White Christmas !

On Christmas Evening right about dusk it started snowing and didn't stop until after lunch today. We went out to take some pictures last night when there was just a dusting and woke up to 4" today. That's nothing for many places we've lived (Sarajevo, Ithaca), but for Charlotte - its a blizzard!

Our Christmas lights on the house and bushes looked extra nice with the snow!

Here are the newly engaged lovebirds kissing in the snow!

Not to be outdone - here are the long-married lovebirds kissing in the snow.

Post-Christmas Quiet

I am home alone now, but we had a full house for the past few days for Christmas. Mom and Dad and Matthew and Lindsay left this morning and Miran is on a plane to Germany as I type. But here are a few pictures of the festivities ...

The tree with a few more presents under it on Christmas Eve:

Our Christmas formal by the fire:

One of the three hats Miran got from me:

 One of three necklaces I got from Miran (on Christmas Eve):

The latest Teddy Roosevelt bio Mommy opened on Christmas Eve:

The necklace Mommy bought Lindsay in Cesky Krumlov:

Me opening my new electric mixer which I desperately needed and wanted:

One of the many board games we played when not opening presents:



Getting ready for the Holidays

Here are just two quick pictures that show the semester is ending and the Holiday break is upon us. First is the Christmas tree with a sad pile of gifts under it (we're looking forward to our guests arriving with more gifts to fill in the space). Second is Azra (and Miran) at the airport yesterday when we put her on the plane to go home to Sarajevo for a few weeks. She was very excited - and is looking very stylish in her lovely new Birthday coat.

Windows !

Last week we tried to hire some people to clean all the windows of our house from the outside. Because of the upstairs and the bushes, many of the windows are hard to reach, and also the storm windows make things even more complicated. So we found a guy on Craig's List who was very friendly and hard working, but did a terrible job. It was so bad I was crying by the time he and his assistant left. They broke one window, they used a pressure washer on the outside without closing all the storm windows (so got a lot of water in the house) and worst of all, the windows literally looked worse after they left than they had before (which was bad). Yesterday the three of us spent most of the day doing it ourselves. It was a lot of work to take every window in the house apart, but at least they are clean now.

Here is a picture of one of the guest room windows the day AFTER we paid someone to wash it. The second picture is of Miran up on a ladder making things right.

Thanksgiving

I haven't posted anything in quite some time, so here come a couple posts to catch up with what has happened in the last month. First, Thanksgiving ... Miran and I went to Matthew and Lindsay's in Savannah. My parents and Margaret and her boys were also there. We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone and listening to Matthew and Lindsay start to make wedding plans. We're very excited about their recent engagement!

Here is a photo of Michael looking perfect, me and a big southern looking tree, and a couple shots from the putt putt game.