Sorry for such a delay in posting about the holiday. The house has been a priority this week...it's finally clean(er), so here are some recaps from last weekend in NC!

The teenagers watched a movie.

The guys watched their football.

Some of them played football.

And PeePaw got his groove on. We were all in a good mood!

Time to eat! The food was delicious, as it was at every meal we attended over the weekend. We were definitely spoiled.
Then, on Thursday evening we drove to Lucama for Granny's celebration. Unfortunately, I was too involved in the conversation and food that I forgot to get out my camera to take pictures. I will make up for it at the Christmas party.

On Friday evening, we went to Pinehurst to be graciously served by Grandma Carolyn, Grand Aunty Nancy, and Granddaddy. Again, I came up short on the photography and didn't get a group picture. But here are some individual shots of us relaxing after dinner!

Looks like Stephen is really into that conversation. Sorry, those are coffee table decorations blocking the subjects of the photo.
Lovebirds :) Joey and Sierra
We love each other, too!

And the spread they prepared: (I counted 14 dishes, just in this picture)And the guys concentrating so hard on their Nintendo 64 game.

We had a great tour of NC. Thanks to all the family that invited us! We came home on Saturday night to be at church on Sunday, and Nathan and Erin served us yet another fabulous lunch afterwards. How can I live up to all that cooking?

We hope you had a great holiday also. Now we look forward to Christmas! We have our first party tomorrow night, in fact!

We have been living in Salem for one year! November 18 was the day we closed on our house and moved last year. Time has passed fast, but we are thankful for every minute of it. We enjoy living here, and we are so comfortable in our home! Thank God for his abundant grace.

I realized we don't have many pictures of the house on our blog. This is our humble abode!Living room

Dining room

Our bedroom

Downstairs guest bedroom

Our bathroom Upstairs guest bedroom
2nd upstairs bedroom

Upstairs bathroom

As you can see, we have several guest beds...so come visit!

I am missing two rooms...the kitchen and movie room. I'll take pictures tomorrow and post them.

Hhmmm...doesn't he look guilty? He can't even look at me!

Aaron and I are a part of the choir at West Salem Baptist Church. We are getting ready for our big Christmas musical Dec. 15th and 16th. Please come if you can! We usually practice on Wednesday nights after church, but we've added a couple of Sunday night practices to the schedule recently. This is where we were tonight:
We really enjoy singing with these people of God. Gretchen, the pastor's wife, is our director. It's a fun ministry to do together as a couple.

On Friday night we drove with Dad, Mom, Joey and Sierra to meet Stephen and Michael in Charlottesville for dinner. On Saturday we sat in the student section at the UVa football game against Wake Forest. Clarification: we haven't abandoned our first team, but sometimes it's necessary to support those you love and their teams. I even wore a Virginia sweatshirt!

If you haven't been to TGIFriday's lately, you should go and get these mini-desserts. They are delicious (similiar to mousse) and so cute!
The stadium was packed with around 60,000 fans. Aaron and I were impressed with their school spirit. They won 17-16. It was close, but we liked that because it was exciting.I wore a sweatshirt, the boys wore shirts and ties. I think I was out of place. Look at how serious they are...must win, must win!I don't think mom likes football too much. She does love seeing her youngins though!

A concentrating face...he's a great pilot.

This is the beginning of Smith Mountain Lake.

Near our house!

Bow had his first birthday on Friday! We celebrated by giving him a treat and taking his picture with a homemade birthday hat on his head. It was a difficult task. We took about 20 pictures...here are a few examples of the misfires:

We never got a good shot, so we tried a video:

Jenny (1st grade) and Sarah (Title 1 Reading)

On Saturday I went to a wedding on a farm near Salem for my high school friend Katie. It was gorgeous!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a close-up shot of the bride and groom. Katie's mom had made her dress...it was perfect.

I thought the wedding was at 2, so I arrived at 1:45. It was at 3! I was the only person there. I ran in to the wedding coordinator, who is someone I know, and she told me I could sit at the guest book table until the guest book attendant got there. Well, no one ever showed up to relieve me! So I ended up being the guest book attendant :) It was bizarre. I'm sure the bride still doesn't know about it.

This weekend we had some NC visitors. Bryan, David, and Jonathan came to hike with Aaron on the Appalachain Trail. They started early Saturday morning and hiked 19.6 miles until after dark on Saturday night. They had planned to spend the night in the wild, but I got a call around 7 about them coming back to the house to sleep in the warm beds :)
When they got back, one was limping, one was crying out for aspirin, and they all went to sleep immediately. The poor fellows. I think they still had a good time, though. Maybe even making plans to do it again next year?! I know that the view of the fall foliage was probably worth it.

Are you taking a break already?

Don't be so gloomy, David. It looks steep, but you're almost there!

At the top! This is McAfee's Knob.

On Friday night Aaron and I drove to Raleigh for several purposes. One was a baby shower for dear Kristen! She is due with her first child on December 1, and I was thankful to celebrate with her and other friends on Saturday. She got lots of useful gifts. She is going to be a great mom.

Baby McCutchen got lots of new books! Allison, on the left, helped give the shower. She is due with her 2nd child any time now. If I can remember correctly, there were 8 pregnant women at the shower. Something's in the water at Providence Baptist Church...drink up, ladies!
We all watched with dire anticipation of each gift. :)Afterwards, Kristen and I rode to her house so that I could see her nursery in person. They have done a lot of work to get it ready and it looks great!