Christmas Cards

Since we got married one of the first thing on my holiday list was sending out Christmas cards. When I was little my mom always sent them out and I always loved opening them. It took more work  and more stamps than I anticipated but I did love printing the Williams Family on the return labels. Above is our Christmas picture Ellie was not wanting to be in the picture doesn't she look happy!!!

Antietam Battle Field

The Faculty at my school is really good about keeping me informed on all of the fun local events. I try to experience as many of them as possible! They recommended going to Antietam Battle fields for the 20th annual lighting. I was sure it would be GREAT! So Brian and I headed out for our battle field escapade...

We had been told that there may be a wait... The wait was 2 HOURS!!! Luckily we had eaten a head of time and had plenty of Christmas music. We finally got to the entrance and headed in.. I had no idea it was going to be so amazing. It was worth the 2 hour wait and i would wait that long again. They only do it one night a year because it takes so many candles, and so many volunteers!

If you don't know your history here are a few things you should know. Antietam was the bloodiest battle of the civil war 23,110 solders were killed, injured, or never found after the 9 hours of fighting ( They light a luminary for each of these solders). I thought 23,000 was a lot until I saw 23,110 luminaries burning in the dark all of hill sides were covered. As we were driving a silence fell over us. The feeling of reverence for our country's history and for the lives of all of the civil war solders who lost their lives fighting for their beliefs was really baffling. Even more mind blowing was the thought that that day in September so long ago, each of these luminaries would have been a fallen solders body. You wouldn't have been able to see the ground for miles and miles. We drove threw the battle fields for 1 hour (it took 1 hour to see all of the luminaries). Each turn we took I thought "there cant possibly be another luminaries" and then there would be thousands as far as I could see. If you are ever able to see it Brian and I highly recommend it!!!

THANKSGIVING

My little sister Claire came and stayed with us for the week before and the week after thanksgiving! We went on tons of adventures.... and we had a GREAT time! Here are a few of our adventures...

Claire

1. Apple orchard- There is this great orchard and farm store by our house it is called Marker-Miller Orchard. It is large this farm place that sells about 50 kinds of apples and all kinds of homemade baked and canned goods. They have the best apple cider EVER! I am kind of addicted to it! So I think everyone who visits needs to go there!!!

2. D.C. - the monuments mesuems ect. - we went to the tomb of the un know soilder and saw the changing of the guard, the white house, the washington and the lincon memorials, the iogima monument, the natural history mesum, the national art mesum and gardens, the pentagon, and the capitol building. We rushed so see as much as we could in one day! It was 19 degrees and we were running all over.... How CRAZY!!!

3. We went to 8 different states (doing touristy things) - West Virgina, Virgina, D.C, Georgia, Tennessee, Pynsilviana, Marlyand, and South Carolina! WOW!

4. We saw all of our Georgia relatives and we ate with all of them. My aunts used to go and stay with my mom when they were in college so this thanksgiving now it was our turn to drive 10 hours just to be with family for a holiday. We stayed with my Aunt Linda and Uncle Stewart and thier 5 kids, Brooke, Parker, Hamilton, Tate, and Eli. We saw graddparents, aunts, uncles, and tons of cousins. They were great and made sure that they made all of our Thanksgiving favorites. Our Aunt Marge made a ton of our faves she even made 2 sour cream puond cakes! I learned my mon makes her stuffing the western way and not the southern way! Mom! We called her and asked why she didn't stay true to her roots! She said it tastes the same!

Claire, Aunt Jo, Grandpa GB, Me, Brian, and Julie

5. We played with our cousins - Brian was a football star! He had tons of funs with all of the boys, there are a lot of them. They played in the turkey bowl, then they continued to play football for hours and hours. By the end of the trip Brian was so sore he could barely walk but he loved playing rough with all of our future spots star cousins! The kids can't wait for thier new cousin Brian to come and visit again.

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The uncles, and Cousins playing in the Aunt Linda's Front yard

The Boys striking a pose... Brian was playing in his socks and he wore holes all in them... we laughed pretty hard! Then we were informed that that is why the boys just play barefoot.

6. We shopped- we did some christmas shopping and of course when you get Hawley girls together they stock up on lip gloss. Gotta Love MAC!

7. We made yummy treats - Brian's nick name in my family is "the treat connesour" (He really does love treats that much) and so it is kind of a given that when someone visits from the Hawley family they make him a treat. Claire made him his favorite cookies home made oreos. He even stashed some in the freezer for treat emergencies!

8. We went to a low country Boil - I was a little leary of this family event when my aunt marge asked if we wanted her ot have a low country boil. I have to say it was so much fun! She covered all of her tables including her antique formal dining room tabble in foil and then dumped the food on the table. We had a great time sliding food around with wooden paddles and catching up with our more distant relatives.

9. We went to the varsity!!! Everytime we go to Alanta we have to go to the Varsity at least once it is Atlanta's In-N-Out.

10. We took out Christmas card picture!

We had so much fun having Claire visit and we loved seeing all of our GA relatives!

Williamsburg

While we were having our early Thanksgiving in Williamsburg we went to William & Mary (the oldest college in the country). We also went to colonial Williamsburg, and the York Town battlefields. . We love walking around and playing the tourist... it is an excuse to do dorky/silly things!

Us goofing off!!! (Leaning to the right) 

Brian, Me, Debbie (Brian's Mom)

Brian and I with the founder statue @ William & Mary

Cozying up to Thomas Jefferson in Colonial Williamsburg...it is said to be good luck if you rub his head... You know we did!!!!

Enjoying the fall foliage at the York Town Battle Field

Early Thanksgiving

We will be in the ATL with my family for Thanksgiving so we decided we needed to have a pre-Thanksgiving with Brian's Mom and Dad! Brian was very excited to have a few of his favorites... Nana's rolls, orange rolls, sweet potato casserole, brown sugar pound cake, mashes potatoes, stuffing, and all the rest of the traditional Thanksgiving food! Debbie taught me how to make some of their family recipes. We had a great time! 

Brian driving down to Williamsburg! Ellie sat in his lap the whole drive!

I was being the D.J. on the drive (3 & 1/2 hours)

Brian conferencing with his mom about what he NEEDS her to cook...

Post our scarf fest... now lest go play in Williamsburg!

Brian excited about the 4 bags of rolls that he was going to take home!

SICK SICK SICK

Brian and I have been SICK SICK SICK! He had the flu and I have mono... I thought getting it once and having my spleen almost explode was enough for one girl! How we managed to have separate illnesses is a mystery to me! Anyway, we have been coming home from work, eating dinner and laying on the couch, and SLEEPING! Here are some silly pics we took while we were feeling like Hell! I should have taken a pick every day do document the last 2 weeks of our feeling yucky! Wait they would have all looked the same us on the couch different hoodies! Being sick is not very fun!

We were sicker than we look!!!

Sleeping !

Even when is is sick he is cute!

Domestic!!!

Ok, I had the last Tuesday off and I decided it would be so much fun to stay home and pretend I was pretty much the best house wife ever, (really lets face it, I have mono and am supposed to be resting otherwise I would have gone shopping) While I was making the most of my "resting" I got all of the laundry done, cleaned the house, and even managed to make a gourmet dinner. Yes, I think I would make a great stay at home wife... I could surf the Internet find fancy recipes and spend hours cooking, and decorating, I just might polish silver too . On my domestic day I made sesame seared ahi tuna, (I even made the maranade, and a dipping sauce too), the sides were rice and green beans... but the tuna was DELISH and I Was quite proud of how it turned out because I had my doubts, at first the tuna looked like something I would find in the tide pools!!!

Once it was cooked it looked less like a spotted rock and more like something YUMMY!

Since I have such a great husband he raved and made me feel like I was the chief at a 5 star restaurant.  YUM!!!

Halloween!!!!

Ellie the little Princess! 
All of the Trick-or-treaters loved her costume!
Our Mantle all decked out for the spooky holiday!
Us in our Costumes... Princess Bride!!!! Oh Westley!!!

We have been ready for Halloween since the beginning of September! Yep I was a little antsy to but up holiday stuff in our home! Now I am dying to decorate for Christmas!!!! I have to wait until after Thanksgiving!!!

Sky Line Drive

We bought an annual pass to Sky Line Dr. It is a national park that is 150 miles long and sits atop the Shenandoah Valley. We had a great time looking at animals, I liked the fuzzy caterpillars, Brian liked the deer, seeing the leaves, and having a yummy picnic! I think this beautiful getaway might become a regular on our list!

Tractors, Tractors, Where are the SUV's

So I was at work and greeting the students as they got to school..I do this every other week it is what I do instead of recess duty...When all of the sudden I had to do a double take I saw a huge red tractor headed my way... More than that there were little boys riding on hay in the trailer being pulled by the tractor!!!! What!!!!! I thought kids were supposed to come to school on buses, or in mini-vans, or maybe a SUV....It is true in Bunker Hill they sometime arrive on tractors! Once I pulled my jaw up to its normal spot I ran to get my camera this was something that needed to be documented!!! It turned out that the kindergarten was having their own stay-cation and instead of doing their normal fall field trip they brought the farm on over... The high school FFA kids brought cows, sheep, goats, kittens, pigs, and puppies, they went on hay rides on the tractor it was intriguing!!!! I would have loved this when I was little!!!! 

Fort Monroe

I love the beach!!!
I was amazed the crabs tail was leathery!!
Being Silly!!!
Brian and I were looking out at Naval Ships!

We went down to Williamsburg and thanks to DAVE (he is retired Air force, I am still learning about the ranking but he was ranked pretty high before he retired!) he got us on to fort Monroe. It has a MOAT... a real MOAT! Yes a fairy tale &castles MOAT! It was actually built to protect against an attack from the sea.  It was neat to see houses that Abraham Lincoln stayed in and the cells where they jailed the leaders of the south after the Civil War. It was also fun to listen to stories about all of the rules Dave broke when he was a kid growing up there! I really loved playing with the dead horse-shoe crabs on the beach... I was amazed they were huge! I guess all of my dads tide-pool lessons when I was little paid off!!! We also saw a shark egg... I can't wait for our next Williamsburg adventure!

FLOWERS

WOW! My life has changed so much...last September the only flowers I was worried about were the ones that got sent to my school! This September I have spent hours worrying about planting flowers in my front yard! I am loving the change! So, I have been reading about fall flowers, digging, fertilizing (eww), and planting! I will have to take some pics and put them up. I am very excited because our yard has some color in it!!! Brian has been very patient with this whole process because he can do anything, its true, he just knows how to do every possible thing I can think of for us to work on and instead of doing it him self (that would have been the quicker and quieter choice) he walked me through the entire thing so I could feel like I did it. AHHH! He really is great! I just hope I don't kill my new project too soon!

Fun WIth The New Family

We love visiting Brian's Mom & Dave

Brian using his COWBOY skills!!!
They were doing a reinactment... prople were sleeping in these tents on straw!
OUr cute family with one of the guards... The buttons on his uniform were all hand cast and they were IMPRESSIVE!
Ellie and her dad checking out the chicks of long ago!

Brian's mom and step dad live in Williamsburg... it is sooo cool!!! We have gone down a few times to visit and check out some of the many tourist hot spots there.... Ellie even got in on the fun!