Kumquats and such

For Super Bowl Sunday, we usually get together with a small group, make some yummy snacks and enjoy the game (ok, ok, I enjoy the commercials!). This year was no exception. Grandma, Papa, Geoffrey, Glenna, Chris and Gary Mike all came over. In preparation for the festivities, Jason and I purchased 6 (yes, 6) of these: Apparently I'm quite the wing rookie, because I had no idea what kind of preparation was involved...thank goodness Papa (who came over early) and Reagan were there to tackle the job: While the wings were being chopped up, Jason pulled out a surprise purchase...CRAYFISH! He cooked a small batch as a "tester" and Reagan, Papa, and he gobbled them up! As the last of the test batch was eaten, our friend, Chris, pulled up and immediately got to work prepping his cheddar jalapeño cornbread...YUM!  After everyone arrived, Jason cooked the remainder of the crayfish and everyone got to enjoy a little treat: Grandma made delicious...

 As I wrote earlier, Jason surprised Jessica and I with a trip to Raleigh to celebrate the new year. We were thrilled! We packed up the car, drove to Grandma & Papa's to drop Tommy off, and headed down to NC. We got there just after lunch time, and met the crew at one of their favorite spots to watch football...The Luxury Box. Sadly, Colleen wasn't one bit surprised:( The joke was on us, as Colleen had known since the beginning! Oh well, it was still great to be there!!! Our old friend, Leon, came out to Raleigh from Chapel Hill to hang out too! It was so good to see him. After eating, hanging out, and watching way more football than I ever like to in one sitting, the girls decided to go home. We let the kids open their Christmas gifts and they had fun playing with Reagan's makeup kit that Colleen got her! Even Auntie Tiffany got in on the action! Probably my favorite series of pictures to date. I love this kid!!! Here's little miss "sassy...

On Thursday morning, Reagan and I headed down to Woodbridge (after getting my car fixed AGAIN!) to hang out with Grandma and Papa before the game. Uncle Kevin met us around 1:30 for a 2 o'clock departure. And we were shockingly out the door on time with Reagan happily settled in with Grandma. We had an easy trip down and Uncle Kevin kept me entertained:  As soon as we arrived, we parked at Alumni Hall and then wandered across the campus to the "Corner" where we were getting dinner. Before ordering sandwiches, I poked my head into Jason's old stomping grounds (He worked at Ragged Mountain Running Shop while he attended UVA): I even got the crew working that evening to pose for a picture! Then we walked across the street to the best sandwich shop EVER: I ordered a turkey on wheat with cucumber, sprouts, Havarti and crack sauce (ok, I have no idea what the sauce actually is, but it is amazing!): After eating our SECOND sandwiches (yes, w...

Happy Aunt Sheri?! :) Ok, so as all of you know, at the end of August, we moved to Virginia. We spent nearly 6 weeks with Mil & Fil before moving into our new rental home in Mt. Vernon. I doubt there are many daughters-in-law that could say this, but honestly, I really enjoyed that time! I cannot thank them enough for all they did to help us transition and to give us a break from parenthood! I'd love to go back and fill in the details of the past couple months, but unfortunately I can't. This is why... Upon moving in, we unpacked as quickly as possible. I eventually got around to booting up the computer and it seemed to be slow, but working ok. We didn't have internet set up, so I was really just interested in dumping 1000+ pictures I had taken on to the machine. I managed to get them all on the computer, but sadly, it crashed before any of the images were backed up!!! There goes August and September 2012:( Alas, there are worse tragedies in life, so I will not dwel...