Christmas in Carolina

Brian and I spent Christmas with our respective families, but on December 26th I flew to North Carolina to spend some time with him and his family. We had an awesome playing games at the kitchen table, eating delicious food and enjoying the glorious sunny 55 degree days.

Here are some of the trip highlights:

Seeing the cows at Brian's high school. We weren't sure they belong to the Ag club, or just lived next to the high school, but they were very pretty. This my favorite:

Going to Brian's grandparent's house on Lake Norman. It's beautiful out there.

 Halfway through the week Brian and I drove to Chapel Hill to take in my first Carolina basketball game.

 On our way back from Chapel Hill, we stopped at Maxie B's bakery in Greensboro, NC. I had the most divine vanilla cake with strawberry filling and Brian had vanilla cake with pineapple filling. If you're ever in with 50 miles, I highly recommend it. I may or not have lead Brian seriously off the beaten path for this bakery, but even he admitted it was worth it.

Another bakery recommendation? Scratch, in Durham. We attempted to eat at Allen & Sons for a second time (they continually elude us!) and ended up eating in Durham instead. I had just read a Southern Living article entitled "The South's Best Bakeries" (road trip, anyone?) and Scratch made the list. Forgot to get a picture, but had the Mexican Chocolate Pie: smooth, spicy, deeply chocolaty. Again, if you're within 50 miles or so...

Allen & Sons: Last time we tried to go, we found out they are closed on Sundays. This time they were closed for the week between Christmas and New Year's. 

The day we got back all the cousins on Brian's Mom's side got together to shoot guns.

Yup. 

Shoot guns. Cause that's what you do in the South. I've never touched a gun before, much less shot one, so this is a major improvement:

Firing Joe's rifle.

Brian with his Dad's shotgun. 

After everyone got their fill of shooting guns we settled in for a night of pizza, cupcakes and games around the kitchen table. 

A fantastic trip and I can't wait to go back!