I don't miss scraping the windshield

I recently visited Dave and Jodi at their new home in Maryland and had quite a surprise when the fluffy white stuff started piling up!  My car has never seen snow, since she was purchased in Charleston, moved to Naples, and now lives here at the beach.  Just had to take a picture!  No snow here in OBX, although its cold enough, brrrrr!!!

Santa Paws

Our pups are ready for Santa Paws to visit tonight! Maverick makes a fine-looking reindeer and Sheba is mischevious enough to be a perfect elf. They are so excited to be in Atlanta with their furry friends. Ten stockings for 5 people and 5 dogs, they are quite content!

Light Alert!

This house won the Today Show's contest in 2005 and has continued to out-do themselves every year. And its only a few miles from our house! We checked it out the other night and I kept thinking how much prettier would it be with a blanket of fluffy white snow, which the weathermen are predicting for this weekend!

Ben gives a tour- on youtube!

Cozy Fireplace

Now that its starting to get chilly at night, we cranked up the fireplace and the whole family got cozy in the living room.  And the best part is that they are ceramic logs so there's no mess!  Just flip the switch on the wall and viola, warmth :)

Hurricane and Nor'easter

Hurricane Ida came up the coast as a nor'easter formed offshore and created quite a mess on the Outer Banks.  Schools were closed during the 75mph winds and Fortunately for us, we headed to Pennsylvania half-way through so we missed the worst of it and the messy cleanup.  Our house was fine but there was a lot of beach erosion and the roads were closed in a lot of places for up to a week after the storm.  See the newspaper website of some dramatic photos here.  A local photographer, Michael Halminski, has posted these (and more) photos on his blog: http://photoblog.michaelhalminski.com/

The only road through Hatteras Island was closed for over a week!

 

The sandbags used to be under a huge dune between the ocean and the road in Rodanthe.

 

Here is a closeup of the Nights in Rodanthe house- owners have 10 days to remove it.

Cottage no more in Kill Devil Hills

Streets of Kill Devil Hills

Streets in Kitty Hawk

That's Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel taking a picture of this house in Nags Head.

Chris-giving in Pennsylvania

The time seems to be really flying by, just like always, but especially since we already celebrated both Thanksgiving and Christmas, hence Chris-giving.  Working in the same office means that taking vacation at the same time can be tough, so we've already been to PA and back since the first few weeks of November are on the slow side for visitors.

This was Sheba's first visit to PA and boy did she love it!  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and 60's, which is quite surprising for November.  Both dogs loved to run through the fallen leaves, so pretty.  We went birding at Presque Isle, of course, and did some shopping, too.  Taking the dogs to the farm was an experience- I'm pretty sure Sheba has never been close to a cow before, haha, because one almost licked her on the head just like they did Maverick last year.  He knew what to expect this year and didn't get within reach this time!  They both had a lovely time running around, chasing kitty-cats, and sniffing everything in sight.  Maverick particularly liked the free-roaming chicken, maybe because he loves birds so much.

We had a lovely dinner and saw lots of family.  Ben learned how to clean, stuff, and roast a turkey!  I really made out at our gift-giving: new cookbooks, fancy food processor, silicone muffin cups, fuzzy socks, good books and movies, and a Sam's Club membership!  Thanks, everyone, for making our visit so great :)