Busiest Time of the Year

December is the most wonderful time of the year, but also, the busiest.  Alex and I are packing our schedules tight in order to do all of the things on our December fun list!  The weekend is over, and I am more exhausted than after a full week of work!

 

Sami was in town this weekend for the ACC Football Championship game and luckily, she had time to meet us for lunch on Saturday.  It was very nice to finally see her!

  

 Katherine and Tessie had their annual Gingerbread House Party Saturday night.  Their house was beautifully decorated for Christmas.  We had Katherine's amazing chili for dinner, but then had to leave before the contest started in order to get to our next engagement.  I hope we can compete in the house building event next year!

  

 Kaylyn and Tessie preparing the crackers!

  

 Candy Table

  

 Gingerbread house tutorial session :)

  

 One of my favorite attendings, Dr. Harrison, had his annual Christmas Party Saturday night as well.  We left the gingerbread contest and headed over to my work party.  His house was also all decked out for Christmas.  It was nice seeing everybody in something other than scrubs!

 

  

 Kate, Chancy, Robin and me!

  

 We could not stay too long at Dr. Harrison's house because we had tickets to the Duke-FSU game!  One of the amazing perks of living in uptown is that we can walk to the Panther's Stadium.  It was very chilly though and the game did not go the way we would have liked. 

  

 We are definitely not FSU fans, but it was great watching a potential Heisman play!

  

 Alex was a better sport about wearing Dook colors :)  It was a busy night, but we had a blast!  It is  certainly the most wonderful time of the year!

Happy Gobble Gobble Day!

We spent this Thanksgiving in Charlotte!  Both Alex and I had to work Thanksgiving morning, but lucky for us, there was a Regan Thanksgiving gathering in Charlotte this year!  The Shupes came over from Tennessee and Lis and my family drove down from Cary.  After work Thursday morning, my parents and I walked uptown to see the Charlotte Thanksgiving Day Parade.  It was very chilly!  After the parade, we went over to Katherine and Tessie's house for the big feast.  It was an awesome Thanksgiving!

  

A big gingerbread man!

  

 There was certainly no shortage of high school marching bands.

  

 The Charlotte fire stations had a neat display of fire engines throughout time.  This one had to be pulled by the firefighters.

  

 This one was horse drawn.

  

  

 Katherine and Tessie's house was full of yummy food!

  

 And we snacked all day :)

  

 Dinner time!

  

 

 Happy Thanksgiving!

   

Brad carved the turkey.

  

 Tessa and Lisa

  

Dessert!

Getting Into the Christmas Spirit

Alex and I rode our bikes around Charlotte this weekend to get into the Christmas spirit!  Uptown is all decorated and looks amazing!  We decided to get our tree, even though it is a little early :)  We are super excited for Christmas 2013!

  

Christmas tree shopping!

  

I liked this tree :)

  

 The clock tower on the way to my hospital with its pretty wreaths.

  

 Christmas trees at the farmers market!

  

 Our first Charlotte tree on our little car :)

  

 Apparently it wasn't so little..

  

 We ran out of lights a quarter of the way up the tree and had to go get more.  Unfortunately, you can tell the difference between the new and old strands.

  

 I spent a few hours decorating the tree and when I was finished, I filled the stand with water.  I turned my back to walk away, and this happened!  And then I cried for thirty minutes.  There were a lot of casualties.  It was devastating!  I have been collecting ornaments since I was little and quite a few of them broke when the tree fell :(

  

 Our brand new Biltmore ornament from our recent vacation was one of the broken ones.

  

 We swept up the broken pieces and started again.  The end result was just as pretty as the first, minus a few special ornaments and the star tree topper.

  

 Merry Christmas, little two-toned tree!

Adventures in Asheville

This week is my first week of vacation!  Alex was able to take off from work as well so we could spend the week together.  After Nick's wedding, we spent a few days in Cary and then drove to Asheville.  Neither of us had ever been to the Biltmore Estate, so it was the first place we went to visit.  It was beautiful!  We stayed at the White Gate Inn and Cottage for a bed and breakfast experience while we were there.  We highly recommend it!

 

 The Biltmore Estate!  It was sunny, but freezing outside!

  

  

 The house was all decorated for Christmas.  There was at least one Christmas tree in every room!  They would not let us take any pictures inside, but the entire house was breathtaking.  It is an American castle!

  

  

 Out back on the large patio!

  

  

  

    
 We would gladly wake up to this view every morning.

    

 The White Gate Inn and Cottage

   

 

 We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the bed and breakfast.  There was a social hour the night we arrived with wine and snacks.  It was nice meeting the other guests.  The breakfast was a three course meal and was fantastic!  The inn had two house dogs that were super cute!

 

Our room was amazing.  It had a fireplace that we would kill to have at home and an awesome jacuzzi tub too!

 

 

 The view from our porch was pretty!

  

 We tried to go hiking our second day in Asheville.  At the start of the trail, however, there was a sign warning about recent bear sightings.  With my parents' recent bear encounter in mind, we didn't make it too far on the trail before I got nervous and turned around.

  

 Hiking