Blog Catch Up Part 3: North Carolina Christmas

 So this is what we woke up to the morning after Christmas, which was also the same day we were headed to North Carolina to see our families for Christmas. It was this crazy mix of snow and sleet. We barely made it out of the driveway (it did take two tries), much less down to NC. The Lord protected us though and we did arrive safely.

 These two are really liking that both of their car seat face forward now. This is how I found them when I looked back to check on them at one point on the trip.

 This was Rebekah's response about 4 hours into the trip when I told her we were not quite there yet!

 First stop on our NC trip was to visit with Grandpa, Cici, Andrew, Ethan and Emily. After eating together, we headed to Meadow Lights. This is an outdoor light display near where we are from that is great for families. After a carousel ride, we hopped on the train to go around to see the lights. Then we headed back to open gifts together.

Next stop on our NC trip was Mimi and Pop's house. Pop always cooks us a giant breakfast when we visit usually including grits, bacon, eggs, toast and fruit. As you can see, my girls headed right into the kitchen to find out what Pop was cooking on this morning.

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of Mimi and Aunt Ashelyn reading with our girls

Here is my Grams with each of my girls. My girls love spending time with their Grams!

 

 We enjoyed just spending the day visiting together.

Gifts courtesy of Brent McGuirt Photography

Rachel's princess tent from Mimi and Pop

Mom, Grams and I

 Rebekah says "Are we all done?"

     After we left Mimi and Pop's, we headed to Nana and Papa's house. On the way we stopped by the town I grew up in, which is also where Papa's Royal Trustworthy Hardware Store is located. The girls love playing at Papa's hardware store.                    

Trying to get her sister to stand still so she could measure her

Papa and his precious cargo in the wheelbarrow

Trying out the tractor

Trying out her sister's bike

Rachel joining the McGuirt guys pick up game

Rachel talked Aunt Brooke and Aunt Brittany into playing nativity with her

 As tradition, we enjoyed McGuirt Family Christmas Lasagna. This year Jared and Brooke made the lasagna for us and they did a great job!

McGuirt Family Christmas 2012

Nana opening her photo books from the girls

 The last day of our visit we had an early birthday lunch for Rachel. Since we were down to visit so close to her birthday, we went ahead and celebrated a little early with our families. Thanks to all the family who came to celebrate our special 4 year old with us.

We had a great trip to North Carolina to visit our families. We are very blessed to be able to visit when we can and to have families that love us so very much!