Are you guys related? No...YES!

It has been brought to our attenion by several parties that Matt and I have been somewhat lax in our blogging. So let me regale you with tales of our Christmas.

In an attempt to save money and because it's getting harder and harder for Matt to take time off of work we did not travel this Christmas. Fear not! My brother and Moe came to stay with us for a week. Although I suspect that their real reason for visiting was to meet our little Zelda-girl. She was very happy to meet her ninos. In fact, she played nearly nonstop with Chris the entire time he was here. Needless to say she slept very well while they were here. They very nearly didn't get here. Their plane was late leaving California and they came close to missing their connecting flight.

I could regale you all with heartwarming stories of our family moments lovingly shared in front of the fire. However we all know the most important part of any trip my family is involved in is the food. Chris, having visited once before, had a small but unchangable list of places he wanted to dine at while he was here. On the very top of the list was Mama Dip's. If you've never been there, on your next (or first) trip to NC, you should make it a priority. Both sets of my parnts love it. Matt and I love it too but, as Steph says, it's the kinda place you should only have once or twice a year. So waitig until people come to visit is pefect. Every single thing I've had there has been delicious and all the meat eaters hav also been in love with their dishes as well. The main reason we really wanted to go was the fried pickles. I am a firm believer that frying foods can only make them taste better. Things that are already tasty come out heavenly. The fried pickle is one of those heavenly items. The pickles at Mama Dip's are fried to a golden brown perfection, they come out warm and have a bit of a spicy bite to them. We got two orders and at first Chris was worried that we wouldn't be able to finish them. They all disappeared, within a matter of moments. The rest of the night we all just kind of laid around the living room. We were too full and extremely happy about it. To be cont.