headin' south

we finally made it down to atlanta on saturday to celebrate christmas with some dear family friends. i am so ready for spring and over this cold and rain, that anything christmassy has been the last thing on my mind. but trying to get a family of 4 together with a family of 5, during christmas, birthday, anniversary and flu season was next to impossible for us this year. so we celebrated a month later. em had a cheer/tumbling competition on sunday morning at the world congress center so we spent the night with our friends and all the girls went to support em the next morning. these competitions need to be blogged about at some point but i am still trying to figure out the most delicate and prudent way to do that...

so for now here are some highlights from our night away:

1. yummy champagne cocktails waiting for us when we arrived. beer for the guys. chips and salsa and appropriate drinks for the younger set. i wish i had taken a photo of the cocktails because they looked like a piece of art...so simple and so beautiful. a sugar cube and fresh blackberries in the bottom of a flute of champagne with bitters. perfect to sip by the fire and discuss meaningless things...or thoughtful things. just a perfect little drink.

2. getting to hang out with h.h. while enjoying our afternoon girl cocktails by the fire. and so glad we found a weekend to all get together. now if we can just get both of these girls and their husbands to rome. we promise a fire on the patio if it is not raining...and to christen our new fry daddy for some homemade onion rings...

3. manchego cheese to go along with our perfect cocktails. our new favorite cheese. we had it with sausage and crackers : )

4. wil driving in atlanta for the first time. we were not brave enough to let him attempt i75, but he did drive the guys down howell mill road to the publix for a quick trip. i'm not ready for this.

5. the kids making their own homemade pizzas and us almost forgetting them in the oven.

6. meeting sammy, the newest addition to the hazlehurst family. he is a rescue dog and honestly the sweetest dog ever. he is a wheaton poodle mix (and my friend says, yes, called a woodle). this cat person enjoyed sitting by the fire with him so much.

7. a yummy dinner at 10:00 saturday night. shrimp and grits (pasta for me) with asparagus. a chocolate and whip cream cake that called for seconds even though it was midnight. coffee topped with milk that was frothed with a frother from ikea? still not believing that. it was one of the best cups of coffee i have ever had! the frother is a new addition to the must-have list at $2.99. my friend has the keurig version at work and says this one is just as great for the price.

8. shopping finds we looked at while hanging out on saturday night...comparing finds is part of the routine whenever we get together. frye celia boots on sale (neither of us needs any more boots but these little fold over babies were too amazing of a deal to pass up), lands' end canvas line of swimwear on sale (classic styles and solid colors), olay pro-x advanced cleansing system brush (like the clarisonic but a fraction of the price. ordered mine sunday night from drugstore.com)

9. pb's diana camera. we took some fun photos with this and it is a great blast back to the past because there is no looking or editing while shooting. you have to drop the film off and wait to see what ya got!

10. the cheer competition the next morning. again, this whole experience is new to us and a post for another time. her team did a great job. but glitter, cow bells, shakers, parents screaming and tiny girls with fake ponytails (not em's team) is a lot to take in on a sunday morning...

11. amazing lunch at yeah! burger. loved this place. fresh and organic with just the right amount of grease.

12. a quiet ride back to rome on a sunday afternoon and a cozy evening in our pj's on 2 pear street. home sweet home.

thank you hazlehursts, for another memorable trip to your home. wil and em think you are the greatest!