A Baptism and a Homecoming

How can I even begin to write about this past week and do it any sort of justice?

In a nutshell, we drove to South Carolina last week to get Finley baptized and to see old friends--but it was so much more than that.


You see, as a kid who moved around a lot growing up, I never lived anywhere as long as I lived in South Carolina. And, since I didn't move there until I was 24, that was a lot of years without a permanent home base.

South Carolina is where I had my first real job. It's also where I had my second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth jobs. (Yeah. I'm flaky. Sue me.) It's where we bought our first new car. Our first house. It's where we had our first baby. Our second baby. Our second house. Our THIRD baby. And more friends than I can even begin to count.

Yeah, we did a whole lot of livin' in South Carolina (or "Souss KAY-Kinah," as Baby William used to say, so, soooo many years ago). In our 14 years there, we went through so many phases of our young adult (and not-so-young adult) lives, and it was hard to leave it all behind.

But, luckily (or perhaps I mean providentially...), we've landed in a wonderful, wonderful place, which I've been telling you about in this blog in greater detail than you could ever want. (Chocolate factory, pretzel bakery, dinner co-ops, and all.) But, even living in a wonderful new place like this doesn't take away the sting of leaving our home, sweet, home. Especially for our kids.

So, this homecoming was huuuugely important. Important to me, important to George, and important to our boys. And it turned out to be all I could have hoped for.

While in SC, we stayed in the extraordinarily comfy and cozy guest-suite of friends who opened their home to us, even while they weren't at home. (And perhaps even more heroically, they continued to let us stay there after they returned.) ;^)

We were treated to a pizza party for William and his old 4th grade buddies at another friend's home. It was absolutely the highlight of his week. (Seriously! Who voluntarily lets a bunch of 4th grade boys into their home??)

I squeezed in visits all over Columbia--some over dinner, some lunch, some a quick cup of coffee--all in a desperate attempt to fill the week with as much time with as many dear friends as possible. The clock was my only enemy. I could have spent hours and hours more and still not have been full.

Oh, and speaking of full, I ate me some serious food. Serious. We hit almost every one of my old favorite restaurants: Yesterday's, Lizard's Thicket, M-Vista...mmmmmmmmmm.... --Do you people have any idea how many wonderful places there are to eat in that town?

We even made a mad dash down to Charleston to meet up with good friends from our grad-school days in Columbia. We're all old and tired now, and not nearly the partying fools we were 14 years ago. (It's those kids! Those dang kids made us so tired!) --But we can still laugh our heads off, still tell a good story, and still enjoy a bad joke. And we can eat. And eat. And eat.

Finally, we partied hardy with another set of friends on New Year's Eve--and even managed to stay up until midnight! And by "partied hardy," I mean we ate yummy food and had a good time of the variety that most teenagers would consider incredibly boring. (We might have even talked about the economy at one point. But, hey! We LIKE talking about the economy. We're freakin' grownups. It's what we do!)

But, the real reason we were there--the baptism of sweet James Finley--well, maybe I will save that for another day. He's asleep in my lap as I type, and I think it's time to put my full energy into snuggling his adorable li'l self.

Anywhooo...for those of you I was fortunate enough to see last week, I KISS YOU! --Yes, that's right. I KISS you. Smoochy-smoochy! I miss you and I kiss you! I'm so glad I got to see you, and I can't wait to see you again. And I thank you for making last week so special.

Smooches!