Early December . . .
Well, here it is December and I am getting anxious for our trip to the Smoky Mountains. I love the mountains and it has always been my desire to have Christmas there. Sorry that there are a few in the family that won’t be there. But we will be thinking about them.
The excitement of getting ready is overwhelming. Try to get things together to make sure we have every thing in the cabin we need. I probably will get there and they will have every thing we need. But that is okay, best be safe than sorry.
The Day Arrives . . .
On the way down we had a few traffic hold ups. One was working crews trying to get the orange cones up. I think they forgot to do it the day before as I saw no sign of them working any where. The second back up was a tractor-trailer belly up. That was all in Kentucky. After that it was fairly good trip.
When we arrived it was rather shocking to see how high in the Mountains we were. The woman I talked to said we didn’t need four-wheel drive. It was questionable, but sure was beautiful. When Carol, Robert, Crystal and Mischa arrived I thought Crystal was going to go into panic mode from the height of the cabin in the mountains. Thankfully, we all made it in and out. It was beautiful when it snowed. It was fantastic to say the least. The cabin was beautiful. I might add they had everything you would need. Didn’t use the things I took. The cookies I made did get eaten. The company was fantastic. Food was great.
Gabe had the “Wow’s” and “Hi’s” going on. What an adorable child. Mischa was her usual little “Miss Personality”. She sat out cookies and milk for Santa. The look on her face when they were gone in the morning was priceless. She was so thrilled that Mrs. Santa ate a lot of the extra cookies sitting out. She said, ”She almost ate all of them!”, with a big smile on her face. So cute!
Christmas morning I woke up and looked outside after taking a shower and getting dressed. I went out and the snow was coming down really heavy, so I went out in my socks and started taking pictures. There wasn’t anything you could see to take pictures of, just a few rooftops. Our cabin was on top of the ridge of the mountain. To be exact it was 1600 ft + elevation where we were. It totally shocked me as I thought it was going to be in the foothills. I am a city girl, to me that was high.
It was fun to see my family really enjoying themselves. They played pool and air hockey, and Emily and Mike made use of the hot tub. All this time it just kept snowing and snowing! I guess it got up to close to eleven or twelve inches. LaVella said the plows worked on the lower level roads. I never did see any on top of ole smoky where we were. I think it was the best time I have ever had. Spent with my kids. I am going to leave it at that. I just won’t go down there in the winter months ever again. Of course I am getting so darn old I don’t think I have to worry about it. Next time, if there is one, it will be in the city in a Motel within walking distance, or we’ll have Christmas earlier. I have to get to 85 for the next one to come around. My children surprised me with an iPad, which I truly never expected at all. Of course LaVella did one of her videos. I am so grateful for the things that they do for me. I don’t have the words to express my appreciation. Except, THANK YOU!!!
One of the several moments we had, was someone was always getting lost, or someone would lead us out to go eat and they would end up going up the mountain instead of going down. Huh, Mike? They decided it was the GPS! LOL! Mine worked fine. I just didn’t have it working at the time. It was so funny I thought Emily was driving and I kept saying to Jess, “Where is she going”? I would say, “You go down, not up, to get out!”. I was blaming my little Emily and here it was Mike (her boyfriend). I don’t think he will ever live that down. I will admit their GPS device was not functioning right, as they were going faster than it could keep up. Sometimes it would loose a signal and you would have to give it a second to come back. All in all, we had a good trip. Let me ask you, “Have you ever had a time on vacation that something didn’t go wrong?”. Remember there were 18 of us. I am so proud that Jess seemed to really enjoy himself. I think it might have been what he was drinking. LOL!! He is a person that doesn’t like to be in a place closed up for a long time. He must have his space. Thank you, Jess, for coping with your family. We all love you for that. LOL!!
It truly was a good time in the Chalet!
I am going to end this right here as we are all trying to forget a few things that went on as we left the mountain. Hopefully they will erase from my memory bank.
After we got out of the Mountains, some of us had breakfast waiting for the others to get down and then we all headed home.
The final ending to the trip is we all are home safely.
A Message For Jess . . .
When things go wrong Mother’s always try to keep control of their emotions. When her children are home safe and sound, and she is in the solitude of her room, she usually has an emotional breakdown. And no one ever knows. She try’s to keep control at all times. That is what Mothers do.
So I hope you all have a great Healthy New Year.
Love to all,
Mom, Auntie, Cuz, Grandma and Friend
