Our Fun Filled Week

We had a fun week getting back to a normal routine after being sick, going out of town, having a visitor, and Thanksgiving.  Earlier this week I met some of the ladies from our moms group for a food and wine tasting at this cute little wine shop in downtown Summerville.  I didn't know what to expect going in, but it was really fun!  A local chef came in and prepared 3 food items paired with 3 wines, and we sat and chatted in the cozy atmosphere while enjoying it all.  It was nice because right outside the Summerville tree lighting ceremony was going on, so the streets were filled with people, christmas music and lots of lit up trees.  We all posed for a picture outside before heading over to a nearby cafe for dessert.

Later on in the week Jace and I met up with some friends for a walk around town and ended up playing for a bit at one of our favorite parks.

"Dude.  Mom, do you honestly think we want to stare into the sun and
smile for a picture right now?!"

That night was "leftovers" night in our house.  We actually look forward to re-purposing food in our house, we always try to find something fun to make out of other meals.  This time I baked leftover thanksgiving buns and leftover fried ocean fish to make mini fish sandwiches with homemade tartar sauce.  While we were at it, we also sliced up and fried leftover potatoes to make cajun french fries.  So healthy ;)

Frying up potatoes

Nice healthy fish sandwiches and fries for leftover night.

After all that fried food we decided we needed to go for a little hike to burn off some of those delicious calories, so we headed over to Givhans Ferry park the next morning and hiked along the river bluff.  Jace really enjoyed riding in our hiking pack, but about 2 hours in wanted to get down and walk along with us.

Driving to Givhans

Using a small branch to take a timed self portrait. It actually worked!

At the top of the bluff looking down

Jace loved stomping threw the leaves and chasing
Daddy down the path :)

That night after we got home from hiking I headed over to my friend Chelsea's house for a Holiday Cookie Exchange party.  13 of us from the moms group were able to make it, and everyone brought 4 dozen cookies to exchange and also a small gift to exchange during a game as well.  It was a ton of fun!  We ate veggies and dip, crab wontons, crab cakes, crackers and pecan and jelly cheese ball, and bacon and brown sugar wrapped little smokies.... yum!  We tried multiple times to get a timed group picture of all of us and some of the out-takes were pretty funny.  :)

Laughing as the camera kept going off as it tilted the wrong direction... again.

Most of the cookies... there were some on another table too!

Before we did the gift exchange game, the ladies surprised me with a really special gift for organizing and starting the meetup group.  I was really taken off guard and got a little emotional.  Anyone who knows me knows I feel uncomfortable on the spot... and honestly I don't feel like I deserved such a generous gift.  As cheesy as it sounds, meeting all of these wonderful families has been gift enough.  I don't know what I would be doing right now if I hadn't started this meetup group the week we moved to South Carolina... I wouldn't know anyone!  It really is such a huge part of my life down here... that I feel really blessed that everything worked out and the group became successful.  Summerville is such a huge transplant area, so alot of people were in the same situation as I was and I had no idea... it's been great knowing that several people have made real friendships and continue to do so through the group.

Trying not to get choked up...



Apparently I've made it known that I haven't
been to the spa in a LONG time, so generous! :)

A homemade "K" travel mug with my favorite coffee,
and a giftcard to the spa of my choice! 

After that we played a fun gift exchange game, divided up cookies to take home, and chatted for the rest of the night.  I'm so lucky to have met these ladies (and others that weren't able to make it too!) and feel really blessed that starting over in South Carolina was really not nearly as scary as I orginally thought it would be.  ;)

After numerous attempts we finally got one :)