Natalie and David's blog

Friday, January 20, 2023

New Year's Day Polar Plunge!

Our friends the Navarro's hosted another New Year's Day Polar plunge at their house!

Just a few days before New Year's Day the lake was frozen over from ridiculously freezing temperatures. We were lucky that the air temperature had warmed things up a bit! The high that day was 58, but the water temperature was 46 burr!

Our jumping crew! Unfortunately, Finley was home sick and wasn't able to jump with me this year. Luckily, I had my girls to jump with!

Jess went first!

Then me and Dabney.

The water was unbearable. Luckily, we just jump in and quickly jump back out! Having a fire right there to run to when you get out also helps to warm you up fast.

The anticipation is painful!

But alas I did jump!

I was the only one from my family jumping today!

Kevin & Annie, and Grandpa Roger.

It's a crazy but fun tradition and I hope we can keep it going. Thanks for hosting us again Navarros! We are glad the weather cooperated and that we didn't have to break through any ice!

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Christmas 2022

Christmas looked a little different this year...between the boys taking turns being sick and trying to protect Grammie & keep her healthy before her next treatment, we had limited time with our friends and family.

We hosted Christmas Eve dinner despite losing power for most of the day on Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve. We were about to pack up all the food and head to Chapel Hill when our power came back on. We lost power the first day due to freezing temps and the wind knocking down trees, and most likely the second day due to rolling power outages. It was madness! It was so cold our power company just couldn't handle it and keep up! So grateful it came back on in time for us to make and host our big family meal.

We thought we were in the clear as Hunter was finally feeling better, but then Jackson was the next one to bite the dust.

There were lots of snuggles and naps on the couch.

Donovan was away for Christmas this year visiting KellyAnn and her family. Michelle barely made it into town! She was supposed to fly up several days before Christmas but due to the blizzard and winter storm coming her flights kept getting cancelled! She finally arrived on Christmas Eve day.

Grammie & Abuelo came up but did not stay for dinner. We packed them up a dinner to go and eat in their hotel. Here was the rest of the gang!

Mid way through dinner Jackson passed out on the couch. The meal was delicious, and we stuffed ourselves silly!

Christmas jammies and bedtime stories!

Matching jammies for the older "kids".

And of course, putting together last-minute Christmas gifts after everyone went to bed.

Christmas morning came early! Think we were all up and at 'em by 6:30 am!

The boys got lots of candy in their stockings.

And enjoyed seeing what Santa brought them! Balance bikes and helmets for the win!

Finley's big gift was tickets to see the Celtics play the Hornets down in Charlotte.

After morning gifts and seeing David's parents one more time before they headed back to MB we headed to Chapel Hill for brunch and gifts with Mimi and Pop Pop. The highlight were these adorable costumes, complete with a zipper in front in case you had to go to the bathroom.

Did I mention how freezing it was?!? The temps were down into the teens and lower overnight all weekend long. And during the day wasn't much better! The creek beside Mimi and Pop Pops house was frozen over!

Much to my dismay, the boys enjoyed walking out onto the frozen parts of the creek.

I kept warning everyone that the ice might crack and you would fall in and get all wet!

And Finley finally proved me right! Ugh!

We loved getting to see my parents and spend time with them.

Other than when we were playing outside Jackson was quarantined to the basement, so we took turns hanging out with him. Luckily between this and wearing masks no one else got sick!

The Christmas brunch crew including my Uncle Pete, Aunt Dolly, and her sister Celia.

While we were disappointed that we couldn't stay in Chapel Hill for a few days like we had originally planned, we were grateful for the time that we were able to spend with family. I missed getting to see all my High School friends but hopefully it won't be too long before we can all get together again!

Monday, January 9, 2023

Getting into the Spirit!

Amongst all the craziness of the holidays and the various illnesses that kept running through our house it's amazing that we got out at all! But luckily, we were able to do some of our family Christmas traditions and add in a few new ones.

Running of the Balls

We kept our annual tradition of participating in the 5K walk/run race The Running of the Balls in Sunset Hills neighborhood in Greensboro.

We had an early dinner with Carries and then headed out!

David wasn't feeling his best that night so he stayed home. The rest of us enjoyed a nice long walk through the neighborhood listening to festive music and checking out the lighted balls and decorations.

Meeting Santa!

One night out to dinner my friends and I ran into Santa! Which turned out to be another friend's friend. LOL small world!

We ended up visiting Santa and Mrs. Claus at our neighborhood club house.

It was so quick and easy and provided the perfect meet and greet with the "Big" man! The boys were so excited to see him and put in their requests!

Buffy's Ornament Party

This was my second time being invited to a neighborhood ornament party.

I play tennis with a bunch of these ladies!

I really wanted to bring home this ornament...but after I brought home a very funny but also inappropriate ornament last year, I was under strict instructions not to do that again from my husband!