going to wrap all of them when he gets home..

 I adore this plate. Adore it. Every time I see it I smile. 

 My cousins Jon and Amanda bought us these traditional Christmas dishes when we got married. That was one of the best gifts. We did not register for them (we didn't even think of registering for Christmas dishes), but the pattern has been around forever and we can buy other pieces at any department store.

 

I got this Duke plate (to match our Arkansas plate) on a great Christmas sale. 

I love it that it has poka dots and our Arkansas plate is stripes.

Thanksgiving 2011

Dane and I have met some truly wonderful people here in NC. We are thankful. The people in the picture above all came over to our house the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving for a little get together. The husbands are all in school with Dane and the spouses all attend the spouse group with me. The couples are from Oklahoma, Florida, and Virgina. We feel blessed to have these people sharing in our journey in our lives. They all come from different backgrounds (3 denominations represented here) and different places in life. We are learning together.

Dane did not have class the week of Thanksgiving, but I worked through Wednesday. Wednesday night we made the crazy trip to Charlotte, NC to catch our direct flight to Memphis, TN. Charlotte is about 2 and a half hours from Durham but it took us more like four hours in the traffic. At one point we were driving 15 mph for about 20 minutes. Dane stopped and said, if we keep driving at this rate..oh...wait...we will miss our flight. .....  :( Well we in fact did not miss our flight, we made it in time to grab a bite to eat in the airport. Dad picked us up in Memphis around 10:30 and we made it home around 1am. Dad had picked up Beth and Ross in Nashville and it was wonderful to make the ride home with my sister and her sweet pup.

Thursday we went to my Aunt Julie (and uncle Jimmy)'s house to eat Thanksgiving lunch. This was quite the change from previous years. We all felt the great loss of our dear Gran, but I think we all did our best to celebrate the things she taught us. My mom even made her apple pie. P.S. I really can't talk about her in passed tense without crying so I am going to stop now.

Thanksgiving Day

 Laughing in the kitchen.

 Sisters.

 Pop :)

 Dad, Beth, and Sam

 Sisters

 Dane and Sam

 Ross and Mom's new couch!

We had Thanksgiving dinner with my Mama, Papa, and aunt Wanda Friday night. I did not take any pictures but my mom made a delicious ham and my aunt Wanda made a dump cake. I had never heard of a dump cake but it was very rich and amazing.

Saturday we celebrated Thanksgiving with Dane's entire family at his parents house. We had a great time and a giant Thanksgiving table. Dane and Reid went and borrowed a table to make their kitchen table extend almost into the living room. Corey did not make it home for Thanksgiving and we really missed him. We are ready to see him at Christmas!

 Dane and Reid

 Angie's cat - Boo

 The feast!

 Boo and Mert

 Family

 Vaughn  - who just got back from Canada.

 Opal

 Mert and Vaughn

Sherra resting

 Three William Womacks :)

Saturday night Beth and Mom made Mom's homemade sugar cookies. We are going to make a video of how to make these cookies and put it on YouTube. Seriously.

Dane and I had a great Thanksgiving!! It was a wonderful time. We are excited about heading home for Christmas too.


On another note, my friend Haley sent me a link to this blog and I can't stop reading and thinking about this girl - Katie. Check it out. http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

Beth's November visit and Football

 Beth came for a visit last weekend (Nov 4th and 5th). It was so great to see her. Ross stayed at the Belmont Pet Resort. Its like a hotel for dogs. They have private rooms and play areas including outdoor and indoor spaces for dogs. We think Ross liked it, but he was exhausted we he got home.

I picked Beth up Saturday at the airport at 1:00. We then headed to Cookout to get some lunch. Cookout is a drive-up restaurant. Similar to Sonic but much cheaper and less...classy. ;) The closest Sonic is like 30 minutes away by the way.. Anyways. So at Cookout you can get a cheeseburger and 2 sides for like $6.00. They have sides like fries, hush puppies, and onion rings. They also have sides like chicken nuggets and a bacon wrap. Beth was impressed. Ha.

Then we went home and relaxed. The Estes girls try to rest whenever possible. Dane doesn't really understand this type of relaxation.

Saturday night we went to Satisfaction to watch the Razorbacks and the LSU/Alabama game. They have the best atmosphere, the best pizza, and the best music. A few of Dane's friends met us there. I think there were like 30 people from the Div school there.

Dane's friend Allan was supporting his team - UVA.

 Dane's friend Raygan supporting his team - UCLA.

 Desert. Yes. Please.

Dane sporting his Hogs gear. ;)

Sunday we slept in, ate some lunch then went to church at night. The church had the most moving communion service I have ever been to. They have a band and the band lead the songs throughout the liturgy. I had never seen communion done that way. It was beautiful.

After church we got some dinner at our favorite Chapel Hill restaurant Top of the Hill. After dinner we watched a movie on demand Janie Jones. The movie turned out to be really good. It was about a rock star Dad who had to take in a daughter he had never met and how she kinda saved him from himself.

Monday morning I took Beth to the airport at 5am to catch her 6am flight. It was so nice of her to come see me. I love love love sister time. 

We are now 1.5 weeks from Thanksgiving. I am very excited. My parents have new floors and new living room furniture. I can't wait to see it all. I am also ready to see my extended family and Dane's family.

I miss my Gran. I feel like I am not being honest when I say I am excited about Thanksgiving. I am excited about Thanksgiving. But I also miss Gran. Everyday.

October

Little recap on some October events.

1. I had my 26th birthday. Yikes. For my birthday Dane and I went shopping in the morning, watched the Arkansas game at noon, and went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory in Durham. At dinner I had eggrolls and mediterranean salad It was a great day. I got lots of goodies in the mail from some awesome family and friends.

2. Our friends Merritt and Adam sent us the first season of Friday Night Lights. We are crazy hooked. It's about a small town and their football team.

3. Dane's BFF Chris came to visit for an interview. They had an entire day of male bonding. I made it for the last 4 hours when we watched football and listened to old hip hop like Usher at Satisfaction on Saturday night. I worked Saturday night and staying up late to watch football and in a sports bar made me feel young.

4. The fall leaves are unbelievable here. Every day when we drive up on our road I see a tree that literally takes my breathe away. The sun always hits it just perfect and it feels like heaven is smiling on us.

5. I have recently made my Gran's cheesecake bars 2x. I can literally smell her kitchen. I miss her kitchen. I miss her.

6. I dressed up as the Cat in the Hat for work on Halloween. The kids thought it was great. Except for one of my sweet babies. Scared him I think. He actually smiled when I took the hat off ;).

6. My friend and former classmate Leigh is moving to NC this weekend!!

7. Beth is coming to visit for the weekend on Saturday!!!!

8. Thanksgiving break is LESS THAN 3 weeks away. :)