in good company: Happy 2013!

A very happy new year to each of you! We have been thoroughly enjoying our Christmas break so far. We got to spend Christmas with both of our families at different times. We spent a few days with the Belmont side of the family prior to Christmas Eve, and then headed up to visit the Jones side of the family for Christmas morning and a few days after. Both visits were very relaxing and enjoyable! We got some lovely gifts and plenty of pictures of all of the celebrating.

Merry Christmas to my sweet hubby!

What a delicious spread! We ate like kings.

Here is a family picture that we got before we left.

Doesn't everyone look lovely?

Papa reading a book to the boy

Nani holding a hungry boy!

Dusty and Mom looking at the

wedding album that we gave the Cannons

What a sweet boy!! :)

A Christmas picture with Papa and Nani

A Cannon Christmas picture

The Belmont lovebirds

This is Eldon's adorable new hat! Haha!

This was our Christmas picture of 2012.

Can you believe that it was the ONLY time

that the entire family was together this year??

Eldon love his Uncle Belmont. He almost always

turned me down in favor of him. Favorites!

Dusty, Will, and Eldon before we left for home

After returning home, we have been trying to find permanent homes for each of our gifts. I got so many new kitchen gadgets that I think I need to quit my job and become a cook! I tried out my new mandoline and Dutch oven while we were still at my parents' house and made some delicious "au gratin" potatoes. Yum! Homemade bread is on my list of recipes to try with my Memaw's Kitchen-Aid, which my cousin Heather sent me by way of my brother, John Wesley. He was so sweet and made a scavenger hunt full of clues for me to look all over the house and find my gift in the end. :)

I am very much enjoying a few relaxing days before going back to work on Thursday. Tomorrow I will have to enter my students' grades, which will take some work-- but hopefully not all day! I decided that in 2013, I hope to read at least one book a month. I need to use my time more wisely and stop playing around on Facebook and Pinterest so much! I made a list of classics for Annie Blue to read as well, so maybe a few of our books will coincide and we can have intellectual discussions. Currently I have been instructed to read Teaching Redemptively by Donovan Graham in order to prepare for a seminar that we will be attending for school in February. Although I have only read two chapters so far, it is a very challenging book. I hope that my teaching is much improved as a result of it.

Today Belmont was off work. I had no idea! I woke up and he was still asleep and hadn't gone to work. I just assumed that he was going in late. When I got out of bed, he was in the living room watching Wings. We spent the whole day together. After a delicious breakfast and a few episodes of Wings, we went shopping. We returned a few sweaters that didn't fit him (in order to go shopping again in the future!), and then headed to the mall. We used a Barnes & Noble gift card that I had received from a student's family. I found some very pretty classic books that I settled on to redeem with the gift card. I had intended to purchase Amazing Grace, the biography of William Wilberforce written by Eric Metaxas. However, when the clerk showed me the copy that they had, it was a movie cover. Belmont and I both agreed that books should be pleasing to look at and heirlooms for future generations. We turned the book down. :)

Here are the books that I wound up with.

Aren't the dust jackets lovely?

I think these will look nice on our shelf!

I hope to do more blogging this year as well, but we shall see! Happy January to all of you!

POSTSCRIPT-- I am including a few pictures of the Cannons' recent visit to see us in early December. What a fun time! Thank y'all for coming to visit!