Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy 2010!!!

Well, we had an AMAZING Christmas at home in Georgia and stayed very busy, to say the least, while we were there.  We got to spend some much-needed family time with both of our families and were able to see as many friends as we could squeeze into the time in between, though our time with friends felt brief and there were still friends we didn't get to see.  

We came back to Durham for New Years and enjoyed a quiet few days of no work and playing with Christmas toys - Ryan has already beat the Call of Duty game and I've read two and half books and just installed my new Photoshop program last night.  We watched the Sugar Bowl on Friday, saw Sherlock Holmes in theaters last night and are looking forward to meeting baby Quin later today, born to our friends Jared and Jodi on New Years Day.  And that is as eventful as this New Years break has been and I have LOVED it!!

Now, here are some of the things that I love so much about Christmas-time at home...

Taking the Jeep to the mountains in Highlands, NC to find some snow...

and hiking a very familiar little trail...

...with Ryan's parents this time...

...to Sunset Rock, where the magic happened two years ago on December 23, 2007...

It was right about there that Ryan made me read a sweet letter that ended with "Erin Nicole Pridemore, will you marry me?" and I turned around to find him down on one knee...

Ahh, sweet memories.  But about 30 seconds of reminiscing was all we could take before we had to get off that cold, windy rock. 

And since there are quite a few more pictures and "favorite" things from home, moving on...

Britney, the "Bunny Whisperer" as we call her.  This is Bella the bunny who runs the Pridemore house.  Many of you have heard my stories of Bella - well here she is!  And we call Britney the "bunny whisperer" because she can make Bella do all kinds of tricks we never knew.  This bunny is potty-trained, does NOT live in a cage but instead has the entire house to roam, shares a water bowl with Sadie the black Lab, and loves animal crackers and other cookies.  haha!

We played lots of Bananagrams, an official game of what we formerly had called "speed scrabble"...

Two of the most competitive people you'll ever meet - Britney and Dad - were constantly suspicious of the other trying to cheat, haha!

Notice the coffee mugs in nearly all the pictures from the Pridemore house.  This house has some serious coffee drinkers and you can't resist a cup every few hours when there are so many options for how to take your coffee...

That, or we're a very indesicive family that needs lots of options.  This could also likely be the case, ha!

YUM.

can you tell I like the coffee at home?  ok, moving on... ;)

Another favorite: I like how home feels like the country! 

Ryan's just chillin' while Jamie tries to get her horse under control.  :) 

Come on James...

And alas, they're off.

And the reigning favorite of being home:  spending time with family...

On the 23rd, we had our annual get together with my mom's side of the family.

Cousin pic 2009.  It makes the moms and grandmother happy. :)

And of course, the Pridemore kid pic!  TJ, don't fight it - the quicker you give us a smile, the less painful this will be and the sooner it's over :)

Afro man and his girl

Couple shot - Ryan and I with Afro man and Jennica. I think she's a great companion for my little brother.  Know why?  Because she picks out great gifts and she helps TJ with all of his Christmas shopping (or does it for him, I don't really know).  I wore the earrings from them today :)  kidding...I love Jenn for a LOT of reasons, but she does pick out good gifts!

Two of my favorites here: A fire in the fireplace and Joycie, my grandmother!  Yes, it feels like home...

And Matt sang for us.  Did he not get the memo that Pridemore's were not blessed with talented vocal cords??  ha, apparently he's the surprising exception.  It was fun to hear him play his twangy Robert Earl Keen and Lynard Skynard renditions.

Joyce with her girls - Mom and my aunt Elaine

We spent Christmas Eve with Ryan's family and enjoyed the Christmas Eve Candlelight service at Perimeter, Ryan's home church.

Ryan, his parents, and Rachel and Jeff spent time visiting with lots of friends afterwards, most that I either didn't know or had only met once or twice before, so I did a lot of standing in conversations and saying "nice to meet you" and "good to see you again".  Ryan and I talked to one guy for a little while who looked familiar, but I wasn't sure where from.  A few mintues later, Ryan said to me, "you have no idea who we were just talking to, do you?".  I said, "no, but I meant to ask.  Who was he?".  It was Jeff Franceour.  Oops.  How did I miss that? 

As always, I just soaked up the time we got to spend with our nieces and nephew.  Couldn't you just eat them up?!

A cute grandkid picture with Dexter and Martha. :)

Here's our 2nd married Christmas Eve picture in front of the fireplace at my parents house

Ryan and I decided to exchange gifts first thing on Christmas morning by ourselves instead of with everyone else, so before bed, I hung our stockings on the dresser and put our gifts underneath at the foot of the bed.

At the Pridemore house, Santa doesn't always wrap all the gifts, so us kids always get each other out of bed and go in the den together on Christmas morning.  I love how even though we're grown and I'm married, that doesn't change.  With modern technology...aka...texting, this was changed slightly.  Just in the sense that I first got a text from Jamie saying "are you awake yet?"  and when I responded "yes, Ryan and I just exchanged gifts in my room", she said "ok, I'm coming up" and a minute later knocked on the door and came in and we all sat in my bed in our pjs til the boys came upstairs. 

After our traditional Christmas breakfast of Monkey Bread and cheesy eggs, we all sat down in the den and listened to Dad read the Christmas story from the Bible before opening gifts.

And then everyone attacks their pile of "Santa" gifts!  Hey, we put out milk and cookies and he DOES still come to see us! :)

haha, they really were "new" and they were larger than a remote control car's tires, but he had to have something to "unwrap"!

After Christmas morning at the Pridemore house, we moseyed our way on down Buford Highway to spend the afternoon and the remaining days at the Wood house.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...with lots of presents under it!  Samuel and Ellie Kate divied up the gifts.

My sister-in-law Rachel is such a great gift-wrapper.  Her gifts were exciting even before they were unwrapped! :)

It's so much fun to watch kids open gifts at Christmas!  Uncle Ryan and Aunt Erin got Samuel, EK, and Abigail a popcorn maker and some popcorn bowls.

I think this is just such a cute picture of Ryan with his sweet Mama! And although Ryan's the spitting image of his dad, I have to say, he looks a lot like his mom right here.

On Sunday, our last day in Georgia, Ryan's grandparents, aunt/uncle and cousins came over from Alabama to spend the day.  It was so fun to visit with them and see them before we started our I-85 North trek back to Durham.

I somehow did not get pictures of the whole crew, but I did get this cute one of the Wood siblings - Ryan and his sister Rachel.  We don't have a lot of just these two together, so I love this one!

And the last picture of our trip...with Rachel and Jeff. We have some fun fun memories with those two, especially from when they lived in Athens while I lived there during my UGA days and we got to see them a LOT more often.  It was so fun to get to spend some time with them and have a movie date night to see the Blind Side while we were all home together.  Miss you guys!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to 2010!