Magnolia Plantation

This past week my dad, sister and brother-in-law were in town and we went to Magnolia Plantation. It has great gardens and was a great outdoor experience. I want to go back when everything is blooming. There are 3 large plantations near us and several more in the general area. I think we might get a pass for January so we can go and visit them all. They can be pretty expensive and unless you are a tourist most locals won't pay the actual admission cost. I am taking Josh back there this weekend b/c if you do get a ticket you can go back again within 7 days for free and he had to work the day we went.

Christmas

Our Christmas tree

Snowflake: compliments of Jared

Christmas Eve's service and party

Josh's gift to me!!

Here are some pictures of our Christmas.

Hockey

Last night we decided to go to one of the Stingray Hockey Games. We went with the Sweitzer's and had a great time. I have to say I don't know much if anything about hockey and it was fun. There was one fight, one almost fight and a lot of slamming into the walls. It was fast paced enough to keep me interested. We will probably go back. Attendance was low b/c of Christmas but I actually liked it without too many people there b/c we got great seats.

Christmas Cafe

Last weekend we had our Christmas Cafe at church. This year the worship team, the youth and the children's choir were the entertainment. It was great but very exhausting. I helped with the food preparation as well as hosting a table and singing in the performance. I had to take a few days and recoup from it.

Christmas Quiz

We took a quiz in our small group last night about how much we know about the Christmas Story. I took 10 of the questions and created a quiz you can take. See the link below.
Good Luck

How much do we really know about the Christmas story?

Stars Hollow

Josh usually jokes with me that the reason I really like living in Summerville is b/c it reminds me of Stars Hollow on Gilmore Girls. Well last night we had an experience that provides me with an example of this. We went to downtown Summerville last night for the lighting of the christmas lights. All of downtown was closed off, people were gathered in the streets, a choir was singing and the mayor turned on the lights of the trees in downtown. People then walked around and enjoyed the lights and listened to music played by our local high school. As you were walking around you would run into people you knew and even a guy that looked exactly like Santa. We ran into the Tuckers and they got a picture of him so I hope they post it on their blog. Anyway, it was a great event for families and it really gets you in the Christmas spirit.

State Finals

Is it me or those some really big high school players. At least 2 of those guys are going to big name universities next year.

Our local high school football team went to the state finals last weekend . We traveled up to Columbia (1 1/2 hrs) to the Gamecock stadium to watch the event. Needless to stay they lost really bad. The coach for Summerville High School is John McKissick.
He is the all time winningest coach. Click his name to read more.
Anyway we did have fun and the weather was really nice. Still not too cold here.

Larger pics from Fall Festival

Worship team

The boys trying to show each other where we are in the songs

Josh being one of the pie judges

Grace and Erin

We are tallying up the votes for the pie contest

I have a few extra pictures from our Fall Festival that I wanted to share.

Happy Thanksgiving

Our friends the Tuckers hosted Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We enjoyed our day with friends. I took a couple of pictures and realized that I didn't take any of all the food we had. I had the chance to make a couple of new recipes and I told myself I would take pictures later. I forgot that "later" doesn't work out b/c then all the food is gone.
This year I made Rachael Ray's apple and onion stuffing, Paula Dean's stuffing, Paula Dean's apple caramel cheesecake and sausage balls. I did do a little shopping this morning but I steered clear of the crazy shoppers out there. Today I am also putting up our Christmas stuff. I'll take pictures of our first Christmas in our new house.

Fall Festival

This years Fall festival at church.

Picture of the praise team and orchestra

For some reason Josh is wearing my apron. I think so he wouldn't forget to bring it home.

The egg toss. I was not Josh's partner. I preferred to be a spectator.

Some of the great decorations made by Debbie and friends.

Josh and Chad ( 2 peas in pod)

We had a great turnout and I spent a lot of time preparing for the festival. Needless to say this was also the weekend we were trying to paint our new house. Did I mention I don't like painting. We actually moved in this past weekend and are up to our eyeballs in boxes with little to no time to unpack. I only have 2 1/5 weeks left of class before finals start so I will have time to settle in after that. I will post some updated pictures of the house when it actually looks presentable.

Memory Walk

To the left of this picture is Richard and Ginger from the TLC show "The Real Estate Pros" They live in Charleston and there show is based here. Ginger's sister was one of the organizers for the event.

Last weekend we participated in the Memory Walk with some of my students. It was a lot of fun and we had a really nice weather day. We closed on the house last week so this weekend we have started painting. Did I mention I hate painting. I do not have the patience for it. We have Fall Festival at our church today so I have also been busy preparing for that. Next weekend is our official move date.

House

Well, we weren't really looking but an opportunity presented itself and it was a great house at a great price. Everything has progressed so smoothly and quickly that we could potentially close next week.

Cards

I went to a friend from church's house to day to do a card making party. We made 7 christmas cards in 2 hours. I learned a lot of cool techniques. Coming soon to your house: A card made by me for Christmas.