Tacky Christmas Sweater Party

I've seen other bloggers do this and due to lack of time and energy, I'm going to join the club.
It's Wordless Wednesday {almost}


Pictures from a Christmas party we attended at Adam and Jamie Davis' house in Lexington the weekend before Christmas. We had strict instructions to wear our most glamorous Christmas attire. I hope you get a tiny chuckle from these.

I love the "tough" faces wearing the women's Christmas sweatshirts ^

hehe

I hope everyone has a safe and blessed New Year!

See ya back here next year ~ Happy 2009!

More Christmas?

And today the Christmas photos and annoying narration by me continues. I don't blame you if you completely skip out on me until the 1st, because there's only more Christmas pictures to come tomorrow (Really? Yes, really.)

We only had about 500 pics (haha) from all the family/friends gatherings, so you can only imagine my dilemma in choosing which ones will make the blog, (plus the attempt at avoiding a scolding from those who "can't believe I put that picture of them on the internet!!!")

{Side note: I logged onto my Photoworks account yesterday and saw that I have 5,346 pictures on there and still need to upload all the pictures from Nick's computer to ensure safe storage in case we have a PC meltdown and lose our precious memories - and that's another thousand photos to go, at least!}

Another picture from the Roberts' Christmas eve spectacular - I thought the boys were adorable with their new special edition Ken Griffey Jr. Louisville sluggers.
(Did I get all that right? I'll never claim to be well informed in the sports department.)

Momma and Daddy Dye on Christmas morning with their present piles.

Checking out the book I made them from our family's
old scanned pictures I've been working on since October.
{I'll have to post that link soon so you can check it out as well!}


Mom's BIG SURPRISE of the day ~ a new laptop computer from Dad, when as usual, they weren't supposed to get each other anything...

{Another side note: Mom also got Dad some gifts and when she pretended to reprimanded him for getting her something, his response "But I knew you would cheat on me, woman, and you did!" Referring to her "cheating" and getting him a present but sounded different of course and was caught on video - HILARIOUS moment, especially coming from my usually quiet and timid dad.}


My cousins Sarah and Sydney at the Dye family Christmas in Pikeville.


Dad picked a cute place by the fireplace to open gifts. I personally think he looks ready to achieve his "grandpa" status... I think my sister and hubby should get to work on that.

(She would KILL me for that comment, thank goodness she never makes it around to read the blog.)


Papaw and Granny opening their gifts.

Our first Christmas as newlyweds.
Seen here at Lauren's parents house with the Santa Clause that totally spooks me.

I have my own issues with the big costumed characters that walk around theme parks as well.

Hendrix with his new little friend Jake.

Jake is 6 years old and considerably smaller than Hendrix. My little guy owns this same sweater and it would have been awesome if we had brought it ~ shoot.

Brudders.

Their LAST Christmas NOT married - YAY for September 5th, 2009!

I love our little family soooo much! We are disgustingly happy!

And last but not least, another family get together at my parents' house on the Saturday after Christmas.

My papaw Dye again.
I didn't really get many pictures at this get together (I was getting pretty tired of playing photographer by then.) But how could I miss out on such a great photo-op of my 9 month old cousin Austin. Adorable.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I don't know if I've ever pried myself away from blogging for this long - but BOY, has it been busy around here. (Sorry, Carol Bentley, I hear you get mad at me when I don't have something new everyday! I'll work on that in 2009.)

I finally feel like we're past Christmas and returning to our normalcy of bopping along the road of life. Is it me or has Christmas been full blast since November 1st?! My mom said it before and I totally agree, this has been the best Christmas ever!

I'm going to have to spread the Christmas recap over the next few days of posts. It was a bit much to smoosh into one gigantic Dear Diary.

I'll try to stay in Chronological oder of events, starting with Christmas in Louisville with my mom's side of the family.



My Louisville grandparents just coming home from dinner to their 50 inch plasma Christmas surprise! And they thought we were sneaking in just a little ole' Wii... pleeeeease. Don't underestimate our sneakiness!

Mom and the newest precious little cousin, Alysha.

Nick and his papaw. Christmas Eve at the Roberts' household.

Future sister-in-laws



Our attempt at a Roberts family photo... this was the "black attire".

Our "Cinci Reds attire". OR, just plain red clothes.

Bob's brother Howard, on the left. He was such a good sport to happily accept recruitment as our photographer for the evening.

Hendrix LOVED his gifts - especially the wrapping paper.

In the middle of all the excitement of handing out the gifts. Don't miss Chad on the floor under the Christmas tree, or Karen's little head sticking out behind Nick.
Hendrix's new food bowl mat from Daddy Bob and KK.

More pictures scheduled to post tomorrow...... I couldn't give up all the good stuff in one day, what would you have to look forward to tomorrow?! And believe me, you don't want me to write about my day today... woke up, made it to the couch, only got up to clean up the broken glass from the bowl the dog knocked off the t.v. tray and to consume all food products made of sugar left in our kitchen. I'm definately taking the furball walking at the park in just a bit, it's a gorgeous day and he's been just as lazy as his momma. I'm not really even sure we'll be able to pry ourselves off of this couch, but we'll try.

Finally... The Biltmore Estate

Sorry for the shear amount of pictures, but I picked my favorites out of almost 250 photos. Imagine if I were allowed to take pictures inside the Biltmore?!? I would've had to of started a new blog dedicated only to my ONE DAY at the Biltmore...

This isn't even the end of the trip's photos, I still have to show some pictures from The Grove Inn and Spa we visited to see their huge display of gingerbread houses from the national competition held there... they were awesome.

So not a lot to say about the pics, I think they do a good job of telling our story on their own. I will say that I highly recommend you visit this place (in Asheville, NC) if you haven't already. It was completely awe inspiring. I cannot imagine how they even began such a monumental task and finished it in 6 years - back in 1895!

George Washington Vanderbilt was the first owner of the house and all within and about are from his ideas coupled with a fabulous architect and about a million other folks. Wanna know how big the house is? They don't tell you in square footage - it's 4 acres of floor space. That's 4acres of indoor house! I can't even wrap my brain around it.

Then there's the stables, the winery, the indoor gardens and the TOWN BUILT JUST FOR THIS HOUSE so that all the people who worked there (the maids, stable people, gardeners, farmers, cooks, and on and on) could live close by with their families. The Biltmore estate was completely self sufficient - all the crops were raised there, had their own dairy cows, and any other thing you could possibly need.

It was 1895, and they had 43 bathrooms - indoor plumbing was a luxury. Also, they had a heated indoor pool, with underwater lights - amazing for that time and age. But the details inside the house were the real show-stoppers and unfortunately I can't show you those. No expense was spared and the Christmas trees and decor that the tourism peoples put in there these days was gorgeous as well.

The memories made with our family on this short 4 day trip are priceless. I'm so glad we could all share this together. I plan on going back for the "Festival of Flowers" in the spring/summer months one year. You're welcome to join us!

I think Mom's expression in this picture explains how exciting it all really was!

The Vanderbilts owned as far as the eye can see all around the mansion! That's hundreds of thousands of acres!!!!!!! The mountains in the distance are now owned by the government and are Pisgah National Forest. Amazing!

The outdoors were a bit dead looking - that's why I HAVE TO go back in the spring to see the huge gardens in bloom. I've seen pictures and it's GORGEOUS.

This huge mansion looking thing use to be ONE of the stables - now converted into restaurants and shops.

The only shot that we got while inside the house - Nick is to thank for this one - he was sly enough to steal a photo of this Biltmore replica displayed in the kitchen for me and my love of gingerbread houses!

This is the restaurant we ate in that is located inside the former stables.

Check out the booths - their inside the actual horse stalls! You can even see indentions in the brick wall where the horses had kicked and paced.

Now we're heading back out tonight after Nick comes home from work. We're staying with my sister and David in Richmond tonight, then finishing our Christmas shopping tomorrow and getting to see many of our friends at a Christmas party at Adam and Jamie's. Have a great weekend!