Happy Merry Christmas To Me!

For Christmas this year, my mom gave me a card with a piece of pie on it.

Ok, I’ll explain. When I was a teen, our special mom/daughter thing to do was go to the local Village Inn and talk about boys over a piece of pie. When you have two sisters, any time you get alone with mom is a good thing! Then, I met THE boy, got married and moved out of state. It’s been almost 17 years since my last ‘piece of pie’ so to speak. Obviously mom and I see each other 2 or 3 times a year, but it’s usually a family event, not much one on one time. While it’s no longer necessary to talk about boys, time with mom is precious.

So, back to the card. Inside she wrote that she wanted to take me to Charleston for 3 days/2 nights! Wow! We just got back and we had a wonderful time! Read on if you’d like to hear more!(First of all, in order to make this possible, Dean had the kids by himself for 3 days! Thanks Dean!) Mom picked me up and we went right to lunch at Macaroni Grill. It was great winding down from the kids/life and getting ready to enjoy the next couple days. When we arrived, we checked in to the King Charles Inn on Meeting St. This is right in the middle of downtown with shopping all around so it was our plan to park the car and walk everywhere. After checking in, we went for a walk to see what was out there. Our hotel was only a couple blocks from the Old City Market. We went there but the vendors had already closed down so we went in search of dinner. We considered Bubba Gump’s just to say we did, but we weren’t enamored with the menu. We found Hyman’s Seafood Restaurant. This was a great old restaurant established in the 1800’s. You should see the awesome circular staircase! Also, as it turns out, lots of famous people eat there when in town. (they enter through a back door) The restaurant puts brass plaques on the tables where famous people sat. At my spot, sat David Lee Roth. Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick were at mom’s spot. Also at our table were the Beach Boys and Jasmine Guy. Cool. They also have a general store where I bought the kids a few things.

The next day we ate breakfast at Tropical Paradise. It felt like we were in the middle of an old Elvis beach movie! Then we walked back to the Market

and browsed all the vendors. I purchased a necklace there for Alyssa. Mom found a great deal, too. An item that goes with a collection of hers was 90% off! She got it for $6.00! After that, we walked down to The Charleston Battery Park and Rainbow Row taking lots of pictures along the way. By the time we got back we were ready for lunch at Tommy Condon’s Irish Pub. More shopping (with much indecision on my part) brought us to a store we’d visited 3 times already before making a decision to purchase my first Vera Bradley. After all that, all I bought was a wristlet and coin purse! Baby steps. I also wanted to go back to a stall in the Market where I saw Russian Nesting Dolls. I finally decided to buy one but the vendor had already packed up. *Sigh.* For dinner we ate at Bocci’s Italian Restaurant. Mom and I ordered the same thing which turned out to be a good idea since it had a LOT of garlic! I have eaten more than enough food to cancel out all calories burned by walking!

On our last day, we ate breakfast at the Market St. Deli then went back to the City Market to look for the Russian guy. He was still setting up, so we went and had a pastry to pass the time! Back at the Russian vendor’s table, I spent quite a while trying to decide which one I wanted. I chose the Wild Cats. I probably paid too much, but the guy was Russian and told a lot of fun stories. He was very interesting and fun to talk to, so it was worth it. We checked out of the hotel by 11am and drove home. We ended our trip with lunch at Olive Garden before picking up the kids from school. Back home, we gave them our gifts, then mom said goodbye. Best of all, we had a wonderful time of fellowship with each other. Thanks Mom! I love you!

Roan quote: Showing me his work of art: "Look mommy, its magnicifent!"