Holidays
This weekend officially started the Christmas celebrations, despite my denial that the holiday is actually here.
We headed up to the mountains of Virginia to celebrate with the husband’s family.
We celebrated birthdays, babies, and Christmas.
Last year’s babies are growing up already…
The boys stuffing their faces and no doubt arguing over the virtues of West Virginia vs Virginia Tech football or basketball.
And the holidays aren’t complete without an awkward tree photo with everyone looking different directions.
Now I just have to wait 5 days for the rest of the celebrations to begin…
Travel
A few weekends ago we drove north while my family drove south, ending up in Fredericksburg, VA.
First stop? A winery. Visiting wineries is like the adult version of going to a playground. {Not that I would pass up a chance to do apple turnovers on the monkey bars…}
There’s food. There’s wine. There’s grapes. There’s stomping. {Allegedly}. And call me a dork, but I like learning how things are made, wine included.
Our first stop was actually in Stafford, at Potomac Point Winery.
We learned lots of cool facts about the history of wine and how the vineyard came to be, but the husband decided my page of wines and notes was better used as a list of deck building supplies.
It was a little dreary…
…but that didn’t matter once we were inside taking a tour.
At least it didn’t rain enough to close the road. Can you imagine the water reaching the 5 foot mark? I wouldn’t want to live in that house…
The next day the sun came out as we walked around the historic town of Fredericksburg, right along the river, although it was still deceptively cold for a sunny spring day.
Family <3
The trip wouldn’t have been complete without the apparently famous Carl’s ice cream. Nothing like a pineapple shake to keep me entertained on the drive home.
Most of the time when people travel they go to the big cities: New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Boston… but seeing the small towns is fun too.
What small towns have you visited and liked? What about big cities? I’ve either been or want to go to all the ones listed above. 
