New Years 2008!!!

New Years for the Carters was a bit different this year. Chris went skiing in Winter Park, CO and I stayed in town with Friends to welcome in the new year. Every year since Chris and I met we've gone on our yearly skiing trip to Winter Park, but this year we have so many vacations planned we thought it might be better if we put off the ski trip. Chris had a really great December at work so when my best friend's husband invited Chris to go on his "guys trip" to Colorado, I told him I thought it was a GREAT idea! He would be going over the New Years when he probably wouldn't get much work done anyways, it was Perfect! He had a really great trip and I'm so glad that he got to go!

I spent the week that Chris was gone shopping and watching chick flicks! It was GREAT!!! ;-) I think it's really great to revamp every now and then. I missed him so much and was so glad when he finally made it home! For New Years I went to a charity event with my best friend Katrina. Our husband's went on the ski trip together so we made a girl's night of it! We had a wonderful time and it was for a good cause!
Happy 2008!!! The Carters wish you and your family a year filled with love and joy!

Who knows what the year has in store for all of us!!

Christmas with the Carters!!!

After sleeping in a bit on Christmas Morning from our fabulous Christmas Eve Adventure, we were excited about spending the day with our Carter/Allen Family! After saying hello and passing around hugs, I realized that I had forgotten a little surprise that my sweet Grandmother had sent our group for Christmas. My Grandmother made one of her Homemade Coconut Cakes, a tradition in my family, for us to enjoy together. It was a hit, and we all took pictures by it to share with her in thanks for her efforts.

Above: Emily and Jim Allen

The Cake: It was delicious as always Grandmother!!!=)

We all chatted and enjoyed each others company while James, Cindy, Ashley and James Thomas made their way to the Allens. We spent time laughing and taking lots of pictures, one of which is our Christmas 2007 favorite couple photo.

Soon James, Cindy and their Children arrived and it was time to enjoy our Christmas Dinner! It was wonderful! Grandmother Allen and Mrs. Carter really out did themselves! Then we all went to the living room and started passing around the gifts. We all were given lots of wonderful, fun goodies!!! We gave James Thomas a few fun games from our past. Do you remember Goin' Fishin?? When Chris and I were doing our Christmas shopping we had fun looking at all of the toys and seeing some things that were familiar from our childhoods. Chris and I may have had more fun playing with James Thomas' games on Christmas Day than he did;-)
We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying each others company, talking about all kinds of things, and eating... three of my very favorite things to do!!!=)

The Guys and Gals ~ Christmas 2007

Christmas Craziness!

This year the Carter/Allen Christmas was in Cumming, Georgia at Chris' Grandparents home on Lake Lanier. Getting there was the Challenge. As I mentioned earlier, this splitting-the-Holidays-since-we're-a-married-couple-biz has been a learning experience. We both love both families to death so we have to work hard to work out what we will spend and what we will miss with each group.

Chris and I made the decision to drive through the night on Christmas Eve from Florence to Birmingham to repack and on to North Atlanta so we could wake up on Christmas Morning with Chris' family. We thought this would be fun, an adventure! We were both excited to see his family and couldn't wait to get to the Lake. We left Birmingham around 10:00pm Christmas Eve night, Red Bull in tow, excited about our trip... but there was one thing we didn't count on- CAR TROUBLE!!!=(






As many of you know, we have had MANY problems with my Mercedes since we got it. We really should have considered it, but of course I never thought twice about driving 3 and a half hours so late on Christmas Eve... of all the times something unfortunate could happen, surely it won't tonight! It's CHRISTMAS, after all!!=) We threw caution to the wind and set off FLYING down I-20.(Thank goodness for radar detectors, even if there weren't any cops radaring on Christmas Eve;-))

Just as we crossed the Georgia state line we started hearing a loud, grinding THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. My heart immediately jumped into my throat and I just knew we had a flat tire. No big deal, right?! We can just pull over on the side of the road and pop on the spare. WRONG... Right as you enter the state of Georgia they are doing a lot of road work at the moment, widening lanes and what-not. It's after midnight and of course pitch black outside, not an area that has interstate lighting.

So what do we do?? We decide we have to forge on to the next exit. We have no idea how close or how far away that may be. As luck would have it, Every exit we came to was closed, yes CLOSED for the construction! Now, I'm a nervous wreck, poor Chris was having to talk me down from a heart attack;-)

The more we listened to this noise coming from my car, the more it didn't sound like just a flat tire... it sounded more like something was falling out of my car. At this point it wouldn't have surprised me if my car just quit. It has before, I wouldn't be surprised if it did it again.

I was having visions of Chris and I pushing the mercedes down the interstate as the sun came up on Christmas morning! Or better yet, I could just see the car bursting into flames as we drive down I-20. I mean, it is making a grinding noise, and is that SMOKE that I smell?!?! ;-)

So of course, I start a prayin'!! "LORD PLEEASSE HELP US! Actually, ya know, I could do without an all-out intervention on this one,(I would hate to ask for too much!!) but if you could just please make sure that we safely make it to the next exit- I would really appreciate it!!!"=) I didn't know where we were and was about to break out the tears... not that it would have helped the situation, so I refrained! ;-)

Finally, as we continued to THUMP, THUMP down the highway we saw a sign- REST AREA- 1 MILE. I promise, I seriously heard the Hallelujah Chorus in my head!!! Ok, maybe it was just the radio, but it was VERY fitting at the moment! I felt so relieved and Chris did too--- mostly just because I released my ridiculously tight grip from his arm!;-) But still... It felt GOOD!

Once we made it to the rest stop, we both jumped out as soon as the car was in park. We both walked around and checked the tires- No Flat. Boo... so this might not be a quick fix after all. Chris took a peek under the car and what does he see??? The cover that protects the engine and what not from road debris had fallen down in the front but is still attached in the back and is scraping the road and the thumping? It was caused by the large cover flapping around as car went 60...70...80+(bad, I know!) miles per hour down the interstate. After a quick call to my dad(the Car Man) we decided we would be ok to drive on. Yes, I did wake my dad up on Christmas at 12:30 in the morning... but he was really great about it!=D

Now that we knew what was wrong, we did feel better about it. We knew it would continue to Thump-Thump and scrape, but we could handle that. My only concern was that something might bounce up into the engine area and bust a hose or something. (See, I know a little bit about cars!! OKAY, a VERY little bit;-))

We drove slowly with the Christmas music on low the whole rest of the way to the Lake. We knew our Christmas was still going to be wonderful and we were going to be just fine!!! SShhoo... but my nerves- THEY were shot!;-)

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I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and that none of your Holiday Stories involve the dreaded words, CAR TROUBLE! Yuck!;-) However, this Christmas for us, it was one for the books!!!=)

Christmas in Florence!!!

On December 22, Chris and I packed up and left our Trussville home for Christmas with my Family in Florence. We had a wonderful time! We stayed with my parents at their new house and spent some time with my brothers while we were in town. Unfortunately, time flies when you're having fun and I forgot to get pictures of my family Christmas, but it was special all the same! We had our "Christmas" together on the 23rd where we exchanged presents since our Christmas Eve was already booked out. Mom had some more wrapping to do before we could get started, so the "York Siblings" + Chris decided to take a ride over to the Wright's Christmas Lights in Spring Valley. If you live in the Florence area and have never been, shame on you!!!;-) If you have children, I'm sure they would find it magical and even as an adult I loved it! I have always loved the Chrimmah!!;-) hehe!

After the lights we opened presents with my family and spent some time together laughing and having a good time! On Christmas Eve my mother's family always gets together and we have our big celebration. It's always so much fun and I love getting together with everyone, some of which I don't get to see very often, to visit and catch up on what is going on in every ones busy lives! This year my Aunt Linda McAdams hosted and of course the food was YUMMY! Chris laughs at my family because we always make such a big deal about the food.(He's a guy, he just doesn't understand;-)) Really, it's not about the food, it's about the fellowship you have while enjoying the food that really makes it so special!! Plus, if you grew up with a Grandmother that could cook the way that MY Grandmother can, you would totally understand why EVERYONE wants to get together! Some of my best memories include "Grandmother food and Family"... can't beat it!=)

We cut our visit with my family a bit short so that we could go do Christmas with Chris' Family in Georgia... but first we had to make a pit stop in Trussville, to get more Christmas presents and repack. We had a LONG night ahead of us...

Trouble the Cat's Great Escape

As many of you know, in early December our cat Trouble broke out of his jail cell, our house=), and ventured out into the real world. Chris has had Trouble since his college days and would take Trouble for "walks" so he has always had the desire to bolt out the door to explore the great outdoors! Unfortunately there was bit of confusion and he was able to make his big escape.

Honestly, I had NO IDEA he had gone missing until the night after he left. I had been busy all day running errands and once I sat down to watch some TV that night I realized that Pheobe, our other cat, was acting strangely. I told her to "go play with Trouble" and then I realized I hadn't SEEN Trouble all day! AHH!! I was panicked! This is CHRIS' baby!!!(Trouble is my step-kitty and Pheobe is our cat;-) But I do love Trouble..) Naturally, we all sprung into action and started combing through the neighborhood to find Trouble. It was SOOO cold outside and of course dark(around 7pm) so we could really only do so much that night. Apparently, Trouble really lives up to his name sometimes;-)

With the help of Greg and Ashley, our brother and sister-in-law who were visiting, we searched high and low for almost a week, day and night. I was getting dangerously close to giving up hope. It was in the 20's every night that week and Trouble is an indoor cat that has no idea how to care for himself "on the outside". I sat some of his food outside and hoped that maybe he would come back at night for some grub;-). We did everything we could think of to bring him back. I went and spoke with all of our neighbors, some of which had seen him and not realized that he was "missing" at the time, and asked for their help in our search. We sent out a mass e-mail to our entire neighborhood directory. We got several sympathetic and supportive emails in return... we do have a wonderful neighborhood community!

On Dec. 6th, we took our nightly walk looking for Trouble just as we had every night before. We called his name and looked high and low. I was so cold so I decided to take a break but Chris continued his search. Chris' family and I were all standing around saying that we felt really bad for Chris because we knew he was going to take Trouble not coming home badly. Suddenly, the door flung open and in walked my husband, flushed and out of breath, carrying his Trouble.=) Everyone let out an enthusiastic "Trouble!!!" and we all stood there in shock looking at the fur ball who appeared to be no worse for the wear. Maybe a bit skinny and maybe a bit tired, but healthy all the same! The look on my husband's face was something I will NEVER forget. He was so relieved, but exhausted at the same time with a half smile=). We were all so glad that he was home.

Since Trouble's return we have been very careful not to leave the door even cracked if he his nearby. For the first few weeks he was afraid of the door when it would open... he wouldn't go near it. He has slowly but surely become more courageous and is now back to trying to escape if someone knocks on the door. I always give him the same, " NO Trouble!! Get Back!!" But, I never do get too mad at him. After all, who could get mad at this face=)...

BAD BLOGGER HERE!! Tsk-tsk!!

While I meant well when I originally started this blog, I obviously haven't been very good at keeping it up!! I certainly want to write more often and hopefully this time around I will do much better!=)


Life has been very sweet lately. Many changes have taken place and of course the Holiday Season was as busy as ever! Chris and I are still trying to get accustomed to splitting the Holidays between our two families. Today I am going to back track a bit and journal about a few of the exciting events that have taken place over the past few months... more to come, of course!!