After Christmas there is always a bit of a “lull” in the year. The joy of Christmas is gone, but the short days and cold weather remain. I always say it is good to look forward to things, and at this point, we have a few traditions that I look forward to each year after Christmas:
- The Oyster roast at Robert Core’s house
- A UNC game with Patrick Lineberry and all of our kids
- The Father Daughter dance
- My Birthday
The Oyster Roast was also this past weekend, but I didn’t get any pictures and its not a great blog post. But I did get pictures of our annual trip to a UNC game. This was a picture of our first year, in 2022 after COVID. We watched UNC vs Syracuse, and I tried my best to explain why they were called the “Orange” and nothing more, when they do not grow oranges in their area:
We have been every year since, but we did miss last year because there was a lot going on. This year, Mercy (5) got to join us for the first time and she had a blast. She held on to Rosies hand almost the entire night, and Rosie was so excited to share everything with her, tell her how the game works, and get Mercy excited and focused on the game, with moderate success.
This year went a lot better for this simple reason: I researched where to park before going to the game. Oh man did that save us some time.
We had a quick dinner beforehand. Though Taylor and I have been eating the Mediterranean diet at home as a new year’s resolution, that burger went down mighty easy.
Rosie did have the flu the day before. However, the doc said that if her fever broke for 24 hours, she would no longer be contagious. This warning was shared with Patrick, and he was still ok with his kids being in the car for the 1 hr drive to the game.
Rosie and Mercy wanted Dipping Dots for their special concession, so we waited in line for a bit, and came back to our seats in triumph. For some reason, both Mercy and Rosie dropped their spoons on the floor, and ended up eating their desserts by licking, which was unsuccessful, so they switched to EATING THE ICE CREAM WITH THEIR FINGERS. I was disgusted, but they are only kids once, right?
The Lineberry boys were great, and we all had a ton of fun.
Extreme Weather for January Birthdays
The whole country has been talking about this massive storm that was set to bring absolute ruin on everyone it encountered. The weather models were absolutely out of their minds saying there would be over 20″ of snow in our area of North Carolina, and these models kept it up for most of the week.
Our local weather people kept reiterating the high chances of large amounts of power outages for us, possibly for days. Also, quite cold temperatures after the weather was to stop. We knew that the school systems would cancel school at the drop of a hat, and didnt want to be stuck at home, when Taylor and I both had to work, possibly without power.
We looked at our options: what if we went up to the mountains and got an AirBnb and just skiied and enjoyed the weather? What if we drove to Charleston? What if we flew to Orlando for a few days? The forecast was ice for the mountains (not snow), Charleston still wouldnt have childcare, and Orlando would end up being quite an expensive trip.
Taylor’s parents did have the beach house this week (they have it 1 out of 3 weeks during the off season), and opened their doors to us. The day before the weather was to start, the forecast was still quite extreme, so we took Hazy to the kennel, and headed east, 3.5 hours out of harms way.
Rosie was a bit sad to miss the chance to sled with her friends, and we knew that if the power went out, we would be justified in our decision. I watched from our Ring camera as the weather came in, thinking out neighbor’s magnolia tree would be the first to come down:
We watched in anticipation. It was fine here at the beach in North Carolina. As the hours went on, I didn’t watch the weather forecast, I watched the power outage map because of how widespread images of the utility companies were preparing for the storm:
After all of the weather was passed, this was the updated power outage:
During all of this, it happened to be my birthday- a very unimportant milestone this year. About every 5 years there is some funky weather around my birthday, and it has made it really hard at times to plan too far ahead of time for anything fun because it can always be cancelled.
But, birthdays are important to Taylor, and she really wanted to honor me, so we made the best of our day while it was quite cold at the beach:
After some fun at home, we had more moderate fun at Planet Fun:
This was a special milestone because Rosie was as good as me, or a bit better, at every single game we played. Except air hockey, where I dominated 8 to 1.
Somehow I was convinced to do this for about 15 minutes:
We made it home after killing some time, and the major plot twist: Papa Pack (Taylor’s dad’s self given grandfather name), asked Rosie if she was too chicken to go do a polar plunge while it was 40 degrees outside. He knows how she will not turn down something if it sounds like a challenge, so before there was a chance to say no to this idea, they hopped in the golf cart and drove the 150 yards to the sand.
For dinner, Ted made his famous steaks, I got to pick out dessert from the store, and we watched the last 2 NFL playoff games to end the day.
It may have been my birthday, but hats off to Ted yesterday: doing a dance party game and doing a polar plunge with his granddaughter really sets the bar pretty high. Thanks for all the ways you love on my kids, keep it up!
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