Twice the Joy...Twice the Chaos: Has it been that long?? (JOHN thinks so!)

So.... I was talking to my friend JOHN today and he reminded me that I had not updated our blog in quite a while. JOHN's words were "If you're going to have a blog site, you have to update it." I said "You know, JOHN, you are absolutely correct." And actually, it was JOHN's wife who sent me an e-mail message last week saying that I've not updated in a while.

I really didn't realize that it had been that long --- almost 2 whole months. And surprisingly.....there's not been too much going on in the Demetrio household. (are you with me, JOHN?!) I can't believe how quickly Christmas came this year -- it seems like just yesterday they were only starting to put out the Christmas decorations amid the Halloween candy. So...let me think for a second and I'll include some highlights of the past couple of months...........(JOHN...are you ready?)

October was a pretty quiet month. I made my usual 2-day a week trips to Charlotte for work and the rest of the time was spent working in the office or at my Greenville client. Daniel and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. Time sure does fly - it seems like just yesterday that I was picking out flowers and dresses..."woo hoo wedding" this and "woo hoo wedding" that. A whole year ago. We celebrated quietly with a nice dinner at The Melting Pot. We got there and I had a dozen roses and a bottle of wine -- that Daniel sure is sweet! And for those people who say they don't like The Melting Pot because they leave hungry.......I don't know what ya'll are eating but I was stuffed! Cheese....salad....entrees.....chocolate. Roll me out the door - haha. It was very good.

November was a good month. We went to Daniel's brother's graduation from boot camp on the 3rd. Here's a picture of PVT Adam (and Daniel....the one not in uniform - haha):

It was freezing cold that day -- definitely wasn't 70 degrees outside like it was today (JOHN - can you believe it? 70 degrees in December!). He looks so good in his uniform! The day after graduation, Adam went to VA for more training and he just got back yesterday for Christmas.

Of course there was Thanksgiving. Yum. That's all I can say about that. Good food....great family time. I had the Friday after Thanksgiving off and I can't believe it but my sister and I actually braved the shoppers and did some Christmas shopping. Of course....by 9am when we were out, all the others who had been out since 4am were pretty much done with their shopping - haha. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, but I wasn't waiting in line for anything!

Oh oh oh! Daniel's favorite part of November was our purchase of an LCD flat panel tv. We've been talking about it for months -- since we moved to this house -- and as soon as he could tell I was leaning towards buying, he rushed me right away to Best Buy - ha! We did some discussing, some math, and after running back home to get my car (we had originally gone on a scouting trip and decided to purchase that night because neither one of us were going to brave the crowds on the Friday after T'giving), we return to Best Buy only to find out they don't have any in stock. Oh - but Anderson has 2. You guessed it......hopped in the car...passed our exit to Easley for the second time in an hour -- and drove to Anderson. We were in and out with our 42" tv. I must say - it is pretty cool. You know -- as far as televisions go.

JOHN....are you still there?

And how can we forget the results of the USC / Clemson football game?! All football fans who watched must admit that it was a good game. I was lucky enough to be the lone Carolina fan at our gathering but boy oh boy was the ending great. I've never heard a room get so quiet. GO GAMECOCKS!!!

Which brings us to December. The Christmas tree is up....we put wreaths with red bows on all of our front windows.....and I don't know what this "we" stuff is about....I put wreaths on all the front windows....Daniel slept- haha! I've not yet taken a picture but I'll do that this week and post it --- it looks good, if I do say so myself. My mom reminds me that I don't have a wreath for the door...but I just didn't find one that I liked that didn't cost a gazillion dollars.

December has slipped away as fast as the other months and I can't belive that Christmas is a week away. Amazing. Mom's birthday is today, but we celebrated yesterday with some Christmas baking and then had the family over for dinner.

My Christmas shopping is pretty much done -- I now just have to do some wrapping to catch up. And the best part of all......I'm on VACATION until January 2nd. Wooo hooo vacation! I have a list of things I want to get done......organize the office....organize our closet....rake the back yard.....and on and on -- but only 1 thing per day. Today was my shopping day (and I even talked to my friend JOHN).

And finally to my sweet nephew! What a cutie this kid is! He's 5 months as of the 21st and what a happy baby! He smiles all the time and he's definitely finding his voice. I'll leave you with some pictures that Robin had taken this past weekend (Portrait Innovations does a fantastic job) (JOHN and JOHN's wife think so, too!). And I couldn't resist....Robin is a Clemson fan and one day Carter was at my house with Grandma and I pulled out some Gamecock gear...snapped a couple of pictures and e-mailed them to Robin at work - hahaha. I can be quite the comedian!

And also, JOHN, I'm going to make every effort to update this site at least once a week. Of course most of my entries from January through March will say "This week I worked.....and nothing else" - haha!

Until next time......