Christmas in Durham 2015

Christmas in February? I know, I know. We’re almost caught up.

Christmas in Durham 2015

I love saving up vacation days for the end of the year because I get to spend a lot of QT with family around the holidays. We spent the first part of our 2015 Christmas Vacation in Durham with hubby’s side of the family.

Christmas in Durham 2015

We had a lot of activities, including meeting up a local Greek restaurant, Spartacus, for a delicious dinner. They had a huge, beautifully-decorated Christmas tree in the middle of the restaurant, and we scored a table right next to it. For eats, I got the gyro plate, which was gigantic! It came with sauce, rice, and mixed veggies.

Christmas in Durham 2015

On one of the days of our trip, the girls headed into downtown Raleigh to see the Nutcracker.

Christmas in Durham 2015

Christmas in Durham 2015

It was a wonderful show. I loved seeing all the brightly-colored costumes and talented dancers. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the Nutcracker, and I forgot how many songs I knew from my days figure skating. The music is (was?) really common for routines. I also really loved it and would sometimes play it for background music during practice time.

My favorite song is Pas de Deux. One of the older girls I skated with used it for part of her program, and she had the most amazing spin combinations. I remember wanting to be able to do all the crazy combinations she did, and the song reminds me of her and doing six-change spin combos: camel, sit, layback, back-camel, back-sit, back-cross spin. With enough practice, I was finally able to get it, but it took a lot of work. I wish I could still do it because it was so fun switching in and out of all those positions. I could potentially get five of the six, but the layback would definitely be a challenge for me these days.

Christmas in Durham 2015

My mother in law has a huge collection of ornaments, many homemade by the family and even some cool vintage ones.

Christmas in Durham 2015

I love looking at all of them. I think I see something new every year.

Christmas in Durham 2015

Christmas in Durham 2015

I need to share a video of Bailey opening presents with you guys sometime. He loves to open presents! And, he’s actually pretty good at it too. I guess you’ve gotten a glimpse of it on his BarkBox unboxing video. And I think I’ve shared a couple clips on Instagram and Snapchat.

Christmas in Durham 2015

Here’s hubby trying to trick Bailey with one of those cone-switching games, which was one of Bailey’s gifts. He was pretty good at getting the treats. I mean, corgis do love their treats so he kept a close eye on them.

Christmas in Durham 2015

Christmas in Durham 2016

I love watching the kids open their presents. It’s so much more fun than opening my own because I love seeing their reactions!

Christmas in Durham 2016

Chessie was less interested. hehe. Here she is hiding from the chaos of gift wrap under the piano.

We stayed in Durham through Christmas day and then hit the road to see my side of the family. More photos from that trip soon!

1 thought on “Christmas in Durham 2015”

  1. Better late than never on recapping memories. I am super behind on blogging about the holidays and other family gatherings that I think I am just going to skip them. It would have been fun to look back on but I still have the pictures. Just not the same 🙁

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