" The Rest of the Story"

Now that the craziness of the Christmas Season is over, I must rewind and tell you "the rest of the story" about our fantastic trip between Thanksgiving and Christmas! When we left NYC on Wednesday, December 3rd, and said our " Goodbyes for now" to Amy, Corin, Evan and Pressley, we travelled to Philly to pick up our dear friends, Russ and Susie, at the airport there. They flew from Atlanta( their home now is in Dublin, GA)to join us on the 2nd leg of our trip. They were former BBC members whose friendship became even more special when we all lived in Jacksonville, FL in the '80's. After meeting up in Philly, we drove to Lancaster, PA to visit the beautiful, quaint, Amish country. I had read virtually all of Beverly Lewis' books about the Amish and had yearned to see for myself the location of those wonderful stories of faith, family and the "simple life". We were able to meet several Amish women, see their beautiful farms, observe Amish children at their small schoolhouse, read the inscriptions on the toombstones at one of their cemeteries and see their "plain clothes" hanging on the clothesline at one farmhouse. It was fascinating to all of us. We also were able to attend two moving Christmas shows
there in Lancaster. The story of Christmas truly came alive for each of us and set the tone for a glorious Christmas season.
Next we went to Hershey, PA and experienced the process of making Hershey products such as Hershey Kisses! That was fun and, of course, we had to sample lots of chocolate. After 3 nights in Amish country, we then travelled down to Charlottesville, VA to visit Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. Just as we arrived there, it began to snow, so it was a beautiful visit!
The last evening of our trip was spent with another special couple, Elaine and Jack.
Elaine and her late husband, Doug, were close friends also in Jacksonville. While we were there, Doug was killed while jogging not far from our house. Elaine has been through a lot, but we were so blessed to see that she now has another wonderful man to share her life. It was a sweet evening.
We feel so grateful to have had this great trip, but it was made especially sweet to have been able to share it with dear family and friends.

Family Christmas at Lake Hartwell

What a blessed Christmas we had this 2008! Twenty-two of us met up at Lynn and Art's house at Lake Hartwell to celebrate the birth of Jesus together. Jeffery and Amanda couldn't be with us this year,and we missed them. We'll always miss Debbie and Pop,too, but how grateful we are to still have Granny with us at age 88! She is amazing, and such a special part of our family. She is the reason we are who we are today.
This year we have a precious addition to the family. Melissa and Jake have a new son, Michael, this year. He arrived 13 days ago- just in time for Christmas! As you can see, none of us could keep our hands off of him.

Christmas at the Pressley's

Last night was the time we celebrated Christmas with our children, grandchildren and my Mom. After dinner at Outback, we came back to our house and had dessert and exchanged gifts. What a fun, but wild time! We try to make things a little less hectic by letting each child open one gift at a time( from youngest to oldest). This works pretty well, but eventually, there is absolutely no floor space left because of the wrapping paper, toys, bows, etc. It was such a sweet time. After opening her presents, Abby announced that she had received EVERYTHING she wanted.

Another Lefty-- Finally!

All my life, I've wondered why I'm the only one in the entire "family tree" to be left-handed. No one has ever shared my left-handedness. Now, finally, I have a fellow "lefty"!!!!! We've been suspecting it for a while, but now I think we can pronounce it "official"-Pressley is a Lefty!

Photos From NYC

I'm so far behind--I thought I was in 1st place!

Until tonight, this quote(which is on my refrigerator) was my theme-song. We have had a fantastic time traveling, but man, have I gotten behind with Christmas cards,shopping,baking,etc. Today though, I am feeling a little less frustrated. Making a list and checking it off really helps. We had taken pictures of all 4 grandchildren and ordered our cards from Shutterfly before we left, but thats all. Our goal for today was to buy the stationary and envelopes for our letters, print the letters,stuff and stamp them ,and have them ready to drop in the mail tomorrow. Believe it or not, we accomplished our goal, and on top of that, we also bought groceries, candles, and a new printer--and baked a pound cake for the musical at church tomorrow night! Wow! Never thought we could get all that done.
Now that all that stress is off--let me tell you about our trip. On Friday after Thanksgiving, Ralph and I took off in the car toward NY to meet up with Amy and her family(who had flown up there on Thanksgiving afternoon). They stayed with Corin's sister in upstate NY until Sunday afternoon--at which time, we met at the Hilton Garden Inn on 8th and 48th. Let me tell you, our two Mccarthy G-babies are real troopers. We walked all over NYC, saw the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, took a carriage ride in Central Park, visited the Build-A-Bear store on 5th Avenue, went to the Top of the Rock, visited the Statue of Liberty(Livery, as Pressley pronounces it), etc, etc. Except for one melt-down from Pressley, they loved it all and didn't complain! It was all such fun, and great for us to have such experienced guides.