I got my hair cut last weekend, and Aaron's beard has returned.
Stephen took more pictures, so I will try to get some of his to post.

We've had a productive weekend...we finished redoing the bathroom downstairs. I'll try to get a picture of that soon. We also had some fun. On Friday night we were graciously invited to Nathan and Erin's house, along with Courtney. Erin served dinner and we played Cranium...girls against guys. The girls were way behind but came back to win!Saturday night we ate dinner at The Homeplace with the family, and then went to see the new Rocky movie. Aaron is a big fan. He was so inspired that even though we got home around midnight, he went downstairs to hit on the punching bag that mom and dad got for him for Christmas.

I know it's been slow on the blogging updates lately. We are considering getting Internet at our house, so hopefully in the near future it won't be so long in between posts.
We hope everyone had an awesome holiday season! We are getting focused for the new year and looking forward to having some sort of routine, which has been lacking since the end of October. Routine is good for discipline.

On New Year's Eve morning, we tried a new church and were fed with the truth of Scripture...very encouraging in our search for the church God has purposed for us. We painted that afternoon and then met our family at a Japanese steakhouse in Roanoke. It was a fun dinner! We painted some more when we got home and didn't make it to midnight...the last I saw of the clock was at 11:43. Pretty sad, when you consider that Stephen was in Times Square in NY at that time to bring in the new year! On Monday we painted all day, with a few breaks to catch up on Season 1 of Lost.

On Friday of last weekend, we had some dinner guests at our home...Carissa and CJ. Mom and Dad had given us a fondue pot for Christmas, so we tried it out with chicken and veggies and it was awesome. Afterwards we went to Mill Mountain Coffee shop in downtown Salem to have dessert. They are a fun couple.On Saturday night, we went to Olive Garden with Erin and Nathan and my brother, Michael. We were all able to use gift certificates (thanks, Joey)! We had a great time at Erin and Nathan's house afterwards with a game of Slap and Erin's homemade peach cobbler.

The Tuesday after Christmas day, Aaron's brother Ben came to visit us and drive to Snowshoe to ski with us. The conditions weren't great, but it was still a fun adventure. Here Aaron is trying to get dressed in the truck because it was soooo cold outside!

For Christmas, I got Aaron a puppy. We named him Bow because he had a crazy time with the bow I put on his head when I gave him to Aaron. Also, Aaron says that word a lot. He is a Brittany Spaniel.

He looks pretty big in this picture, but he's still small. He weighs about 12 lbs.

On Sunday morning we visited our first church in Salem. It was a Christ-centered service dedicated to the birth of Christ. We cleaned up the house in the afternoon and did a lot of baking in order to get ready for the progressive dinner that my family planned. We went to Joey's house for appetizers, my parent's house for the main course, and our house for dessert. It was a fun idea!

Joey's house

Mom and Dad's house (We had fondue. It was awesome!)

Our house. We made too many desserts!

We took our annual Christmas pajamas picture at our house. Who is that on my lap? That deserves its own post.

On Saturday morning/afternoon we were lazy (well, maybe that was Aaron. I went to the mall). We painted our living room that evening and then went out. We went on a date to celebrate our anniversary, which was last Monday. 2 years of lots of lovin'! We went to a very nice restaurant downtown, Trio, and then we walked to the Hotel Roanoke to see the Festival of Trees. We picked out our favorite and took a picture. We finished the date at Mill Mountain Coffee shop. It was a romantic night...a perfect celebration.



Wish we could have gotten the whole tree...it was amazing. I hope this is an annual tradition for us because it was interesting (and free)!

On last Friday night we went to another party at Carissa's house. We have this party every year with the family friends that my parents had when they all lived in the same neighborhood. I've known these folks since I was born!
We always do a serious picture and a silly one. I wish I could scan some from when we were young! I'll work on that sometime.
Please notice that whenever asked to pose for the silly picture, my dad was the ONLY one who responded. It turned out to be a hilarious picture that we laughed over for several minutes.

I took this picture last week. Aaron asked me to not look under the towels in the bathroom, and I went to check it out to see what he was talking about. This is how my husband hid my Christmas gifts :)

To continue about the weekend before Christmas...
Aaron was nominated to be Dirty Claus this year for the Fernandez Christmas gift exchange. He chose his name to be Nasty Claus instead. I am so proud...

You might want to zoom in on this one.

Here is part of the family during the Dirty Santa game. It was pretty intense. You can see some people were eager to have their gifts stolen from them.

I fought really hard for this waffle maker despite the cruel attempts from a few in the crowd to steal it. We made waffles for dinner on that Sunday night when we got home!

It was a weekend of parties in NC. Aaron and I could have driven back to Atlanta twice for the amount of driving that was done over those 2 days.

On Saturday we started out in Pinehurst for lunch. We had a beautiful meal and fun conversation. The table adornment was amazing!
Granddaddy was very humble to say something nice about each one of us. We felt very loved the whole afternoon.
On Saturday night, we arrived (not even fashionably) late to the Fernandez party in Hope Mills. We were there just in time for the start of the 70s talent show. It was highly entertaining!
Lenny the sheep gave a testimony about the birth of Jesus.

The Chinigans performed a few Christmas carols.

Peepaw graciously let us stay the night in Fayetteville with him, and then Sunday morning we drove to Lucama for the Flores party at Granny's. It was good to see family.

I have many more pictures and stories, but I am running out of time today. I'll post the rest tomorrow.

We love gift-giving. We have spent quite some time this week getting our gifts together. Some of them are homemade (yes, we know that comes as a surprise)! Aaron is being so diligent here...

to make these....yum.

And I was in charge of wrapping the gifts. Of course, I watched It's a Wonderful Life that night (Wednesday) while making a mess with the wrapping. :) What a Christmasy night.

Jeremy and his wife April.

Hannah and her man Derek.

Katie and Jonathan (parents-to-be of a boy!).

On the right of us- Erin and Nathan.

On Saturday night we drove to Greensboro for a party at Jonathan and Joy's home. I was able to meet some of Aaron's friends from Nash County, and Joy served great food!

We are planning to party this whole weekend...in NC. Maybe we will see some of you!

We have another Cavalier in the family! Michael found out last Friday that he has been accepted early decision to UVa for next fall. So...he's not going to State- we'll get over it. :) We're really proud of him!

Last night my babysitter for 8 years came over with her kids to have dinner with us. I really looked up to Becky when she babysat us years ago, but now as I'm in a different season of life, I look up to her in a more meaningful way. She is a great mother to these 3 beautiful and well-mannered kids. I learned a lot from just watching them together for 2 hours last night. Unfortunately (for me), they are moving to Hawaii in a few weeks, but I'm praying for another godly woman like this in Salem so that I can learn more about how to fulfill my roles.

Aaron and I (Aaron did most of the work) "remodeled" our master bedroom. We are looking forward to many more projects like this.