Meeting the boys!

The morning began with, well... sleep!  I ended up sleeping in until 11:00am, a thing that simply doesn't happen with this girl!  Aaron came into my room to ask me if I wanted to sleep all day, because it's 11:00!  I jumped out of bed and went right into the dining room where Ali, Dave, and Pegg were finishing breakfast!

Around 2pm, Ali, Dave, Aaron and I met Aaron's dad and Kaye at a local BBQ place called Phil's BBQ Pit!

It's a really cute restaurant that used to be a game room where kids could have their birthday party's!  Aaron said his cousin Andrew had a birthday party here years ago before it became a restaurant.

 We all huddled around this table in the corner, under a shrine to the University of Alabama, the owner's alma mater!  (My mom is a an avid Auburn fan, so I felt a little bit like a traitor sitting under the shrine... Sorry mom! *)
I got hounded for ordering a salad at a BBQ place, but I tell you what, that was the best (and only) salad I'd had in 2 years!  It was delicious!

Next on the agenda was a reunion party at Bill's house (One of Aaron's best friends from growing up!)  His mom is the local Martha Stewart of Black Mountain and cooked-baked up a storm!

On the left were hand made chocolate cups for the Kahlua toast we made later in the night!  Then there were chocolate covered coconut balls, pepermint bark, sugar cookies, and a chocolate pound cake with chocolate chips!  It took everything within me not to gravitate towards this counter!

Bill was put on the spot and made a last minute speech!

Bill's mom had an old school fiber optics tree in her front window!  hahaha

These guys have been best friends since elementary school and this party was for them to all get together after a couple years!  They did everything together, literally everything growing up!  Their bond and alliance to each other is really quite remarkable!

The boys, their girlfriends, siblings, and parents all showed up for the reunion!  The 5 families haven't all been together in one room since the boys graduation from High School! 

Pegg (Aaron's mom), Aaron and me!

From left to right in the following picture:

Aaron and Me

Jordan, who recently moved to Connecticut from San Fran to take a job as the Brand Retail Marketing Manager for North American at LEGO.

Kim, who is Jordan's girlfriend of 4 years.  She just moved with Jordan to Connecticut and is in advertising too!

Sam, who recently moved to New York City and sells software to hedgefunds.  He's been living in London for the past 4 years and traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia with Aaron a couple months back!

Burke, who lives in New Orleans and restores historic homes!

Bill, who lives in DC and is an environmental attorney, and also a genius, literally!  (Sorry if I embarassed you Bill)

Helen, who is Bill's girlfriend.  She lives in DC too and just finished a double masters in social work and international health!

Aaron has some SERIOUSLY smart and talented friends!

This is obviously the first time the girlfriends have officially met!  We all huddled around the loaf of homemade sourdough bread in the kitchen and chatted while all the mom's talked about how fun it was to see the boy's girlfriends talking and hitting it off!  I love these girls already!

At around 10:30pm, the younger crowd moved the party over to the Watershed, one of the 2 bars in Black Mountain!  Burke's parents actually built it years back!

The watershed is the kind of place I've only ever seen in movies!  It oozes small town country charm!

Helen, Bill, and Aaron!  Please excuse Aaron, he likes to make faces when I take too many pictures! :)

Jordan and Kim!  If any of you know Nate Brocious (from AZ/OR), I'd swear these two were brothers from a different mother - the same personality, to a tee!  I loved it!

This is Burke's brother and sister, Niles and Caitlin... Aaron grew up with them as well!  The home that they grew up in is one of the most charming, and gorgeous homes in the whole town! 
Nile's wife is expecting their first baby in April. and Caitlin just got married last summer in Black Mountain!

Like two peas in a pod!

Helen and Bill have been together for 8 years!  They are such a great match and have so much fun together!  They are probably my biggest blog fans too, so they felt like they already knew me when I walked in the door tonight!  They know every story I ever wrote and can probably rememeber them too.

Kim and Jordan.

And there they are, the 5 of them, all together again!  One with some questionable cowboy  boots! :)  *** 

 Today was a day I'd been anticipating for a long time!  I will tell you now that Aaron's friends are top notch gentlemen and the funnest group of guys!  I'm blessed to have met them and was overwelmed by their acceptance of me into the core group!

Oh, and a BIG HUGE Happy 34th birthday to my beautiful sister Amy, who we completely forgot to call today!  Uugghhh... :(  We're so sorry sister!  We'll make it up to you somehow!  We love you so much!



Merry Christmas 2010!

Merry Christmas!!!

This is how I woke up this morning - to Cash cuddled up right next to me!!   I loved it!

We all woke up bright and early to go over to Mammy's (Aaron's dad's mom's) house for Christmas breakfast, and were all surprised to see it snowing when we walked out the door - not the kind that stuck, but snowing none the less - on Christmas morning!

Ali and Dave at Mammy's.

Mammy set up lots of tables and chairs for everyone to sit together!  Having Christmas breakfast at her house has been a tradition since Aaron can remember!  ... and what I love is that she has lived in this house since Keith (Aaron's dad) was a kid!   

Mammy and Sherry Beth (one of her 3 daughters) made potato and cheese caserole, sausage, grits, biscuits and gravy - talk about a southern meal, huh?!  Aaron's dad was in charge of making the eggs and they were "to die for!"

Aaron, his aunt Vicki, and I, all sat around this table for breakfast and talked travels!  She's been all over the world, so it was fun to hear all her stories!

Introducing Mammy, one of my biggest blog fans and a total sweetheart!  I love this woman!  :)

One of the traditions of Christmas breakfast at Mammy's is for Aaron's aunt Vicki to buy ornaments for everyone!  Each ornament has something to do with that person's interests or life!  We each opened one box and then guessed who it belonged to!  It was such a fun thing to do!  My ornament was a gymnast, since I was a gymnast for about 12 years growing up!

Mammy is the most techy 80 year old woman I've ever met!  She e-mails, skypes, and even designs and prints her own Christmas cards on her computer!  She made this one for Aaron and I and put money inside for us to do lots of shopping!  Thank you Mammy!

This is Aaron's aunt Sherry and her granddaughter Adalyah!  She's only 5 weeks old (I think!)  She's darling!

It snowed and snowed and snowed while we were at Mammy's, and by the end of breakfast, it was a wintery wonderland outside!

Aaron's Dad's side of the family, showing off our new ornaments! 

Top row: Dave, Ali, Vicki, Sherry Beth, and Sherry. 

Middle row: Me, Aaron, Mammy, and Andrea

Front row: Kaye, Keith (Aaron's dad), Daniel, Adalyah, and Jed 

After leaving Mammy's, Ali, Dave, Aaron and I all headed over to Gran's to pay her a quick visit!  I posted a picture of her house yesterday, and now look at it, all covered in snow!!

When we got back to Aaron's mom's house, Ali, Dave, Aaron, and I had a snowball fight with all the freshly fallen snow!

Aaron and I made this cute little snowman (with no face)!

and then his sister and Dave (2 perfectionists) one uped us and made this giant snowman!!

They are both addicted to diet coke - in a good way, so their snowman was holding a diet coke! :)

Aaron and Cash

Cash, being rasied by an avid soccer player, is quite the soccer dog!

Playing in the snow in our matching ASU sweatshirts that Aaron's dad bought and sent to us in Korea last Christmas - by this point, my little Californian toes were frozen!

After a long afternoon nap (darn this jetlag) we all got ready for Gran's ugly Christmas sweater party - and yes, even Cash joined in on the theme!

I can't get enough of this picture we took at Grans, in her big chair!  We posed as an old couple from the 50's - only with our ugly Chistmas sweaters!  Check out Aaron's turtleneck and the crossed legs!  Greatest picture ever!

Check out this Southern spread!  Some of the most delicious yummies!

I took this video of everyone gathered together around the table before we dished up and ended up catching the prayer!  Those are some nice looking "ugly Christmas sweaters" huh?!

Aaron's uncle Joe had the funniest sweater!  His wife Terri (Pegg's sister) made it for him!  When he stood up, the leaves attached to the Y covered up his "special area!"  

But then we noticed when he sat down it made the Y pop straight up like this!! I'm sure the neighbors probably heard the roar of laughter!

After eating, we had a Christmas sweater competition to reward a winner for the night!  We nominated people, and had them strike a pose in the middle of the room, so everyone could get a good look!  Cash was nominated, and actually woke right up from his nap to show off his sweater that Pegg made, along with his Christmas lit necklace - classic moment of the night!

Aaron was nominated too... as he should be!  Anyone rockin' a turtle neck with a woman's Christmas vest should be nominated! :)

Aaron's cousin Jody bought her sweater and then added the lights (which you unfortunately can't see in this picture) and the words!

... and I was nominated too!  Thanks for nominating me Dave!  I owe you one!  I hand crafted this beauty from a red sweater, 2 thrift store Korean scarves, some bows and ornaments from DAISO (the Korean dollar store) and some ribbon I had stored in my craft drawer!

After the votes were tallied, Ali and Dave announced the winner -

It was.....

Aaron's cousin Andrew!

Dave swore I was the runner up though!

Then it was time for the White Elephant gift exhcange!  There are lots of different ways to play this game, but in this family, they buy $20 nice gifts!   I ended up with a $20.00 Target gift card, and Aaron ended up with a $20.00 gift card to "My Father's Pizza" a restaurant he frequented as a teenager, in downtown Black Mountain!  It was perfect because we don't have any extra room in our luggage for anything else! :)

Spending time with Aaron's mom's side of the family was so much fun!  The different personalities in this family are awesome!!   I couldn't stop laughing half the night, and made sure to take it all in! 

I snapped this picture of Aaron when we got back to his mom's house!  Even with a turtle neck on, this is one handsome fella! 

Christmas with Aaron's gigantic family in NC was a big hit as far as I'm concerned, and a Christmas I won't soon forget! 

Merry Christmas and to all! 

Love Jill,