Christmas with the Turners

Phew...as I sit down to write this blog post, I feel as if it is the first time I have sat down to relax in...well, forever. All you moms understand that :) Even if you aren't a mom, you know that the holiday bustle can get CRAZY! Jimmy, Grace, and I were brave and decided to travel for two weeks this Christmas season. Now, before I tell the story of our travels, I must apologize for the lack of pictures. My wonderful husband got a Nikon D3100 for me (YIPEE! I have a new love for photography) but no USB cable came with it. We are about to get a cable so I can upload all of our pictures...they will come soon!


*Warning* This is a LOOOONG blog post :) Sorry if you don't like reading much, but we had to include all of our family and places we went. The next blog post about Grace's 9th month won't have to be as long now.

December 19th
-Jimmy: Departed for Pittsburg, PA to interview for residency and visit one of his best friends Simeon and his wife Ali.
-Grace and I: Dropped Jimmy off at the airport and drove to Columbia, SC. Grace and I had some quality time with my parents (pepere and memere which are both French names for grandma and grandpa) and Uncle Jordan.

December 23rd
Jimmy flew from Pittsburg to Charlotte and I was supposed to pick him up from the airport but WHOOPS...while he was gone, he realized that he forgot all of my Christmas presents in Winston-Salem. I told him I could wait until we got home but he refused (understandably so because my present was the new camera and he wanted me to take picks with it of Grace's 1st Christmas). SO, my brother drove to pick him up from the airport in Charlotte, drove him to Winston where Jimmy grabbed the gifts and our other car for extra space, and then both boys headed back to Columbia. It was SUPER sweet of my brother to offer to help and even sweeter that Jimmy was so thoughtful and persistent. :)

December 24th
Thankfully from this point until we got back to Winston Jimmy was on "break" even though he is still in the middle of interviewing for residency. Christmas Eve is full of some of my favorite traditions. We went to the candlelight service at my parent's church (where I was baptized and raised) at 5:00. After that service we always head out to the Green's house for Christmas Eve dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Green are best friends of my parents. They have a daugther, Millie, whom I have known forever...she was in my wedding, I was in hers...a lifetime friendship. This was Millie and her husband's (Will) first Christmas together so it was great to have another addition. Speaking of additions...Grace! I can't really count her because once we got to the Green's house, home girl was ready for bed.

Every year we have spaghetti and just really enjoy kicking back, reminiscing about the year, memories and relaxing. When we were little my parents would track Santa on TV or online and they would use that as an excuse for us to have to go home :)

December 25th: CHRISTmas Day-Happy Birthday Jesus!
Grace MUST have known it was Christmas morning because shew as up and ready by 6am! We always do family stockings first, munch on some delicious breakfast foods and then get ready for the rest of the family to arrive. To save time, we went ahead and opened gifts from each other...yes, Grace got spoiled :) Linton and Cindy arrived around 10:30 and then we started over with stockings. Uncle Robin arrived just in time for our late lunch of prime rib...my dad cooks it every year and it is out of this world! The rest of the day is full of eating, sleeping, eating...well, you get the picture.

Jimmy and I had several discussions about what we want Grace to remember about Christmas. "It's Jesus' birthday, not ours" would be a great thing for her to learn early on. We want Grace to know why we celebrate Christmas, and we aren't sure how involved we want Santa to be..that's something we are still deciding. Jesus received 3 gifts from the three wise men and that is something we want to implement as a tradition...each year she will get 3 gifts from us..and that's it. Who needs more? Will she get more from her grandparents? Yes...but from her parents, it will be 3. There are some traditions you can plan like baking cookies, opening certain gifts, and decorating a Christmas tree but there are also traditions that are not planned like...well, we will have to find that out :) I am soo looking forward to creating traditions with our family.

We spent the rest of the time in Columbia relaxing, watching sports, enjoying family, and having fun.

December 28th
This day we packed up and headed to Savannah, GA. Most of Jimmy's family lives there and none of them (besides his parents and Aunt La) had met Grace yet, so we were very excited! We stayed with his Uncle Mike and Aunt Laura and we ALWAYS love staying with them. We went on a double date with Jimmy's parents the first night to a show at Savannah's performing theater. Apparently it is one of the oldest theaters in the country...it was fun!
Jimmy was beyond thrilled to introduce Grace to his Grandpa Jim, Grace's great-grandfather! He has had some health issues over the past few years so we are blessed he has made it this far. There is something special about the bond with grandparents :) Jimmy's Grandma Lou and Papa G had the family over for dinner one night and it was a good old fashioned southern meal! Might I add that the macaroni and cheese was delicious?? We were happy to see them as well and usually only get to see them once a year.

We spent the rest of the time in Savannah relaxing and sight seeing, to some degree. Laura and Mike took us to Riverstreet (my favorite place in Savannah!) to shop and eat fantastic Greek food. I was thrilled to have my new camera and took pictures of the bridge every chance I got. An unexpected delight was seeing a couple that had just gotten married posing for pictures by the bridge. I always LOVE seeing newlyweds take their pictures...makes me think of my wedding day :) We watched a lot of football and had one of my favorite meals ever: LOW COUNTRY BOIL....yes ma'am and yes sirrr! Laura and I also took Grace to Broughton street to shop and eat some more. We had a blast!!

I'd like to say New Year's Eve was eventful...but when you have a baby that was getting up at 6am the whole break...well, it's just not worth it to stay up, haha. Jimmy and I took turns getting up with her (now that we are home, she is back to 7-7 for sleeping).

January 2-Happy Home Day!
Today was HOME day! We left Savannah and stopped in Rincon, GA to visit Jimmy's aunt and uncle. They were thrilled to meet Grace and it was a nice break in the trip that could have felt a lot longer. We then drove to Columbia to make a pitt stop. While we were in Columbia we stayed for the Gamecock's bowl victory and then packed up our other car and headed back to Winston. We arrived home at 7 p.m. Grace went to bed shortly after and Jimmy and I weren't too far behind her! Our house was a WRECK but we took special appreciation in the saying "There is no place like home".

Now that we are home, I am working part-time for the same company I was last year. Grace goes to daycare one day a week while I go into the office and the rest of the week I am a stay at home mommy which is my favorite job :) Jimmy is finishing up interview season. He still has two more interviews and then we will be making his rank list. We'd like to ask for prayer during this time as we will be constantly turning to the Lord for guidance and wisdom in making our decision about where we will be for the next four years of our life. We love Winston and would love to stay, but there have been some really impressive programs and places we have visited elsewhere. With that said, we are trusting God to reveal His plan to us when He is ready.

Happy New Year from the THREE of us :)