A Williamsburg Christmas

Since we spent Thanksgiving in Texas with the Worshams, we spent Christmas in Williamsburg with the Layburns this year.

Mom and Dad live outside of Williamsburg, VA so we started off our holidays with some Christmas Eve festivities in Colonial Williamsburg - a drum and fife band followed by a reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" in the town square and the town Christmas tree lighting. It was actually pretty cool (and cold) - nothing like the ambiance of Colonial Williamsburg to get you in to the Christmas spirit!

Of course, Christmas involved lots of presents! Brad and Natalie enjoyed playing with Natalie's new Mrs. Potato Head - and Brad was a good sport when Natalie wanted to dress him up instead of the potato head!


Duke did pretty well for himself as well - a new hoodie and a fun new ball. Here he is enjoying both!


In addition to Christmas presents, Duke made sure to take advantage of all the holiday cooking that was going on. He was pretty much a permanent fixture in the kitchen, staring incessantly at the chef with "those puppy dog eyes" as my mom called them. Needless to say, Duke won my mom over quickly and reaped the benefits of holiday leftovers!

On the last day, the whole family went off to Busch Gardens. They had the park decorated for the holidays which was pretty amazing to see. And of course, there were some rides open - Brad got some great pics of the action including the roller coaster that we rode over and over again (super fun!!)


Some great family fun - a blast as always!

Our Christmas Decor

We had moved to NC last Thanksgiving ('08) so this was technically our second holiday season in our new home. However, last year was such a whirlwind that we never had a chance to get in to the holiday decorating. So, this year we made up for it!

Here's our little fake tree ... next year we'll probably upgrade but for now, this little tree did the trick!


Our neighbors in our cul-de-sac do some "fancy" outdoor decorating each year, so we had to step up our game this year as well. Turns out that Brad is seriously a master light-hanger. Check out the lights on our tree branches!


And the final product ....


Our Christmas decorating also gave me a chance to do some holiday crafts (have I mentioned that I love to craft?! ;)

Our new front door wreath - thank goodness for cheap ornaments at the Dollar Store and the glory of the glue gun!


And a fun craft project involving a styrofoam wreath base, scrapbooking paper, more glue gunning and clothespins and ta-daaa, a new way to display the holiday cards that we received from friends and family!


And what would Christmas be without torturing the poor dog with photos for our Christmas card. He was patient with me as usual :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!! HO HO HO!!!

Worsham, VA

On a recent trip to Charlottesville, VA (where we had seen our final Phish show of the year which was AWESOME!!!), we decided to take the scenic route home and stumbled across Worsham, VA!! Who knew that existed?!

Apparently, George Washington himself made a stop through town - ok, so that was about 100 years before the town was renamed Worsham but whatev. Point is, we have a road and town named after our family, a Baptist church AND a gas station - a gas station that didn't actually have any gas but again, whatev!

More music

As always, Brad and I have managed to get in some good live music this Fall. Here's a quick snapshot!

Christmas Jam in Asheville, NC

We took a road trip to Asheville in mid-December for what is called "Christmas Jam" - an annual music festival hosted by Warren Haynes, an amazing guitar player who grew up in Asheville. He brings together an interesting mix of musicians every year to play together and raise money for charity. The festival has raised over a million dollars for the Asheville Habitat for Humanity!

Allman Brothers Band...
One of the original touring jam bands, started by Duane and Greg Allman in the late 1960's. Unfortunately, Duane was killed in a motorcycle accident a few years later but the band has continued on in various iterations for the past 40 years, now including Derek Trucks - nephew of one of the band's original drummer and a serious guitar prodigy. Derek first played with the Allman's when he was 11! He's now 30 and just an amazing slide guitar player.

Widespread Panic...
A well known Southern rock band that started up in the 80s and have been touring ever since. They have a cult following (which often includes an odd mix of middle-aged Southerners chugging Budweisers and wearing their fishing or hunting shirts as well as a whole bunch of frat boys)!


moe.
A much younger jam band formed in the 1990s. We were lucky enough to see moe. at a small venue in Raleigh called the Lincoln Theater - we'll definitely be back there again!

Pink Floyd
Ok, so we didn't really see Pink Floyd but a Pink Floyd cover band called the Big Pink. The concert was at Durham's new performing arts center which is a great venue and it was a great show. "Comfortably Numb", "Money", "Another Brick in the Wall" - good stuff!

Some great music and hopefully more to come!!

Christgiving

This year we celebrated another Worsham family tradition - Christgiving!!

This is the second time that we have celebrated Christgiving which is the convergence of Thanksgiving and Christmas - in other words, big ol' Thanksgiving dinner followed by the exchange of Christmas gifts in November. In a word, awesome.

We had the whole family together in Austin, TX - me and Brad; Brad's parents, Le Anne and Tommy; brother Todd and his girlfriend Alex; grandmother Patsy; Wanda; Uncle Tom; and, Uncle Stevie, Betty and their dogs. Here we are attempting to pose for a normal family photo ...


But normal was boring, so here's the better version of the family portrait! ...


We had a great time exchanging gifts, feasting on holiday treats, shopping in Austin, enjoying each others' company and we even got to head out on the boat one day when the weather was mild.

It was another great Worsham holiday filled with fun, family and enough shenanigans to keep us entertained - here Patsy and I are enjoying wine brought to us by the boys, complete with dry ice and smoke pouring out!


And finally, the Worshams posing for the annual Christmas card - aww :)

Boston

Still catching up on posts, this one from Halloween so we're still a couple of weeks behind! But we had a great Halloween weekend, ended up heading to Boston to visit Dan and Monica at their gorgeous house in Milton, Mass.

We had a super fun weekend - the weather was perfect and we spent a lot of time just hanging out at their house with friends and catching up. We also set up a folding table in one of their spare rooms and got back to college with some competitive Beirut (beer pong) tournaments. Here are Monica and Dan concentrating on their shots!


And Brad and Jay staring down the competition.

I also had to post a little video from the weekend...

First of all, I love the still shot that the video shows below. As the Beirut competition got more heated (and as it got later in the evenings and therefore the more beers consumed), the level of trash talking also increased. Here, Jay and Brad were trying to distract the competition with some signing and dancing (if you can call it that!) - hysterical.

But the great part about the video is that it captures one of Brad's musical premonitions. Those of you that have ever been with us to a concert, know that Brad is often able to predict the next song before it even starts (or at least call what song is being played before the first note is even finished). It's totally crazy.

Well, in this case, we were listening to a live Phish show on the radio (there was a festival in California that weekend that was being streamed live on Sirius radio). If you listen carefully on the video, you can hear Brad signing a song and then literally a second later that same song comes on the radio from the show. The timing is just amazing. The whole thing was hysterical at the time and I'm so glad I caught it on tape - not sure what made me start video recording, I was just messing around with our camera and the timing turned out to be impeccable. Anyway, it might be one of those things you had to be there for to truly appreciate but I had to post the video anyway!

Anyway, another great weekend with great friends - can't wait for the next get-together!

A Whole Lotta Happy

We've taken advantage of a few more Durham area events lately. We're still loving getting to know our new hometown and have a lot more to explore, but here are 2 of our recent favs!


The 14th annual World Beer Festival was in town and we took advantage of the great weather and the great variety of food, local beers and beers from the more traditional breweries. A super fun day - and definitely popular as you can tell by the line to get in!


Brad showing off a sample beer - as you can imagine, he thoroughly enjoyed himself as I was serving as the designated driver!



A few weeks later we took advantage of my new favorite Carolina tradition, the NC State Fair! Brad wasn't as excited about the event - I guess growing up in Texas, he got to witness State Fairs, but there weren't a lot of those on Long Island so this was a whole new experience for me. I couldn't believe how enormous the event was and the number of people that came out for it.


All the colors and prizes of the Fair were amazing. There were tons of games and rides everywhere.

And my VERY favorite part? The pig races! Yup, a true Carolina pig race (and goat race and duck race). All "officiated" by a very southern Hog-caller dude. And all the pigs were named after Nascar drivers. AWESOME.

And what's a southern State Fair without some really disgusting fried foods. Seriously, deep fried candy bars?? I had some deep fried cookie dough - so good and nauseating all at once!

We didn't try the pig lickers but I had to post the pic. I mean, "bacon dipped in chocolate", advertised as a cute little pig, really?? I think that about sums up the State Fair.

And of course, Brad and I trying to fit in to the local scene - he in a clown suit and me with a monster truck!

And, finally, there was a whole section of the Fair that was devoted to local NC agriculture - livestock auctions, a whole section of canned food, cakes, pies, breads, etc that had been judged and a section of produce (including the big huge veggies) that had also been judged.

All in all, for a Northerner like me, it was a crazy day - so totally random and fun! Can't wait until next year :)