This is how they do it

Let's review shall we....

Boston Snowstorm:

Charleston Snowstorm:

Yes South Carolina schools are cancelled today and Jason gets to work from home all for this skiff of snow. However you'll never find me complaining about snow days. After all I truly believe the real danger here are the drivers. Even without snow they're crazy and I can't even imagine in the snow/ice. Worst. Drivers. Ever. And that's after living in Boston for almost a year.  I will say though, working from home is not what staying home from school is like. Jason is cooped up in the extra bedroom with his two MacBooks doing his work and I'm trying not to bother him every five minutes :) Oh and now I have to figure out what to make for lunch. The fun part of the storm was the freezing rain. It's really beautiful on the trees and I've never experienced that one before.

MLK

This weekend was spent babysitting, recuperating from babysitting, and then preparing for Jason's sister to come a visit for a night.  Her and her husband and their three kids came in Sunday night and left Monday afternoon. At first I was a little worried about them having to cramp all in our town house but then I remembered we all stayed in an apt in Germany not too much bigger when Jason and I weren't married so how bad could it be? It actually was great and we wished they would have stayed longer. We absolutely love having family so close, it makes all the difference in the world. We went on a nice afternoon on the beach Sunday afternoon and then Charlestowne landing on Monday. The weather was so beautiful, 60 degrees and sunny, perfect.

 These girls all love Jason. He's so good with kids. 

Love the attitude from Macy

 So as Macy was playing this game a random stranger just came and started doing leg exercises interrupting both Macy's game and the picture, um....

Christmas break

Guys, life is SO good right now. I love the start of a new year. The last part of 2013 was really rough for me between big life decisions, being sick, and a few big callings to fulfill I was really excited for 2014 and so far things have been changing in the Hammon household and it has been great.

Christmas break consisted of visiting family up in Idaho, Utah, and now Georgia! We are so excited to have Jason's sister within driving distance. Family usually is just the boost you need and I'm so excited we'll be seeing more of them.  I was pretty sick with a bad cold so I didn't get a lot of pictures but here's a few.

Santa sand sculptures in James County park, not snow, sand. 

We kicked the Christmas weekend off by attending Jason's company party on the USS Yorktown. It was a 1940's night and everyone got aviator glasses. Jason was very much in character. 

Yay for flying home! Our plane was so small we actually got to walk out onto it. And yes, it was 80 degrees when we left Charleston and yes I was so excited when we stepped out into snow on the other end. 

These were Jason's Christmas PJ's with my brother's hat. He never sports this style but dang he looked good. 

This is my mom's Christmas tree. I just love Christmas at home. 

Isaac got a PS 4 for Christmas, he was so excited when he opened the box and found games but not the game console- hence the empty box. Santa made him hunt for that one. 

Jason's gift was speakers! The sound we have now is amazing. Mom sent them to me early so all he opened was a paper. 

 This is my sister playing her new Ukelele. She's played one ever since Hawaii when she was like 10. I just had to capture the picture. 

 And one of the best gifts was skyping with my brother who is in Hungary. He was doing so well and it was so great to see him! 

And with that Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope the fresh start has been good to you as well!

Ward Christmas Breakfast

I don't even know what to say on this. I was asked a month ago to be in charge of the ward christmas party because naturally the RS activities leader (aka: me) would plan such an event. Take out the week for Thanksgiving and I was really only left with two weeks. This morning I got up at 4am because I've been so tired and hungry and stressed that I made myself nauseas with a head cold and I couldn't fall back a sleep. I finally got up at 5:30am, got ready, went to the church, cleaned up a couple of things and then when people started to file in all the breakers at the church went out. So I was cooking pancakes on the other side of the church by myself trying to get food out for people. I was about at the end of my rope at this point near to cursing ward parties. By the end I finally let people convince me that it was worth it but I'm not so sure. Add in my inexperience, huge expectations that the breakfast will be a production, hormones, a nasty cold, miscommunication, and different leadership styles you get a me that I didn't know existed. I have felt enough emotions in the past couple of days to last me a year and Jason got more emotional breakdowns from me than he's had this whole year. But I have also been very overwhelmed with how helpful and gracious people are and so willing to help. I really couldn't have done it without them. Here's a couple of pictures. Our theme was the Polar Express and I was so pleased with the decorations. Food on the other hand... I think I might have to figure something out for next year.

Also for future reference, ward's tend to call on young married people to plan their parties and here's the reasons my dad gave: they're actually pretty acurate

5. Everyone else has done it before

4. they don't know how terribly everyone performs their assigned tasked

3. They can still rope their spouses in to helping

2. They don't know what they are getting into

1. They are the only one who will say yes

So I have now learned my lesson!

Story Characters

Today Jason and I took that literary quiz that's been going around to see which literary character you're most like, and my results? Katniss Everdeen. I'm not complaining, I mean who doesn't want to be her these days? It actually made me quite happy. Here's the description. I don't agree with all of it but it's not too far off.

You are Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games

You enjoy hunting alone or with a good friend as opposed to prolonged social interactions but this gives you more time to reflect on your experiences, adapting your strategies and approach accordingly. On bad days you might get fussy, defensive and hard to please and struggle with communication.

Like Katniss’ ignorance of Gale’s obvious affections, you might misread other people’s feelings from time to time but your friends will testify that if people show you loyalty and kindness, they’ll get it back in spades. Qualities they might call upon should they ever be involved in a fight to the death.

I made Jason take the quiz after he got home and his results? Charlie Bucket from the Chocolate factory... I didn't agree with it at first but the description I thought was closer than mine.

Your uncanny insight into people and situations make you very special indeed. You are gentle, caring, complex and place a great deal of faith into your instincts and intuitions. When others, like Veruca Salt, show ugly behaviour, you try to understand why before passing judgement.

Frustratingly for you, you often struggle to explain your complex emotions and intuition so you sometimes internalise these feelings, picking and choosing when to reveal your inner self. New acquaintances may find you undemonstrative, and your friends might think you stubborn at times, but those who get to know you will build a special place in their heart for you.

Middleton Place

Today was a perfect fall weather day. About mid 50's with the sun shining so I decided it was time for an outing. I took a DSLR camera that I'm borrowing to one of the Southern plantations here and just played around with it. (Thanks Camille for the inspiration there) This plantation is the place of America's oldest landscape gardens and was built off of inspiration from France. It was SUCH a beautiful day. I apologize that this is just a picture overload but hopefully you can get a taste of one of my favorite places here in the South. Here's a couple of my musings.

Fall in Charleston

I must say Charleston in the fall is a FAR cry from where were last year. Besides reduced humidity there aren't too many signs that fall is here. In fact the first sign I had was that people started getting sick. I'm ashamed to admit that this made me giddy because it actually made it feel like fall. At least half of October was in the 80's and we had our AC on and still believed in shorts. The middle of Oct. it tended to cool down and we felt like we could actually be outside which was a glorious feeling. I finally put my fall decorations up a week or two ago so now I suppose it's official. Here's a few things we did to make believe it was cold outside.

We ran to Costco to get our two Halloween essentials, candy and Liquid Gold (a.k.a. Apple Cider)

We made our traditional casserole in a pumpkin which was SO good

This doesn't really fit but this is one reason I love Costco, cheap gas :) 

And to see the Fall colors I go to Costco, not the Mountains. Leave it to Costco to feel their parking lot with the only trees that change color around here. I know you probably can't even see the color but it's big for here.

And we went to the LowCountry Fair! I can't say it was the best thing ever but it was nice to be out and about. Plus they had fried everything, even gummy bears! I didn't try them but I really felt like I was in the south. Also I got really cheap Chashmere scarves which were a total plus. 

These were a couple awesome flower sculptures that were on display at the fair. So cool!

And of course you have to have the caramel corn...and you can kind of see my fall table decor to the side. 

We don't have any special plans for Thanksgiving. Actually what sounds really awesome is to make Cafe Rio and see a movie which is weird. I'm usually all about the Holidays and holiday traditions. What's with that?