Holidays in Carolina

Sooo, it seems a few weeks have passed since my last blog post...this may be a long one, lots of pics from this month...I promise that I will be posting more often!! It's one of my New Year's Resolutions!

So where did the month of December go?! After I finished up my Dell contract and Kent finished up his exams, we had some time to relax a little bit! I came down with a bad flu which knocked me out for a week, and I recovered just in time for our party.....

.....since Kent and I met 5 years ago, we've thrown an annual Christmas party and decided to take that tradition on the road to Oxford. (We hear the Clarks carried on the tradition in Austin....so sad to have missed it) Our house here isn't big enough to have a huge party, so we kept it to about 15 people (who seemed to drink like there were 25 people!). Everyone had a great time on Sat. the 20th.

Next up, our first trip back to the US. The day after the party we had to get the house cleaned up (ugh that took a while), pack our suitcases, and swing by our neighbor's and then the Dean of the business school's house for some mulled wine and mince pies. Then we left very early on Monday morning...caught the bus to Heathrow, checked in with no problems, and headed to the American Airlines lounge (courtesy of our platinum status, courtesy of Dell travel!). Then as we walked up to the gate to board, the agent told us that we had a seat change. We were thinking something was wrong, but to our delight we were moved up to first class!! I guess they oversold coach and we were first on the list to be upgraded. It was an awesome early Christmas present!! Better food, on-demand movies, and the spacious seat!! Fast forward to the trip home -- same thing happened again!! I never though we would be that lucky-- now we're spoiled for sure!

We flew direct to Raleigh to invade Jen and Matt's house. We got to see their new house - it's awesome! I can't wait to come back and visit. In Raleigh, we got to meet up with Anita and Jason -- check out the baby belly pic (Kent just ate a lot of Mexican food). We also had a chance to catch up my college friends Erin B and Erin C for lunch one day while in Raleigh.

The next few days are kind of a blur for me-- I came down with a bad fever and flu on Christmas Eve. I couldn't even go to church with my family....it kind of put a damper on my visit. I was down and out for a few days, but here are some good pics of our visit:

The whole Cone family!

We brought Christmas Crackers from England--

Adam & Jenny's dogs got in on the fun. :)

Dad took the guys on a kayak trip down at the beach. Kent hasn't seen the sun in months and got a little burnt!

And finally, back in Raleigh to celebrate New Year's Even with Jen and Matt. I cooked a celebration dinner at their house, and then we went out dancing.....ironically at a new bar (I mean "gastropub") in Raleigh called The Oxford (not exactly like the 500 year old pubs here) We had a great time!