Christmas Festivities 2010

After returning home from the Dominican Republic, Alex and I dove head first into Christmas madness.  We did not get back to North Carolina until just after midnight on the 24^th.  Being the last minute shopper that I am (or the busy medical student?!), I had to spend the better part of Christmas Eve morning fighting other shoppers at the mall.

 

We had our annual Christmas Eve party at our house later that evening.  This year was a special treat because the Shupes did not have to leave early to get Bay back to Tennessee for work.  Alex and I made off well from the cousin exchange and Uncle Ray won the Last Gift.  While cleaning out a closet, Uncle Ray found a letter that Vincey had written to his brothers and sisters from Santa back when they were all little.  It was fun to hear how proud and fond he was of each of his siblings.  Aunt Lis made her annual charm cake and Aunt Debbie found a charm, just as she does every year :)  Although it always seems like the party flies by, it was great to spend time with our wonderful family.

 

Christmas morning was fantastic as always.  We opened all of our presents and had Grandma’s special Christmas breakfast.  Alex and I got tons of awesome gifts!!  We are super excited to see how our new mirror looks in our room :)  Although we did not wake up to a white Christmas, we certainly went to bed to one!  It was the first time the triangle had snow on Christmas in 67 years and it was my first white Christmas (night)!!

 

After celebrating with my family, Alex and I went over to the Scheer household.  We were not supposed to get presents since the Dominican Republic trip was the big gift, but that Santa does love to spoil us!  With our new shirts from Ellen and Justin, we are now "officially" Sunshine fans (Eric's band).  We had a wonderful dinner complete with the prettiest Christmas place cards :)

   
  Christmas Eve party

       

   
   Some of the cousins

  
   The Last Gift competition!

  
   Lily is ready for Santa!

   
    Christmas morning

     
    My favorite tree :)

      
  Moo got a chirping birdie  

   
  The beautiful Christmas dinner table at the Scheer's!

  Snow the day after Christmas!!

  
  Our backyard winter wonderland

Dominican Republic

This December 24th was Dave's 50th birthday!!  To celebrate, the whole family went to the Dominican Republic and stayed five days at the Paradisus in Punta Cana.  The resort was beautiful and the food was endless.  We all had a wonderful time!  It was a fabulous way to start our Christmas vacation!
  

Just off the plane and blinded by the light!

  

 Our resort :)

   
The pool

    
Our room!!

   

Other half of our room

    
Dominican Republic six pack: four sodas and two beers :)

   

The view from our room

  

Flamingos!

   

 
Eating breakfast at the buffet

 

Beach!

    

 
Walking to the spa

 

It was chilly when it got cloudy, but that didn't stop anybody from sleeping on the beach!

  

Alex and Dave took a long walk down la playa to see the other resorts

    

 
Hanging out under the little huts

Sitting at the swim up bar!

 

Emily and Frank

 
Drinking from our coconuts... not as yummy as they look

 
Emily and Dave went parasailing

 
Heading home for Christmas

Weekend at Em and Frank's

We spent last weekend at Emily and Frank's house.  It was fun to sneak off to see them over the weekend!  We are looking forward to seeing them again in two weeks!!

Emily's friend from school came over on Saturday to bake TONS and TONS of cookies.  It was fun to be the cookie tester :)

Decorating the cookies!

  

  Emily and Frank

Huge beers!

Moo's Coat

Alex and I spent this past weekend in Pittsburgh with Emily and Frank.  Emily made Moo a cute little coat so we tried it on her as soon as we got home!

Figuring out if the coat is edible

Moo!

  

All warm for winter!

Christmas Cookie Exchange Party

Tonight, a few of my friends from school and I had a cookie exchange party!  We each made different cookies to share.  The cookies were fantastic and we can always use a fun excuse to skip a night of studying :)

My cookies!

  

Sruti's cookies did not turn out :(

Danielle made a few plain sugar cookies for us to decorate!

  

Holding our cookies!

  

 The cookie family

The tower of treats full of cookies!

  

Danielle's Christmas Tree