A North Carolina Christmas

Today is Christmas (Happy Birthday, Jesus). Heather and I had a good Christmas, and so did TaraBull.


Apparently, there is a tradition in North Carolina that on Christmas you have an "Oyster Roast," and Heather and I had the honor of being invited to one. Heather was overjoyed to finally shuck and eat oysters. Well the oysters weren't exactly roasted (they were steamed).


The oysters were then spread out on a table where we all gathered around to shuck and eat the slimy little buggers. Of course, Heather was knocking people over trying to get the best seat by the table. (Yes, he is wearing flip flops. The temperature was around 60 with just a light rain. We ate outside.)


And the finished product. (Notice the tiny little crab that crawled inside the oyster for a little shelter. Tough break.) Just a little shot of Tobasco Sauce and yum, yum. Heather and I had a race as to who could eat more. (Heather beat me by 15. Isn't that about how many inches of snow you got?)

In addition to oysters, the festive menu included smoked venison, pheasant, chicken wings, sausage, shrimp, and fried corn fritters. (Obviously, Heather had a very easy time finding lots to eat.)

We tried to order pizza when we got home, but apparently, for some odd reason, all the places were closed today. Go figure.

Until New Years

Merry X-mas

An Eerie Coincidence

So I was dinking around on the Internet the other night, burning away some long hours while Scott was at work (um, I can't seem to make it to the library during its quirky hours of operation). I stumbled across a website called Julian & Co. Hmmm....what's this?

It tore my heart out, yet again.

Thanksgiving

Last week Peri, Tom, Kelsee and McKenzie graced us with their presence for Thanksgiving, and we are sure glad they did. It was really nice to have a little taste of home. We had Thanksgiving at Janet & Dyion's house and there were about 25 people there (Janet's sister & family and Dyion's children & families), so it was really important for Heather (me too) to have her sister here. Thanks Peri. But the absolute best part was that the temperature was in the 70's and for the first time, I (we) got to have Thanksgiving dinner outside.

While they were here, we did some of the typical tourist things (like going to Southport). In Southport, there is a Christmas Store (of course called "The Christmas Store"). As we were heading into the store, we saw this Santa and his elf. Now we know why Santa is always so jolly. (Of course the elf wasn't turned this way originally, but Tom made me do it. He is such a bad influence on me).

(Sorry Mom)

By the way, I have a new blog. Its called "The Weekly Rant." It's a place for me to vent all of my many frustrations. Check it out. simonsweeklyrant.blogspot.com