The Rest of Christmas Break: D.C.

Wednesday of break Gaines and I headed up to D.C. to sightsee and see friends.  We've been saying we were going to make the trip for five years now, so I'm so glad we finally did.  We had lunch with some of my best friends, saw the Washington Monument, White House, and Capitol, had dinner with our college friends Matt and Pat, spent the night in Georgetown, and checked out the Air and Space Museum and the Holocaust Museum. 

What a great trip!

The Rest of Christmas Break: The Jefferson

The Monday after Christmas Sam and Dales headed back to Florida and New York for work, which just left me, Gaines, and my parents.  The next night we headed down to the Jefferson Hotel, which has been "Richmond's grandest hotel and one of the finest in America" since 1985, to see their gorgeous Christmas decorations and have a drink.

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It was such a great way to end the Christmas festivities. :)

Christmas [at the Turner's]

So, when I left off, we spent a great Christmas with the Story's, woke up at 4am, drove seven hours to Virginia, and got to enjoy family traditions with the best family a girl could ask for.  

Christmas at home consists of:

admiring the tree...

loving on Tucker and his handsome pom-pom necklace...

 making Gaines carve the prime rib....

and having the twins make the gravy [I got out of preparing the dinner scoth-free]...

eating a delicious Christmas Eve dinner after church...

reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas...." [this honor has recently been given to Sambo, who read it's like Steve.  I've you've ever been to the rivah, you know who Steve is and can probably guess how funny this is].

taking some family photos...

sitting at the top of the stairs and wait to see if Santa came...

getting excited he did....

opening gifts from each other....

obsessing over the unbelievable wedding book Gaines' mom made...[I'm telling you this thing is amazing!]. 

and checking out my parents new cars!!!  

I'd say after putting three kids through life and then through college, those were well-deserved. ;)

Christmas [at the Story's]

We celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas two days early at Gaines' parents house, and I just could not get over how similar our family traditions are.  We had the best time, and I know I say it every time I talk about them, but I am so thankful I get to call Gaines' family my family now.  They're pretty awesome. P.S. Just about all of these pictures were taken by Amy. Thanks sis. :)

So, Christmas at the Story's consisted of:

admiring the tree...

and the pretty presents underneath...

reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas...."

taking family photos...

waking up to see that Santa came...

opening gifts from each other...

obsessing over the unbelievable wedding book Gaines' mom made...

opening more presents...

cooking and eating a delicious "smorgasbord" of food...

playing "The Newlywed Game...."

snapping more pictures...

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playing "Quelf..."

(which makes you do funny things like this...)

and enjoying our first married Christmas together (awwwwww).

And ya know that feeling you get Christmas night right before bed?  The one that lingers and leaves you thinking, "Aw man. The next Christmas isn't for 365 more days."  Gaines and I both felt like that Friday night and were so sad Christmas with his family was over.  But when we woke up at 4am to drive home to Virginia, we were so excited that Christmas wasn't over at all, and we got to do it all over with my family. 

That trip coming next!