Tennessee Christmas

This year instead of doing the normal holiday outings such as Christmas Eve at the Bray's, Christmas day at my mom's, and day after Christmas with my dad we decided to go for something different. And thanks to a very dear friend (Tisha and her family), we went to the Smoky Mountains. We have always been with family during the holidays so this was very different for us. We left on the Tuesday before and drove halfway, driving with 2 active little boys for 10 hours at once is a lot. On Wednesday we drove the remainder, stopped to get some groceries, and arrived at the cabin at dark (we were not in a hurry).

Luckily there was still some snow from the prior week to entertain the boys for a little while on Thursday. We drove around just amazed at the glory that God had created and shared with us.

Before we left the house another friend gave me the idea of leaving a note for Santa to know where to find us (Thanks Carey). So Hunter wrote him a note saying "We are going to Tennessee for Christmas. Please find us there." So we were covered when the boys asked any questions about their presents plus we brought "Christian" (our Elf on the Shelf). We walked into the cabin and Christian was already there to the amazement of Hunter & Mason.

As you can tell by the picture, we had a "Charlie Brown" tree, Hunter and daddy found a tree that had fallen and cut the top out of it. I had brought some lights and beads for decoration and we made a tin foil star for the top. On Christmas morning, the boys woke to find some of their toys and a note from Santa saying he could not bring all the toys to the cabin since it was so far away but he had left them at their house for when they returned. He also told them they should continue to be good and obey mommy and daddy because he could go back to the house and get those presents left. Santa drank his milk and ate most of the cookies that were left.

We played around the house for awhile then drove to Cade's Cove to view more of God's splendor.

More from our trip to come. . .

This was a very memorable Christmas, we had Hunter & Mason in our arms and Aiden in our hearts. We miss him very much but know that he was celebrating Jesus' birthday in Heaven and having the best party of all.

From the lips of children and infants

You have ordained praise. . .

Psalm 8:2