College Reveals, Christmas, & Carving Snow!
Somehow or another, we’ve already made it to the end of the year. I feel like 2024 went by extremely fast, especially the latter half of it. Pickles and Cucumber made their annual debut, complete with their silly letter about what they’ve been up to the last 365 days. They seem to get very creative ideas in the off-season for how they will surprise us in different rooms, doing silly things. Check out the pics. I completed the FAFSA form for Brayden’s ‘s college applications. This is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid that all high school seniors are encouraged to complete. It is basically a form that students can use to apply for financial aid for college. Through this whole process, we are learning that financial aid does not necessarily mean loans, but it can mean grants as well as scholarships where you don’t owe any money back. Just another thing we are learning in the journey of the college application process. Brayden submitted her 10th and final college application to Duke. This one was for shits and giggles. They don’t have any major remotely related to what she wants to do and she doesn’t even really have an interest in going there. She is just applying to see what happens in the chance that she is accepted. I know it felt great for her to submit that final application. She’s put in so much hard work to get them all complete.
It was time to start really getting serious about finishing up Christmas-present shopping for everyone, so I made my way to the Olde Mecklenburg Brewery for their annual Christmas market where One of Haneligh’s best friends mom’s was there, selling her amazing concrete pottery. Shout out to “Made by Kippen”! The next day, we drove down to Columbia and toured the University of South Carolina, which would end up being our last and final college tour. Brayden liked the campus, but wasn’t wowed compared to some of the other visits we had at other universities. They do have a really good journalism school, though, and the campus was very pretty and full of students, so it was great to see what campus life looked like. A few days later, I attended the annual ornament exchange that it’s hosted by my neighbor, Phyllis. It’s always a great time when this crew gets together and gets to see what beautiful and silly ornaments are stolen during the white elephant exchange.
The University of Georgia reveal was definitely one of the highlights of the month! This was on Friday, December 6th and Brayden was waiting with bated breath to see the status. The four of us gathered in the kitchen and she stood behind her laptop and was so nervous to even click the link to log into her portal. When she finally got there, she kept taking a few steps back from the kitchen island, inhaled and exhaled and finally clicked the button. She screamed, “Congratulations! Oh my God, I got in!” and then burst into tears. We all did! She started sobbing and it was beautiful because it was such a raw moment where we could all see exactly where her heart lay in terms of what school she really wanted to go to. Up to this point, she had only heard from Appalachian, but the reaction was definitely not like this. When she finally got to a place where she could focus on the acceptance letter, we not only learned that she was accepted into the major that she had applied to, but that she was also accepted to the Honors College, and she had received a scholarship of $10,000 per year, which will definitely help offset her tuition and other expenses. We were very grateful for that. We knew that UGA held a special place in her heart, but I don’t think it was until this moment that we really knew exactly how special it was to her. The next day was filled with Hanleigh and her looking up dorm rooms and then she began her search on Instagram to see what roommate options were out there. This has since paused because she wants to wait until the regular decision is announced because then people will be more vocal about whether they’ve committed or not. We know that getting into that school is an incredible accomplishment and she has worked so hard to make that dream a reality!
Hanleigh attended her best friend, Alexis’s, school musical one evening, which was absolutely adorable! The next night, Trent and I attended Samara and Mitchell’s holiday party, which we usually are unable to attend due to other conflicts around this busy time of year. I met up with my longest-standing friend, Susan, who I met in middle school, for an awesome lunch and time spent with her. It was so great to reconnect. She lives in Davidson, so we don’t see each other very often, but when we do, it’s as if we just saw each other. I love that. Hanleigh attended her friend, Stephanie’s, birthday party as well. They had dinner at Hawthorne’s and then went shopping at Stonecrest. Brayden attended her work Christmas party and I had dinner with Abby at Tap and Vine.
It was then time for another college reveal: Clemson. She was deferred there and we will find out the final decision sometime in mid-February. It was a bit of a bummer and we were a little bit perplexed, but it isn’t her top school. More to come on that. I attended my friend’s (Mary) annual holiday party, but this time she wanted it just to be ladies (instead of couples). She decorated the living room with her extremely whimsical and colorful Christmas tree and filled the room with candy. She’s so incredibly talented and creative! Brayden attended The Nutcracker ballet, where one of her best friends, Emory, is part of the production every year. Trent went to Stuttgart Saturday with his dad at the Porsche dealership to drink coffee and talk cars with a bunch of other Porsche owners. That evening, I surprised everyone in the family and took them to Jai Foot Spa, not knowing what to expect other than what my friends had told me. They sit you down in these comfortable chairs and your feet soak in water and your choice of oil/herb. Then they proceed to massage your scalp, shoulders, and arms for probably 15 to 20 minutes. After that, they make their way to your feet where they do about 40 minutes of foot reflexology. It feels so incredibly good that you can’t help but fall asleep. I think I snored a little bit or even let out a tiny, happy groan. After that, we had dinner at a tavern in downtown Matthews and then I surprised them again with an evening at Activate Games. This is a really fun place where you are given a wristband and then you bounce from room to room, each with a different interactive component. For example, one room we went into, which ended up being one of our favorites, is where the floor lights up with hundreds of squares of different colors and you are supposed to step on the square that correlates to the color of your wristband in order to get points. Another room that was super awesome was one that that has lasers where you have to navigate around them without touching them. We were trying to channel our inner ninjas for that one!
The next week brought two more college reveals: University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and University of South Carolina. She was accepted into both and received an $18,000/year scholarship to Tennessee, and a $24,000/year scholarship to University of South Carolina! Only a few more left to hear from until she makes an official decision! I went to for Julie’s for a white elephant gift exchange that had a pajama theme and I totally spaced out on that and dressed up instead. Oh well. It was a really fun night! Kendall and I had dinner at Napa in Fort Mill as part of our regular monthly get together, which has been so nice over the years. Hanleigh took a field trip to Providence High School to learn more about the various programs and get a better idea for what a high school curriculum looks like, even though she won’t be going to that school. Trent attended an F3 Sons of Ballantyne holiday party at Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, while I just relaxed at home. I’ve been dealing with a lot of crazy stuff lately and I won’t go into detail about here, but I needed a mental break and some down time.
I hosted the annual cookie bake at my house with all of the neighborhood ladies and Hanleigh/Ray. It was really fun and actually quite comical because everyone hung around for about an hour and a half before anyone started baking…and there were only two sets of cookies that were baked. Most everyone else had already brought theirs to my house completely baked. We had the annual family Christmas get together at Abby and Justin’s house, which was really fun and great to see everyone. As always, the first cousins exchanged white elephant gifts and there were some inappropriate and hilarious presents. It always cracks me up to see what kind of crazy stuff everyone purchases for this tradition. I had dinner with Heather and Tonya at Napa (the new location near us) and it was absolutely delicious. It’s always awesome hanging out with them!
We maintained our annual Christmas-morning tradition where the girls wait until 8:00 a.m. to come out of their rooms and then we film them coming down the stairs and around the corner to see all the gifts under the tree. We’ve had this tradition as long as I can remember. Christmas morning is always so special for us. We stay in our pajamas for a few hours, relaxing, seeing what Santa brought us, opening our stockings, and then we pause to eat breakfast which always consists of orange rolls, bacon, sausage, eggs, and fruit. Then, we make our way back over to the tree to open our presents. The girls did a great job this year of giving us lists via PowerPoint presentations of exactly what they wanted, so it made shopping very easy! After our food had settled, Trent and I I took the dogs on a walk and later that day, all of us (and my mom) went to Terry and Fran’s house for a delicious Christmas-night dinner. Uncle David had driven his new electric vehicle all the way from California and was spending a few weeks in South Carolina with them. It was great to see them that evening and the dogs appreciated getting their own Christmas presents from their grandparents.
The day after Christmas, the four of us went skiing at Appalachian Ski Mountain, which is about an hour-and-a-half drive from our house. It had been a couple years since we had all gone skiing together and the process was pretty seamless. We had had an absolute blast and the weather was great…it was in the lower 40s and sunny! The girls picked right back up on it with no issue at all! We even found a small terrain park with little jumps that each of us went off of. We aren’t very daring, but had a great time regardless. Thanks to Mom for watching the dogs while we had a fun day on the mountains. The next day, mom and I had lunch together her house and then she took me to Jai Foot Spa, so I was able to be pampered once again. I think this time I snored out loud. A bit embarrassing, considering you you are in an open environment that it’s only separated by cubicles, so everyone can hear everything. Then, we met up with Trent and the girls to go look at the gingerbread houses at the Ballantyne Hotel. That’s always a tradition and it’s so impressive seeing the works of art. If I tried to build a gingerbread house, it would look like one of those “nailed-it” memes on social media. We kept planning our June trip to the British Virgin Islands with the Mazzolas by assessing all the different flight options to kick off our trip by arriving in St. Thomas. This trip cannot come soon enough! Trent and Charlie had an arranged Vizsla playdate with two other four-legged friends and each of their dads. Lastly, we rounded out 2024 with Heather and Rob during an amazing evening to ring in the new year at Mike and Tonya’s house. We ate a delicious dinner, hung out on their beautiful back patio, had a dance party, and went to bed at 3:00 a.m. I don’t know the last time I stayed up that late, but it was worth it!
