I'm a little late in posting these but I'm a bit lazier nowadays. We went to visit my family in Winston-Salem, NC for a week over Christmas. It's great to be able to take so much time to go down there as we don't get there much during the year. My whole family (brothers, nephews and their families) all live there so we get to see everyone at the annual Christmas Day dinner hosted at my parent's house. This was the Christmas of maternity wear for me and I sorely needed it. When I got down there, my pants were desperately holding on with the Bella Band. Now I have another pair of jeans courtesy of my parents, as well as a bunch of new pants to wear for work. I'm getting a little too used to pants with an elastic waist - the comfort level is amazing. We also got to meet my new great nephew Layton for the first time. Layton is the son of my nephew Greg and his wife Kim and was born on November 12th. He is a sweet sweet baby and we all got to hold him. Ross did especially well - I think Layton liked him a little better than me since he chose to promptly spit up all over me once I held him. Greg and Kim also gave us a lot of valuable advice on being new parents and convinced us to buy a microwave, for the purposes of bottle sterilization, after 7 years on us holding out on buying one for our apartment.
Me and my parents
My parents got Ross a Dallas Cowboys wreath this year. He loved it.
Ross getting his baby holding practice in with Layton
This year Ross and I took a couple of side trips in Winston and outside of it. We always go to the Wake Forest campus every year since it's where we met and spent our first few years together. Ross also likes to go by his old fraternity's lounge which has since been turned into a coffee shop (it's a long story) and mourns its passing by saying how the coffee shop is lame. This year we were on a special mission to finally find our friend Ben's memorial tree. The past few years we were convinced it was in the Mag Quad down by the Philosophy building but we finally learned that it was up by the old Delta Sig residence at Taylor, in front of the Wake Forest book shop. We were happy to finally see the tree and the plaque and bench dedicated to him.
Picture of us with the Magnolia Quad in the background
Our friend Ben's tree and bench
We also took a day trip down to Wilmington, NC and Brunswick County, NC to see Ross's grandmother and also check out the Ross family land. We told his grandmom that she was going to become a great-grandmother, gave her a picture of the sonogram, and spent some time visiting with her at the nursing home. At the land, we got to see the home she grew up in which is still there and explore some of the pine forest in the area.
Our last night there my dad made a special salt-encrusted prime rib dinner that he hasn't made since I was a little girl. It was delicious and the perfect ending for a wonderful trip.
We spent New Year's Eve back in NYC with some of our best friends at the O'Brien's apartment. Everyone brought food and we watched the Wake Forest basketball game before switching over to watch the ball drop. It was the best way to start off what Ross and I think is going to be our best year yet!
Jessica and Tim's dog Lucy was a bit wary of the festivities
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