Brassart Christmas 2022

Because of Amiee's job and her holiday work timelines, we had an unusual and REALLY fun Brassart Christmas for 2021: Nana and Poppy rented the cutest refurbished carriage house Air BnB outside of Boone, and we all convened there for our celebration! It had two separate units (upstairs and downstairs), so there was plenty of room for all of us. There were carriage house cats (which thrilled Lily to no end), decorated Christmas trees, and tons of charm to go around.

Trumpkin approved of the in-house felines.

Also? Goats. (But we weren't responsible for any of the animals, PtL)

Another kitty

We divvied up meals/food responsibilities and made good use of the kitchen, which worked our beautifully. No complaints from this crew (ignore Brynna's crazy face here):

We woke up and had a proper (albeit prior to the actual) Christmas morning with special breakfast and present piles. This was, of course, followed by a viewing of White Christmas and exploration of our gifts.

Wearing their "Haynes sisters" dresses

The rest of our time was spent rather idyllically: naps, snacks, reading, hiking around the grounds, playing with the animals, watching movies, making cookies. It was pretty fantastic, really.

Some of us spent one afternoon at Amiee's house in Boone, assembling a bookshelf (and playing with her animals):

Lily's vibe in this picture pretty well sums up how we all felt about our Christmas at the Carriage House. It was so very fun and made for some really special memories.

It only took me 8 years...

...to make it to a Duke men's basketball game! It is *really* hard to get tickets to basketball games, and the opportunity just has not come up for me to get to one until December 2021. And when the chance did come up (off of a months' long waitlist), it was very expensive, and our "seats" were not that at all. We got tickets in the student section, which has no seating, as Coach K has always promoted standing and lively engagement in the game. BUT. We finally got a chance to go!

We were able to get a sitter for an open-ended amount of time that evening, so we got supper beforehand and then made our way to Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Proof 

And yes, everything in the Duke/Durham community was still masked at that point in time.

Found a spot up against a railing, so that, even if sitting wasn't an option, we (I) could at least lean when tired of standing (which was a VERY smart decision on my part).

There's Coach K. All the hype around him is electric, I have to say.

Grabbed this on the way out.

We ended up leaving early (Duke was crazy ahead and stayed that way) and getting home before 10:00 pm, which was perfect. We had such a good time, and Duke basketball culture really is something fun and exciting. I'm so glad we got to go! 

Duke fans

Being a Duke basketball fan is great.

Being a Duke football fan is...less great. Football is simply not Duke's strong point. 

That said, it's still fun to go to games! Especially when you get free tickets and food vouchers. The game we went to was really cold and overcast, but we just put on lots of layers and had a great time.

Apparently, we don't have a Duke t-shirt in 5T size...Lily just ended up wearing blue. Which didn't matter anyway, as we were wearing lots of layers on top of our Duke gear.

Everyone got these when we arrived at the stadium.

Lily put hers to GOOD use!

Free lunch!

We passed the baby back-and-forth...

...football isn't her thing, but snuggles are.

I think she rather enjoyed it overall.

Brynnie was over it really quickly, though. Neither sports nor the outdoors are appealing to her. Here she is, wrapped in Hallie's blanket, just waiting for us to leave.

Pretending to snooze on the way home.

We left right after halftime, which was good timing for our tired kids and also prevented us from having to witness the truly awful final score of the game... Go Duke, anyway.

Brassart October visit

Nana and Poppy and Bo came for a little fall visit! It was a really beautiful fall weekend, so we went to the SWEETEST family-run pumpkin patch for our fall-time fix.

Nana and Poppy brought L'Etoile goodies!

We were reading The Magician's Nephew, so Poppy got in on the read-aloud fun.

And Amiee headed over after work.

Pumpkin Patch ready

We went to Smith Family Farm in Hillsborough, and it was the absolute sweetest little pumpkin patch. Free admission- they just ask that you buy a pumpkin. We bought, like, 15?

It was a little bit sunny.

They had the best time on this slide!

They had a fun picture book displayed, page-by-page, all throughout the patch.

And instead of a hay bale maze, they had a sunflower maze.

We spent the afternoon painting (and naming?) our pumpkins, which is a favorite fall activity over here.

Brad and I were on the schedule to teach Sunday school that weekend, and as our lesson was that of the Exodus, I pressed my family into service as Israelites. They did a great job.

Such a perfect weekend for a visit with family. I'm so glad all the timings (and the weather!) worked out.