Beyond the 'Burg: Happy New Year!

Ben and I can hardly believe it's 2008 already. The past several weeks have been busy ones, which is why we haven't written in awhile. But, now that we have a moment's rest, we thought we'd update you all briefly here and show you a few pictures from our Christmas!

The Swan House, Atlanta

Part I: Atlanta

After a grueling week of final papers for Ben and of work for me, we traveled to Atlanta to visit family for a week beginning Dec. 21. We went through Columbia, SC, first and got to see one of my roommates from college and her husband, who have a newborn baby boy who was born in mid-November (and is quite precious!). We spent most of our days in Atlanta just playing games, watching old shows and movies, and stuffing our faces with my mom's excellent homecooking and with Christmas goodies (anyone else feel like January is "let's go on a diet" month?!). There is not much else to tell about Atlanta except that it was just a wonderful time of family, friends, and fun!

The whole crowd at Christmas Eve dinner (l to r): Matthew, Mom, Ben, me, Daddy, Grandma, Daniel, Cousin Tom, and Cousin Scott (photographer: Uncle Steve)

Honey Molasses Ginger Cookies (aka the best Christmas cookies ever!)

Daniel, Ben and Matthew after setting up luminaries outside my parents' house

Ben and I went up to the lakehouse of my lifelong friend Susan the day after Christmas, both to see her and to help celebrate her dad's birthday. It was fun, but whoever had the idea to go out in the boat in 30-degree weather apparently had lost their sanity. It was freezing with the wind whipping against our faces as we cruised along at 25 mph or so! Needless to say, I think we only saw one other (also insane) person out in a boat that day!

Since we hadn't QUITE had enough of the cold weather yet, Ben and I went with my brothers and dad the very next day to a nearby wildlife management area to fish. Fortunately, it was a little warmer that day, although our luck was cold enough--I caught the only fish of the day (a fairly small bass).

Part II: Virginia
We traveled back to Williamsburg at the end of last week, arriving home to the smell of hot soup filling the house. Ben's parents had arrived two days earlier and were spending some time sight-seeing (and staying at our place, of course--free lodging!) until we got back into town. We spent New Year's with them and took them to Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg, which were still fully decorated for the Christmas season. Much to our delight, it actually got very cold yesterday and even snowed a little! Ben's parents, being from San Diego, were mystified with all the white stuff falling from the sky. They were even more mystified by the temperature forecasts for Williamsburg, which have been high in the 30's during the days and low at night in the teens and 20's this week! Perhaps to their great fortune, they departed today, missing the very coldest night of the season so far (with the low predicted to be 17, and the hight today to be 34!). It is actually supposed to return to a balmy 65 or higher next week, so little do they know that we really do have warm winters here most of the time!