Uptown Funk

The new year started out pretty awesome with visits from friends that live hours away and family that we usually only see once a year during Thanksgiving.

Last weekend started with a New Year's dinner with my favorite ladies from Food Lion. We laughed over pasta and bread as they filled me in on all things gossip at the Lions Den.

The next day, one of Jeremy's oldest friends visited from Burlington as we nervously watched the Panthers play in the first playoff game of the season. The guys celebrated the win with a couple of high-fives but I celebrated by going out with my sister and Chelsea to watch my cousin play a gig uptown.

It was an epic night as we danced, sang and requested songs until the wee hours of the morning. It was the perfect way to celebrate a Panthers win.

The next day we drove around South Charlotte with Reuben and Jeremy's friends in town, searching for a breakfast place with a short enough wait to satisfy our appetite. Apparently, everyone and their mothers decided to eat at the same time we did. After what felt like hours searching (at least according to our rumbling stomachs) we settled at 'Another Broken Egg' and feasted on a delicious meal.

We certainly didn't want the weekend to end but I must say, if the rest of 2015 is anything like this weekend, then it's going to be a great year!

Looking Back: 2014

For the world, 2014 was the year of the selfie, iPhone 6, ebola and more. But for the Singletons, it was a simple year filled with love and happiness. Once again, we filled a mason jar full of "the little things" that happened throughout the year. On New Years Eve, we took turns reading each paper, bringing each memory to life, reminiscing on what we had accomplished throughout the year. With that, we bring you our top ten moments of 2014 in no particular order.

3, 2, 1...Action!
Thanks to our friend Theoden and the random emails for GOFOBO, we were able to see a crazy amount of free movies this year. From 'About Last Night', to 'Godzilla', to 'Let's Be Cops' and 'The Fault in Our Stars', these movies had us laughing, crying (okay maybe only Asha on this one) and on the edge of our seats. We loved seeing over 15 movies FOR FREE! That may be hard for 2015 to beat.

Stingray City
During our visit to the Grand Cayman islands, we decided to "live a little" and swim with some wild stingrays. Let's remind you that we imagined "swimming with stingrays" would feature the smaller size ones we saw at the Georgia Aquarium 4 years ago. The wild stingrays that we had the pleasure of meeting were at least DOUBLE the size, causing Asha to have a mild melt down in the rough, choppy waters. It was a terrifying experience but one that brings many laughs whenever we bring it up. It was definitely a memory for the books.

Ya Mon!
Jamaica has been on our bucket list for quite some time and we were excited to cross this destination off our list. We could not have had a better day touring the island while we ate at local restaurants, became Jamaican mixologists and learned some key Jamaican dance moves that had us fitting right in with the locals.

Hair Cut
After 10 years of growing out his hair, Jeremy cut his beautiful locks. This sudden move shocked a lot of people only because they have only known him with his long hair. Don't worry, we made sure this hair cut was after we paid a visit to Jamaica.

The Adventures of Charlie Brown
About halfway through the year, Asha happily accepted a graphic design job at MetLife. Her 3 hour round trip commute turned into a 30 minute round trip commute adding extra time for sleep and overall happiness. The shorter commute makes all the difference allowing her to spend more time with family and having occasional lunch dates with Jeremy.

Filmmaker
2014 was the year of freelance video jobs for Jeremy. He worked hard during several weekends fitting in his love for recording video and piecing together awesome footage. He shot his first wedding of our friends Sairy and Julius, worked with small businesses throughout the Charlotte area along with producing videos for the YMCA when needed. Business cards will be making a debut in 2015.

Home Improvement
We were really able to focus on our home this year, making upgrades we've wanted to do for quite some time. We brightened up our home by changing the wall color from a dark brown to a light neutral tone. Jeremy was a furniture-building, picture-hanging handyman as he kindly built and hung anything Asha desired. We have only begun in turning our house into a home and hope that 2015 brings even more updates.

Burger Tour
Over the summer, we ate our little hearts out (and a ton of beef) as we visited Charlotte's most talked about burger joints.

Playoffs!
Both the Bobcats and the Panthers made the playoffs in 2014. This always makes for a happy Jeremy. We also welcomed our beloved Hornets back to Charlotte. It feels good to have the buzz back in the city.

Online shopping
The online shopping bug hit Asha and Jeremy hard this year. With the easy access of apps on our phones, we had boxes being delivered to our door on what seemed like a regular basis. Wayfair, Amazon, Jack Threads and Jane have been popular ordering sites in the Singleton household.

If we could give 2014 a name for us, we would call it Most Improved. We were able to focus on our home, improve on our jobs and most important, love one another. We can't wait to see what 2015 brings! Happy New Year, folks!

A Singleton Christmas

It's the most wonderful time of the year!
Christmas rules:
1. Laugh and be merry with family and friends.
2. Give.
3. Eat a lot.

Asha and I are fortunate to have both sets of families within the same city which makes it much easier to spread the love during the holidays. One of the best advantages to this is being able to double dip on Christmas dinners!

First up: The Littles

As we all gathered to get our grub on, it was clear to see Keegan's battery life was definitely at 100%. The nephew was "turnt all the way up" as he ran at LEAST 50 laps throughout the house. The best part of the night was finally hearing him call me "Uncle Jeremy". That was pretty awesome.

After breaking a sweat watching him run around, we eventually sat around the table and enjoyed a delicious meal. And of course, during that meal, Keegan took a few more laps. (Kid's gotta get his cardio in.)

Next it was time to open presents and luckily, we had an energetic 2 year old there to help us rip off any and all wrapping paper. As always, great gifts were exchanged. Ranging from humorous to sentimental,  and each gift was perfect.

Day two: The Singletons

Now it was time to travel over to the Singleton's neck of the woods. We began with another round of great gift giving followed by a delicious dinner. For this family gathering, we did a little more work in the kitchen preparing the entire meal ourselves. Can't lie either, we did good. Not to toot our own horns but… *toot toot*

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year. Despite the usual critics who enjoy telling us how commercialized the holiday has become, it's still heartwarming to see the joy and happiness on the faces of those who give and receive gifts. Even if we must purchase some extra things, bake a few more cookies, and spend a little more time with family, it's good to focus on some truly important things (whether it's forced or not). This year we had so much fun with family, gave (and received) very special gifts, and absolutely gained a few pounds. We followed the Christmas rules and enjoyed a wonderful holiday. Hope you all followed the rules and had a very merry Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's the time of season where your house becomes a littler merrier as you decorate it with cheer, the sweet smell of cookies baking in the oven fills the air and the excitement of receiving snail mail from loved ones is shown on your face with a smile. We've started our own family traditions over the past few years, always excited for the Christmas season to begin.

O Christmas Tree.
A few of our family traditions are, of course, picking out a Christmas tree the weekend we get back from Thanksgiving. We found a cute little tree lot that had a great selection of sweet smelling Christmas trees. We quickly narrowed it down to a tall, full tree that we packed up and took home while sipping on the hot cider the owners of the lot had to offer. We strung some lights and placed our old (and new) ornaments from this years past adventures. We've made it a tradition to start collecting ornaments from towns and vacation spots we visit; a great idea from a friend. This year's new ornaments include The Cooper River Bridge from my very first 10K (the Cooper River Bridge Run), Jamaica (ya mon!), Colonial Williamsburg, The Olde Pink House of Savannah and lastly, Snoopy for my new job at MetLife!

Apollo the red nosed mastiff!

White Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies.
It's that time to break out my recipe for white chocolate gingerbread cookies. I don't know what it is about these little things but people have said that they taste like Christmas. I have to say, I agree. Maybe it's something about the cinnamon, sugar and ginger...all topped off with white chocolate goodness. They are the best.

Snail Mail.
I admit. I have an obsession with Christmas cards. I could have mailed those babies off the first week of December but I stopped myself and told myself to wait at least another week. I can't tell you how much I enjoy receiving our friends and family's Christmas cards in the mail. It warms my heart. I love them all.

Christmas will be here before you know it! We hope it's filled with joy and love. Merry Christmas!