Honest to blog

Wow. Sorry for the delinquent blogging, but this past week has been a whirlwind of celebrating, shopping, drinking and dancing. And how does a mother of a rambunctious eight month old accomplish so much fun, you ask. Well, one word. Grandma. Chris’s mom and brother trekked down from Wisconsin last week for a visit, with Grandma providing nonstop babysitting and Ryan providing nonstop laughs for the past six days. We were also happy to have Diane and Ashley McGaw drive down from Virginia Beach to party for the weekend. And because Chris, Taylor and I are about a million miles away from everyone, it was wonderful to be able to have a house full of family and friends for the holidays.

And other than making holiday cookies and generating Christmas cards, my baby-free time was spent having lots of fun. On Thursday night we went out to celebrate my special person, Chele’s, graduation from WCU, where we toasted her big brain and our ability to party past midnight. Which was cruelly followed by the next morning’s headache and reminder of what fun really does feel like.

Friday was spent touring the Biltmore Estate, which is an Asheville landmark. We strolled Taylor through the enormous mansion until she wasn’t having it anymore. And then I carried her until I couldn’t lift her anymore. Sorry, Vanderbilt family. We’ll get to the basement next year. But, as Ashley pointed out, you’ve seen one ancient indoor swimming pool, you’ve seen them all.

On Saturday night Chris, Ryan, Ashley and I went to the Warren Haynes Christmas Jam downtown, where we boogied to an assortment of jam band’s finest for eight hours straight. And I survived. Barely.

The rest of the visit was spent shopping and watching Taylor crawl at lightening-fast speeds towards the Christmas tree. If we still have a standing tree in eight days, it’ll be a holiday miracle. All-in-all, we had a wonderful time with everyone here. Especially Taylor-tot, who is now going through withdrawal of not having her Grandma and Uncle’s constant and undivided attention.