Our first stop after arriving in Raleigh was to visit Great-Grandmommy who was delighted to have on her lap her two littlest babies, Chandler and Michael.
Of course there were some big girls there too! Hello, Dimney and Mary Susan!
Dinner at Honey and Poppy's condo the next night gave Michael a chance to show off the good manners we've been teaching him. Needless to say Michael loved his Honey's meat sauce, which she attributed to his Italian genes. He also loved the meatballs that were served on Christmas Day.
After church on Sunday we stopped by to visit our family friend Annette, who made us some delicious gluten-free oatmeal cookies. We were glad to catch Annette who is now down in Alabama visiting family and eagerly anticipating Auburn's turn in the BCS Championship Game.
Most days in Raleigh included a visit to the Rideout house where Michael and Chandler enjoyed some playtime together. Unlike Michael, Chandler is fully mobile, and we were hoping she'd give him a few lessons on moving around. Here she is showing him the ropes on her front door.
Moving on to Christmas Day, we find Honey enjoying some hugs from her two grandbabies.
Like all the boys in the family, Michael shed his outerwear during the meal: t-shirts only! That red sauce can be messy, as we saw above. The meatballs this year were delicious. All week long we were in suspense guessing how many meatballs Honey and Grandmom made. After all the guesses were in and carefully recorded by Dimney, Catherine was announced as the winner for guessing 72. Her prize: $7.20.
And what captures the true meaning of Christmas better than a picture of yours truly drinking wine and crunching some numbers on the new Hello Kitty calculator?
Another visit we made during our visit was to see Aunt Orred, my grandmom's sister. This was the first time she met Michael and they hit it off well. No smiles, but he was very cozy on her lap!
Lastly, one more picture of the baby cousins, this time holding court at the Mellow Mushroom. By the end of the night there were about 500 puffs on the floor beneath them.
