January 20, 2014

Christmas & Virginia

This Christmas was split between New York and Virginia.  I spent Christmas morning/day in New York & Massachusetts with Adam, Elise and Adam's family and then Christmas night we hit the road and headed toward Virginia.  We spent the night in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and awoke to a ton of snow!  From Wilkes-Barre we drove to Berryville, Virginia - the town where I grew up - and met up with my best friend Dana and her fiance for lunch.  It was so much fun to show Adam where I grew up, the downtown and my old high school.  After lunch and hit the road again and made it to Lynchburg, Virginia a little before 5 PM!  Here are some scenes from our Christmas!
 
This is my living room prior to loading up my car with all the presents - it looks like Christmas exploded!  Between presents for Adam & Elise, Adam's family in Massachusetts and my family in Virginia - my trunk was packed!

The tree on Christmas morning!  I was so excited for Christmas that I got up early and did a bunch of things, only to have to wait for everyone else to get up to share in my excitement!

Our first present from Adam!  Elise and I wondered why he was giving us Christmas cards but this started the gift giving off with a BANG!  We are SO excited to see Book of Mormon in March!  We both screamed when we saw the tickets.

This Christmas present has turned into my latest obsession!  Polar watch and heart rate monitor!  I have used it nearly everyday since - it's awesome to be able to monitor your heart rate throughout your workouts and see how many calories you actually burn (hint - I bet it's not as many as you think!)

Kitty wanted to get in on the present-opening action!

Adam made the most amazing Christmas brunch!  First up was the strata - bread, smoked gouda cheese, spinach and egg - soaked overnight and baked together = deliciousness!

He also made homemade cinnamon buns (everything from scratch) - yummm!
 
While in Virginia my father wanted to make sure that we did something special.  I'm pretty sure he also wanted to make sure that my liberal northeastern boyfriend experienced some 'southern culture' while below the Mason Dixon line.  He decided to take us (me, Adam, my mom and my sister Mary Grace) to the Museum of the Confederacy and Appomattox Court House, which is about 30 minutes outside of Lynchburg.
 
Adam at the Museum of the Confederacy!  Doesn't he look thrilled?

Welcome to Appomattox County!

Learning about the confederacy!

After visiting the Museum of the Confederacy we headed down the road to Appomattox Court House where Lee surrender to Grant during the Civil War.  We took the tour and then walked around - it was such a beautiful day - about 55 degrees, sunny and blue sky - nothing like upstate NY weather, you couldn't have asked for a better day!

Lone grave (of a confederate solider) and tree on the Appomattox Historical site property.

The room (recreated) where Lee surrender to Grant!
 
After we toured the house and the slave quarters we had time to stop for a 'selfie'.

The last building we toured on the property was the jail - which was hands down my favorite.  As you can see from the picture above - we were jailed.
 
After a couple of days in Virginia we started to make our way to Washington D.C. to stay with Adam's cousin, it also was also a good (sort of) mid-way point that split up the trip nicely.  Before making it to D.C. though we stopped at a Trader Joe's in Charlottesville, VA.  You see - yes we have a Trader Joe's in Albany but due to the wine/liquor laws in New York it is not allowed to sell wine.  Now Trader Joe's wine is fabulous and cheap!  So I made it a point to make sure we stopped at the nearest Trader Joe's to my parents house and bring back a couple of cases!  We ended up buying 2 cases (plus a couple bottles of campaign for New Years) for only $100!
 
Stocking up on wine at Trader Joe's!
 
All in all Christmas was really good!  We had a great Christmas in New York and then it was awesome to be able to visit my family in Virginia!

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