507/365

This year I had the privilege of spending lots of time with family over Christmas. Not only did I get to enjoy the Campbell family traditions around Christmas eve and Christmas day, I also got to enjoy time with Ronnie's family.!

Just to share a few pictures of the holidays....

1) Christmas eve brunch with Ronnie's Dad and Kay. Ronnie's sweet sister had all of us over for brunch and BOY was it delicious! She is such a great hostess!

Rhonda is so creative and classy- love her cheese and fruit tray!

Ronnie and his dad... two handome men if you ask me!

Jeff and little Jules... Jules wanted to wrap up. If there is a dog in the world
with personality, it's Jules!

The cooks with Elvis

We skyped with Michelle, Ronnie's sweet sister who lives in California and couldn't be with us.
Ronnie's showing her Rhonda's new necklace. :)

Jules' new Christmas present!!

Hi Chelle!! 

I don't know why we were laughing but I love this picture! And I love this lady!! Rhonda is a jewel!

2) Christmas Eve with my parents, Great Aunt Broy, Grammie Campbell and Grandma Kline, followed by our Campbell/Bundrick REINDEER food tradition!!

Grandma Kline and Sarah Lou

Our desserts ... mmm... :)

Beautiful Ladies

So happy Jon and Ronnie could be with us for Christmas!

After dinner we all sat around and sang Christmas carols with the Bundricks... 

Of course, every year we have to throw the reindeer food!!

Practically sisters... love Elizabeth!!

3) Christmas morning we participated in the "Richardson family tradition". Several years ago my friend Stephanie Richardson stayed with my family over the Christmas season. She shared her family tradition  of paper bag stockings.

Ronnie, Sarah and I were so excited about the goodies inside our bag!!!

This is only a little preview of Christmas Eve/Christmas day in the life of Allison... I wish I had time and space to share more. In addition to all of the above, we had a WONDERFUL time Christmas day at Grammie's with my dad's side of the family. We then went to Ronnie's mom's for dinner on Christmas day and had a wonderful time! Danny brought out records of Helen (Ronnie's mom) from when she sang in a Gospel quartet years ago. We had a ton of fun listening through them!

 I feel so blessed and overwhelmed by the grace and provision of the Lord. He has given me so many good things- an incredible family, an awesome man of God pursuing me, lots of fun presents :), good health,... the list is endless. But the most awesome gift of grace given is Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for the relationship that I have and ALL can have through knowing Jesus. It's such a comfort to know that this little baby who we celebrate is THE Savior, and because of Jesus and what He did for us on the cross, we can have purpose and completeness.

I'm so very thankful for this Christmas and all of the memories made! Praise the Lord!!

500/365

Over the holidays Jon and Ronnie took Sarah and me on a special trip to Asheville. When Sarah turned 16 we did this exact trip with our family, so it was extra special to be with our guys! We first stopped at the Grove Park Inn to see their gingerbread houses. We had the best time walking around, sitting by the (massive) fire, sipping on coffee and listening to the hustle and bustle of Christmas excitement. After, we went to dinner at the Deer Park Restaurant, which is on the property of the Biltmore Estate. The guys had planned dinner there before we went on a candle light tour of the estate.

There were so many funny stories that night... for example, while we were eating dinner the electricity went out. We ate buffet style in the dark for over an HOUR! And to make it more intense, it was the Friday that "the world was supposed to end!!"

Lots of laughs over that trip and I'm so thankful for our guys for planning something so special!!



Gingerbread houses at the Grove Park Inn




The sky was SO BEAUTIFUL!!





Somebody had written this on the window and the light was shining through so perfectly to catch it with my lens.





Ronnie and me at dinner



499/365

Time to catch you up on my trip with Ronnie to Florida (In OCTOBER... I'm a little behind). Ronnie's mom and Danny take a month every year and spend time in Palm Coast, Florida. This year I was able to go along for the ride and we had the best time! We stayed with them for a few days and spent our time relaxing, eating delicious food, and exploring St. Augustine. What a great time getting to know Ronnie's family- they are wonderful!

Palm Coast, Fl
This was the view from our condo... beautiful! I'd like to go back today...

While we were in St. Augustine we visited the Fountain of Youth... Ronnie hasn't aged a bit since he drank that water! 

Michelle (Ronnie's sister) and Dannie (Ronnie's step-dad)

Trying on the gorgeous hats of the day...

Style at its finest!

The fort in St. Augustine

Beautiful sunrise we enjoyed every morning!

 Palm Coast, can we come back now??

487/365

Had the GREAT OPPORTUNITY to go visit Matt, Rach, Kathryn, Benton and Sarah (and the rest of the Grandview staff) in Arizona this week. Ronnie, Jon and I packed up our bags and enjoyed a beautiful trek across the country.

We were able to see a lot of exciting sights and experience many new things. It was so neat to show Ronnie the camp and to catch up with our family. Benton and Kathryn are just precious and growing like little weeds!

I hope to highlight different parts of the trip over the next few days, but for now I will leave you in suspense with this...

This was the drive to camp from Phoenix. Talk about a beautiful, unique, open sky!

Thankful for the last week of safety and fun... and also, very thankful to be HOME in Clemson!

485/365

Last week my family and some friends were able to go to a Laura Story concert in Belton. It was a TON of fun and a huge blessing! The neatest part is that Ronnie was able to reconnect with Laura's husband, Martin, who had discipled him in high school through Young Life.

What an encouragement- beautiful evening worshiping God in the Belton square!

A little blurry, but you get the idea! Such a talented, godly lady.

At the cute little depot- what a fun place for a concert!

Jon, Ephae and Katherine... 

Catherine, Aunt Karen, Josh and Christian

Ronnie and Martin

482/365

Ronnie and I have a little bucket list of things we want to do this summer, and one of them was to go on a random trip... so we picked a few waterfalls on Memorial day, packed a lunch, and conquered! It's amazing that though I've been to this waterfall so many times, it never gets old!

Sarah and I love this one- we call it "Create in Me a Clean Heart" falls. :) It's so neat because you hike in about a mile along the creek, and at the end of the trail is this GORGEOUS fall. It's neat to see the natural progression of the forest cleaning itself out- lots of dead trees fall and wash down the waterfall- it's just like what God is doing in our lives. As we grow and change, He takes the "old, dead trees and brush" (our old nature) and washes it away- He cleans us and makes us new (progressive sanctification, baby!).

SO, all of that to say... we had a GREAT time worshiping the Lord in His creation- beautiful day!

Kings Creek Falls- one of my favorites!

Add caption

Pretty cool back-drop for an eno....

Ended the beautiful day with a promise from God... thankful!

470/365

Thankful for a full weekend of meeting new people, celebrating a wedding, traveling, shopping, spending time with Ronnie and his family and friends, seeing Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (where Rdizzle went to seminary), drinking Starbucks (that we drove 10 minutes off of the interstate to find... in the middle of a mall... a free-standing Starbucks... we have problems.), visiting North Wake Church, ...

So thankful for so many things. Here are a few pictures to re-cap.

Ronnie's dad's dog... BO... is just tiny and precious!

Bo, once again. Smallest dog I've ever met.

So good to meet David and Amy and spend time with them!

Ronnie and his Aunt Wanda and Uncle John. So thankful that
they were willing to house us for the weekend, feed us, welcome us!

Thankful!