Brown Christmas

On Day 730...

We arrived home late last night from our trip to Asheville. We had a wonderful time, although it is hard to have a Christmas without snow. This was my first Christmas away from home, but it was made a bit easier by the fact that my brother is here. Here is a brief description of our whirlwind weekend:

Wednesday morning (Dec 22) I had a CD player I had bought for Drew installed in Cord. It took a little under and hour, so I had time to go home and pick up Drew before Micah's flight came in from NH. We left at noon, directly from the airport, and had great driving weather, except for the last 45 minutes.

On Thursday we dragged Micah along with us to look at apartments. After looking at 7 we ended up putting a deposit on the first one we saw. We will be living in eastern Asheville, in a 2 bedroom, 1 1/2 bathroom townhouse. It is 4.2 minutes from his parents, 10.3 minutes from Andrew's work site, and 6.9 minutes from my work. We are very excited and are looking forward to a little bit more space. :)

On Christmas Eve we squished into Andrew's parents Yukon (6 adults, 2 kids, 7 seats, 2 hours) and headed to Pigeon Forge, TN for a day of shopping. As a Christmas gift his parents gave us money and set us loose to reek havoc on the shopping mall. Andrew and I decided that we are going to use the money to buy annual passes to the Biltmore House (A Vanderbilt mansion, with beautiful grounds, restaurants, a winery, and just a place to enjoy in Asheville) so we did more window shopping than anything else. We did buy some fudge to sustain us as we walked. On our way home we drove through the Gatlinburg, TN and the Smoky Mountain Park. It was beautiful, and we were able to see some snow, which made it feel more like Christmas.

Andrew's little brothers (Daniel, 10 & Peter, 8) were under strict orders not to wake anyone up before 9 on Christmas morning, however at about 8:57 they invaded our rooms with screams and dart guns. (Micah managed to hide in the closet and use the element of surprise to steal the guns and the boys were marched down the stairs in defeat). Micah and I carried on the Zetterholm tradition of Christmas breakfast with homemade cinnamon rolls, eggs and sausage. We ended the day playing Hoopla with friends and family and had a great time.

MERRY CHRISTMAS (a little late) & HAPPY NEW YEAR (a little early)!

L