A Savannah Family Christmas

Brace yourself, I'm feeling chatty and sentimental:

How about some heartwarming Christmas cheer? Hugh and I graduated from undergrad five-and-a-half years ago. There were a lot of things I didn't know on that spring day. One of them is that it is hard to make friends when you're a grown up. It's even harder to make couple friends, because ideally all parties need to get along for maximum enjoyment of each others company. So, after graduation Hugh and I lived in Savannah for a year-and-a-half basically friendless.

Don't feel sorry for us, because we really love hanging out together so we were mostly content, but every now and then there was that twinge of wishing we had someone to invite over for dinner on Friday nights. We hosted a few people and a few couples, but nothing ever felt right. But, just like love, when you stop looking (and inviting everyone you meet to eat dinner at your house) that's when it happens:

circa 2008

It's kind of like the perfect storm of friends (except we don't cause mass destruction, we just eat and drink and laugh). Hugh taught with Mandy and Brian. Mandy is married to Matt and they are the parents of Mitch (you know, MCubed). Brian is married to Ann. In January of 2007, Brian and Ann invited us all over for a Superbowl party. By the time May rolled around, we three couples were having dinner together every Friday. And sometimes on Saturday. And then we started having impromptu weeknight dinners at our favorite Mexican restaurant. We were like a little family, a little Savannah Family.

In 2007, Brian and Ann had one daughter, Iris. Then they had Opal and our Savannah Family grew:

circa 2009

Mandy and Matt and Hugh and I love these girls. They are sassy and precocious and so smart and beautiful and hilarious. In short, they have set the bar pretty high for Savannah Family kiddos. And now Brian and Ann have added a third beauty to the fam, June. While it's still too early to say (she's only five weeks old), if she's anything like her sisters, I know we'll all be crazy about her.

This week, on Tuesday morning, Hugh and I realized we needed to get out of the house. And Hugh was seriously missing our friends, because he doesn't get to see them every week like I do. I called Mandy around 10am, and by 3pm we were on the road headed to Savannah for a couple of days.

And the visit was just what we needed. We were all just so darn happy to be hanging out. I may or may not have teared up a few times just sitting there talking to Mandy and Ann and playing with the girls and holding baby June and laughing and drinking champagne and watching the boys chat it up. When we moved away, none of us knew exactly what would happen to our little family, but I'm happy to say that we're doing just fine.

Since we met, it's been almost four years. We've had two weddings, lots and lots of dinners, two new and perfect girls, one new and perfect dog, way too many glasses of wine, more stories and jokes and laughing than you can imagine, and one two hour move. This is what we look like now:

circa two days ago

It's nice when things change but they stay the same, isn't it?

I hope this holiday season, you've gotten to spend it with people you love so much that sometimes you tear up just from seeing them all in the same room.

Merry Christmas!