Traveling Together - New Year's Eve

We got up early and drove 45 minutes to find church services.

When we got back to the condo, Baby Doll made us all grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. It was a lazy day. Crafty, Sport, and Curly went on a hike. 

We played some cards...

And watched a little TV. The Dog Walker worked on the pics for his latest book.

We rang in the new year with Nashville Country music. Happy New Year!!

Traveling Together - Chattanooga

Last night we watched an old movie from 1984 called The Chattanooga Choo Choo, and today we drove to the city in Tennessee called Chattanooga. Our first stop was the Tennessee Valley Railroad. We just had to ride on a train!

We arrived a bit early, so we wandered through the gift shop.

Then the Dog Walker read us a story.

Finally it was time to board the train.

We didn’t have time for an all day trip, and this was only 45 minutes.

 

  

My sweetie loved the roundhouse demo and the tunnel.

After we left the train station, we stopped at Waffle House for lunch.

It was relatively cheap, diner-type food, but with tip it still cost us well over $100 for the 8 of us. So my sweetie devised a plan. Each kid would plan and cook a meal. So we drove a couple of blocks to Food City. Girls went one way. Boys the other; and the planning began. Surprisingly, there was no overlap.

A couple of hours later and we were back in the condo. Crafty made eggs and fruit for dinner and the kids played Skull Kings.

Love the family time.

Traveling Together - Big Canoe

We had planned to spend a few hours getting to know Atlanta, but we got a message from our condo, and I quote, "Big Canoe may begin to be impacted by a winter weather system Friday afternoon through Saturday morning. The system may produce snow as light as a dusting 

to an inch."

Now being from Utah where an inch is nothing, we laughed a little and then got on the road. Their threat to close the gate and not let us in was real.

We drove straight through with only one quick potty stop. Georgia is beautiful, even in the winter. Yards are huge and so are many of the houses. I should have taken pics for you....maybe on the way back.

We didn't see snow, but the patio was wet. We spent the evening inside, cooking supper and playing games. Just the sort of evening I hoped for.

A good time was had by all.

Traveling Together - Stone Mountain

My sweetie and I have talked about a family vacation instead of  big Christmas for years now, and with Sport and Crafty home from their missions, it seemed like a perfect time. When the 8-occupancy condo came up in Georgia, we jumped on it.

We used miles and bogo passes to get 8 tickets for Georgia and we were ready to go. Almost.

The flight left at 6:30AM, so that meant we had to be at the airport at 4:30. Thankfully, Bossy was willing to give us a ride. A few hours later, we were in Atlanta. We couldn't check into the condo until tomorrow, so we arranged a hotel stay at Stone Mountain. They had a Christmas festival going on and my sweetie was really excited about the train and the tram.

The tram took us to the top of the mountain. The kids were excited to explore for a little bit.

Then we rode the train, ate chicken fingers and fries, and watched a pared down version of The Polar Express in the 4D Theater.

Finally, we watched a light show using drones and lasers and huge pics projected on the mountain. 

Back at the hotel about 9:30 and the kids were exhausted. Everyone is asleep but me.

More adventures tomorrow!

Guest Blog: Our Worst Boxing Day Ever by Sweetie

So for years we have joked about the British boxing day being the day we box up Christmas. I grew up leaving everything up until New Year's.. but my wife’s mom would leave the tree in sometimes until Valentine's Day. So she and some of her sisters (can’t stand it, something about embarrassment as a child) the day after.. sometimes Christmas night, it's time to start boxing things up. But that’s not what we are talking about today...

A few days ago, my father-in-law went to stay with his other kids... it didn’t go well. Now honestly, we think he probably had the narovirus, so they had it worse than normal, but the result was twofold:  One, they were not excited about taking him for a week over New Year’s while we go play in a condo in Georgia, and second, they were concerned that he was too much work for their sister to be taking on by herself. Between that and an incident a few days before when he got up, took his pills.. took a nap and got up and took his pills… She was finally ready to make the difficult step of moving him into an assisted living center.

Even though it’s the right thing, it’s a huge stress, boxing up his clothes, moving some furniture, trying to make his new room feel like home. We took a couch and his puzzle table from the family room, bought a new bookcase that looked like the one in his room, took the tv from his room, hung family pictures...

His bed and bedding is all new, but there is a nice blanket with a picture of him and all 8 of his kids his son gave him for Christmas. We hope that stocking the fridge with root beer, Glucerna, and water bottles will make him happy. We are trying everything we can think of to make this easier on him.

Yesterday he was fine, he knew where he was going, remembered that the drive from the care center to our house is about 1 minute.. they counted it after visiting last week. And was excited that the branch in the care center is part of our stake and many of the people serving there are from our ward and know and love him. But even with that today.. he was mad.. why are you kicking me out.. where is my bed.. why are you being so mean… in the end it will be, but for a few hours today it was awfully emotionally draining.

This evening Sandy ate dinner with him. Evidently news is already out about a new resident.. a single man.. good looking, good health … doesn’t even take any night pills… It seems like an assisted living center is maybe a bit like grade school.. they go on field trips and a bit like middle school where the girls all want some guy to pay attention to them… 

I think he will be just fine.. plus we are only a minute away.. probably easier to visit than trudging to the basement.

 

Christmas Eve

Santa visits Bossy's house.

Fun charcuterie for dinner plus my sweetie's ham and bean soup.

Getting ready for Santa.

Happy Christmas Eve.