A South Carolina Christmas

We went to Jonathan's parents house in South Carolina for Christmas this year. It was also my first Christmas not spent with my family, which was wierd....but my wonderful in-laws made it a great first Christmas with my new family! Our flight out was pretty early, but we made it on time..only to be delayed in DFW! We finally made it to South Carolina to begin our relaxing 2 wk. vacation. The house was all prettily decorated, the weather was nice and cold, and it was nice to not have to worry about traffic and homework and work

We saved our Christmas shopping until we got out there since we went the week before Christmas and didn't have time to shop before we left. Bobbie (Jon's mom), Grandma, Jon, and I had fun shopping for our presents. Bobbie and Donnie (Jon's parents) took Jon and I just across the border to NC into the mountains to a really cute little shop. They had all kinds of cool things...and wonderful apple cider...I love apple cider, it's so Christmasy and cozy and homey


Anywho..we got our shopping done in a record 2 days! Well, it helps that we had a limited budget, haha. After that, we just hung out around the house. It was a lot of fun hanging out and baking with Bobbie like I would do with Momma! Jon and I even taught Bobbie and Donnie how to make sushi wraps! Bobbie and Jeremiah liked it, I'm not so sure that Donnie did, lol.

I must say that I won the jackpot in my in-laws....most of my friends would have killed themselves having to spend 2 hours with their in-laws, let alone 2 weeks.....I loved every minute of it!! We (Jon's parents and his brothers and grandmother) hadn't really gotten to spend much time together before the wedding sadly, since they were in SC and Jon and I were in LA...so, other than getting to know each other through Facebook or through the phone; it was fun getting to know each other better and now I feel more a part of the family than ever before :) Bella even warmed up to all of them and sat in their laps and played with all of them!

During the week before Christmas, we also met up with Jon's best friend since the age of 4 (John Henderson) and his wife and new baby...literally new, like only 4 or 5 days old new!!! It was a lot of fun hanging out with them and hearing all of the funny stories of when the two Jons were growing up...boy were they rotten, haha :P We also met up with Jon's friend Basil Xavier whom he worked with at Home Depot. That was interesting but fun...he's always been a good friend to Jon and so it was nice getting to meet him also


One of the highlights was getting to go to the Biltmore House!! That was SO much fun...we ate at the Lyman Cafe for breakfast before heading up to Asheville, NC. The house was spectacularly beautiful and decorated to the nines. We got to have our picture taken in front of the house..of course the photographer had to take one with his camera and think that we were going to pay $30 for the same picture that he took with my camera. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside :( :( So, I had to buy a $8 postcard book inorder to get pictures of the Christmas decorations inside, but it was so worth it because it was unbelievably gorgeous! The gardens, although dead from winter, were still pretty and the greenhouse had gorgeous exotic plants in it.

We exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve..just one gift each is their tradition and that was fun. It was with the brothers and Grandma. Then, Christmas morning, Josh & Jeremiah (Jon's brothers) came over, and we opened the rest of our gifts to each other. That was a lot of fun and everyone got and gave wonderful presents. They all did way too much of course, but it was all great! The rest of the Greenes came for lunch (which was fun to meet the extended family) and our gift exchange. They didn't stay long (hmm..much like my family), but now I have faces with names. Chrismas night was our last night there, and perhaps the most fun night. Bobbie got a Wii Fit for Christmas from Donnie and so Jon, Josh, Jeremiah, Bobbie, and I played bowling and golf all night...we even got Donnie to play a little bit. It was SO much fun laughing and playing all together.

Our flight out was in the afternoon the day after Christmas, and it was hard to leave. But, hopefully it won't be so long before seeing everyone again. So, overall, it was a wonderful 1st Christmas with my new family!! :)

Here's the pictures: A South Carolina Christmas