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Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas eve in Black Mountain, NC

Christmas Eve morning started off with continental breakfast at the hotel with Ali, Kaye, Keith, and Aaron in Charleston!  Then we all piled in the van and headed to NC...

...but not before taking a quick drive through the battery (South Carolina) so I could see the area where Aaron used to hang out after college, and where Keith proposed to Kaye!  It took me about 10 seconds to decide that I am completely in love with this city!  I snapped a couple pictures of the historic homes in the area (through the back window, hence the crookedness)...



When we were on the battery, Keith mentioned for me to look over at the pelican sitting on the rail!  I ended up getting this gorgeous shot a couple seconds later!

5 hours later, and only 2 pottie breaks, we made it to Aaron's mom's house in Black Mountain, NC!  She greeted us in the driveway with lots of smiles, big hugs, and her newly adopted doggie, Leena in hand...

... Aaron jumped out of the car and went immediately for Cash (his dog that he raised from a puppy in Atlanta, before coming to Korea!)  His mom has taken care of Cash while Aaron has been out of the country!  Talk about a labor of love for your son!  Aaron and Cash jumped right back into playtime, as if Aaron had never left!  The two of them together is pretty special!

Aaron's mom's house is absolutely darling!  It's like a little cottage where you could imagine a movie was filmed!  It's oozes with historic charm!

The front room was lit with scented Christmas candles, lots of Christmas decor, presents under the tree, and to top it off, the dogs paws were clicking on the hardwood floors.  It was such a great, cozy feeling, wintery, holiday feeling!!

After unloading the suitcases, Pegg (Aaron's mom), Aaron, Me, Ali, and her boyfriend Dave all sat down to eat some lunch together!  The topic turned to the Ugly Christmas Sweater party, which is tomorrow, and how Dave didn't have a sweater to wear!  Pegg and I quickly offerred to search the local Goodwill for him! :)   So, after lunch, Pegg, Aaron and I all ventured over to the local Goodwill, where we unfortunately didn't find anything worth getting!  Guess all the Christmas sweaters had already been snatched up!  After leaving, Pegg drove me through downtown Black Mountain, a charming little town with a general store, and a couple small restaurants and shops... then we headed over to Gran's house.  (Pegg's mom)

She knew Aaron and I were in town, but was surprised when we showed up at her door!  Her and Aaron are very close!  It was really fun to see them interact after a year has passed.

Boy is she smart as a button (Is that the phrase?!)  It's been a long time since I've been in an English speaking country... my metaphors are a little weak these days!   Anyway, my point is... She's energetic, funny, smart, sweet, and just a good ole fashioned southern granny! 


Aaron with his girls!

Since we were in the neighborhood, we also stopped by Aaron's uncle Joe and aunt Carol's house.  (Carol is Pegg's sister)  They literally live about 3 houses down from Gran.  I love the tight knit-ness of Aaron's family!  This is their home - ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!

From left to right: Joe, Andrew, Carol (who I think is the spitting image os Susan Sarandon), Olivia, Pegg, Me, and Aaron.  We're getting together with all of them on Christmas night for the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party at Grans.

 We headed back to Pegg's house and started in on dinner - Home made chicken and dumplings with fried Apples!  Ummm, yes please!  The 5 of us ate and laughed, and talked for a long time!  It was great!

Aaron was quick to show me one of Cash's best tricks after dinner!  He sets a bone on Cash's nose and Cash waits for Aaron to tell him he can take it before he moves.  It is pretty impressive, for sure!

As the clock rang 7pm, we began opening presents from each other! Ali and Dave saved all their gifts for each other for tonight, so we got to be in on the action! :) 

Pegg and Ali went out and filled everyone's stockings!  I was so excited to see that I had my very own "J" stocking!

 The 4 kids all got together and chipped in on a laptop for Aaron's mom so she could call all of us on skype and e-mail back and forth from home!  She was so excited... and I was excited too, because I was able to use it to blog tonight!  Thanks for sharing your pressie Pegg!

Pegg and Ali found these for Aaron!   ... One of the funnier moments of the night!

This dog is really unbelievable!  He is the sweetest, most gentle and loving creature!  He cuddles with everyone!  Aaron showed me how Cash will spoon with me if I want him to tonight when I go to bed!  It's true - He spoons, arms around you and everything!  This is his own personal chairn the living room, and boy does he look like royalty sitting in it!  (Aaron tied the bow on him!)

When my turn came to open a present, Aaron handed me this box with a card.  Inside the card was a typed message stating, "Merry Christmas Jill!  - from Tiffany & Co."  With no prompting on my part, Aaron bought me a gorgeous heart necklace that I had actually had my eye on for years but had never actually pointed it out to him!  It was a very special gift, and even more special when I saw his face and how excited he was that I loved it.
 
As I was holding it in my hand, completely shocked, he asked, "Can I put it on you?"  I love it!

Around 9pm or so, one of Aaron's best friends from growing up, Bill, stopped by to hang for a while!  They told funny stories of getting in trouble as kids and talked about where people are at these days!  It was so nice to meet Bill in person!  He's having a big party in a couple days with all of Aaron's friends from growing up and their families!  Yes, this is a small town folks!    I can't wait to meet all of them!

It's now 1:50am, and everyone in the house is fast asleep, and I am officially finished with my blog!  AAhhhh, this girl is going to dreamland!  Hope I wake up to snow!

Merry Christmas!

Lunch in Japan!

Yesterday morning... or was that technically the day before?? ...Anyway, Aaron and I left Korea, with passports in hand, on a fancy jet to Japan!


We had an 8 hour layover in Japan, so we decided to take advantage of the time and see what we could!  We had our eyes set on a darling little historic town called Narita City, where cobblestone streets are lined with old tea shops, handmade Japanese toys stores, charming restaurants, and traditonal markets... oh, and random bundles of plastic flowers laying on the sidewalk!  hhhmmm?

Welcome to NARITA, Japan!

These old men were sitting outside this restaurant sliding skinned fish onto wooden skewers! 

That's one lucky dog to live within historic Narita City!

This was the face I got when I asked Aaron to sit next to the dog for the picture!  It was a sweet little schmooch of a dog!

This store was filled with jars of wacky stuff - dried eel, seahorses, jinseng, turtles, old (real) stuffed animals... uuuggghhh!

I'm a huge fan of traditional Japanese architecture and couldn't get enough of this street! 


We walked about a kilometer, from the train station, through Narita, until we reached Naritasan Shinshoji temple grounds, which was originally built in 940AD.

This is actually the front gate entrance and it's worth noting that it's much more calm than Korean temples!  No freaky statues of monsters hide within the gate!

Who doesn't love a wishing pond?!  I threw my 100 won coin, in hopes of it  landing on the turtle statue in the middle of the pond, but failed horribly.  It didn't even touch it!

On the bridge over the wishing pond!

Patrons had placed these plaques along a wall near the main temple hall... I'm not sure what they signify, but they were beautiful none the less.




 This is the inside fo the temple hall above... taken right before I noticed the "no photos inside" sign!

Many Japanese temples pride themselves in their stunning gardens!  This temple was no acception!   Aaron and I took the leasurely 30 minute walk down the path, through the gardens... past the waterfall...

...around the lake...

along the waterline...

...and of course, on the stone bridge, where we stopped for a photo opp!  Our cameras work overtime when the two of us travel!  Luckily though, we've learned how to balance our mass photography with enjoying the moment, and are always happy we have so many pictures to help us remember everything!

When the timer takes 5 pictures in a row, these are the types of pictures that end up being in the last couple!  They're usually some of my favorites!

After our walk through the temple gardens, we headed back through the downtown area of Narita in search of a dinner spot for our Japanese date night!  I snapped this picture of a young man holding hands with his grandmother as they walked along together!  I love the respect for elderly that the Asian community has!

We asked a local store owner where we could find the "best noodles in town!"  He immediately left his shop and motioned for us to follow him to this restaurant down the road!  Great, we thought!  This is gonna be delicious! Well, come to find out, the store owner was the father of the girl who owned the restauarnt!  We could have said we wanted to know where the best steak restaurant was and he probably would have taken us here!!  

Luckily, the food was delicious!


 So, now we can check "dinner date in Japan" off the bucket list!!  ***

It started to get late, so we began our trek back to the train station, but not before doing some last minute shopping!  I bought some adorable Japanese hand made candies for my friend Lynzi's son Greyson, and a darling little japanese doll of sorts for a Christmas tree ornament for my tree!

We left Japan around 7:30pm, and landed in Dallas Texas at 1:30pm... you do the math!!  It was a lllloooooonnnngggg flight!  11 hours to be exact!  And it didn't even end there!  We had a layover in Dallas and hopped on another plane to Charleston, S.C.  By this point we were getting creative with our plane games!  I took a go at drawing Aaron's face, which ended up looking more like a neandrothal (sp?) than anything!  Regardless, he said it was a great attempt!

Unfortunately, he couldn't even finish drawing me beacuse he was laughing so hard!  I know I have a big nose, but come on Aaron... REALLY?! 

Finally, around 10:00pm, our final plane landed and we were homefree in Charleston South Carolina!  Aaron's hister Ali, his dad Keith and his dad's wife Kaye all met us at the airport with big hugs!  We all loaded into the rented minivan and drove over to Aaron's storage unit, where we loaded everything into the van to drive up to his mom's place in Black Mountain, NC! 

3/4 of the stuff went to Goodwill, including these 2 deer heads which were given to him as a gift years ago!

Finally, it was time to relax and head to the hotel for the night!!  (Thank you Keith and Kaye for renting the lovely suite for us to all stay together in for the night!)  Before heading to sleep, Aaron and I went over to the local Huddle House for a little midnight snack where we were welcomed by our cheerful and christmas cosutmed server!!

After our tummies were full, we went back and met Ali, Kaye, and Keith for a little night cap of jin and tonic in the suite!   The 5 of us stayed up laughing and talking till 3am!  It was great!  To top of a wonderful day, Aaron's dad and Kaye bought us a disposable cell phone with a phone card so we could coordinate meeting times with all of Aaron's friends while we're here!  It was sooo thoughtful!

We're in the U.S., we're safe, and we're with wonderful people!  I couldn't have asked for more!