Travel Tuesday

Oh gosh. Where to begin! 

Let's begin with this: Sandy and Greg always spoil us. 

She starts with sending the itinerary a couple weeks ahead. This family likes to know what's going on and what we're eating! It looked like this:

Here’s the holiday weekend itinerary!

Saturday:

Noon arrival 

Mom bringing snacks for lunch

Happy hour (winter white cosmos)

Holiday game 

Dinner (crab legs, mini oven potatoes, squash casserole, lima beans, parmesan puffs)

Holiday activity

Open presents 

Dessert (Christmas cookie ice cream)

Sunday:

Brunch 11:00 Mac’s Chophouse

Watch Christmas movie/football

Christmas craft

Dinner (smash burgers and blue cheese chips)

Play games 

Bailey’s and hot chocolate 

It’s sure to be fun!

And it sure was!! To begin, her house was decorated so beautifully. First, there were the FOUR trees!

This is the live tree. It makes me miss ours. But I'm good with only one tree these days.

Sandy and me.

Elizabeth and me.

Victoria and me.

This is Sandy's favorite ornament and one of mine too! This picture was taken when we went at 3 a.m. for the opening of his "Kid Rock's Honky Tonk" down on Broadway. That was such a fun experience--especially since Sandy got to be up close and personal with Kid Rock!

 I took lots of pictures of all the handmade ornaments. I'll share them one day next week.

This is Sandy's tree with all of her childhood ornaments. It makes me so happy to see it. I love that she still cherishes them. I don't have any ornaments from my childhood. I do have a few that my mom gave me as an adult--but they weren't from our childhood.

This is Elizabeth's tree. Notice her giant "elf on the shelf" or in this case on Rudolph.

And this one is the "kids" tree with all of the ornaments they made through the years at school.

Elizabeth is the star at the top! No surprise. 

And now on to the itinerary. My comments are in red!

Happy hour (winter white cosmos)--Greg's specialty---they are so good. I wish I'd taken a picture of them.

Holiday game---Sandy hosted "The Price is Right"--she went all out on the prizes. They'll be in the picture below with all of my gifts.

Dinner (crab legs, mini oven potatoes, squash casserole, lima beans, parmesan puffs)--everything was so delicious! They make us crab legs every year. It's quite a treat. Actually, they've been doing it with their own family for years. We're happy to get in on it!

Her beautiful table with my mother's sterling. I love that she enjoys using it.

There are always party favors involved. This time it was Garrett's popcorn from Chicago! And, a shortbread cookie. I thought it was pretty clever that she folded the napkin in to a pocket for the favors.

Holiday activity--I sort of interrupted this with a little game of my own. 

Open presents--

We all wear pajamas just to be comfortable. It's so laid back and relaxing. Greg has a fire going with Christmas music playing (yes, there is football on mute in the background). We open gifts one at a time so we can all see what everyone gets. We've done that since our girls were little. We all look forward to it.

Dessert (Christmas cookie ice cream)--We ended up not having this until the following night. We munched on the cookies she made and the ones that I brought. 

Sunday:

Brunch 11:00 Mac’s Chophouse---This was our first time at this place in Marietta. The food was fabulous. I had the French onion soup, Butch had the Caesar salad and then we shared the French dip. Sandy and Greg had the crab cake Benedict while Elizabeth had the shrimp and grits. We shared the fried pimento cheese balls as an appetizer. Victoria wasn't feeling well, so she stayed behind to rest.

Watch Christmas movie/football--Sandy and I watched "Boy Called Christmas." I brought my stitching. The movie was good--old timey--like I like them! The boys watched football.

Sometime in the afternoon, I got to let Titan open the next window on his Advent calendar. It's so cute and fun to watch him get the treat out. I had no idea that they had Advent calendars for dogs. I'm sure it's a very successful industry! People do love their dogs!

He gets so excited! It was so much fun watching him get after it.

Christmas craft--these are so darn cute--from Target:

Even the guys did one.

Dinner (smash burgers and blue cheese chips)--Sandy and Greg are such good cooks. It's always a treat, whatever they make. We ended up having the sugar cookie ice cream later in the evening.

Play games--Our time together would not be complete without games--and lots of them. 

Bailey’s and hot chocolate---We ended up not having this. Actually, we forgot about it. Still, we were all so full, I don't think I could have added one more drink!

We got on the road early on Monday to get home. We try to get through Chattanooga before rush hour. We had the added bonus of the sunrise traveling through there at dawn.

And now for my gifts:

As you can see, I made quite a haul! The purple blanket is from Victoria. Her last chance to give us something from her college--Western Carolina State. I'll be taking it to the movie theater--it's always so cold in there. 

I got a set of Kate Spade notepads, a pair of really pretty Kendra Scott filigree bracelets,  a Kate Spade pen. The candle, paper plates and Myer dish soap were game prizes. The mug and hand sanitizer is from Elizabeth---it's a stack of tea cups from the Disney ride! So darn cute. I also got a pair of Santa and Mrs. Claus earrings. There's a beautiful candle from "My Big Texas House." 

Sandy gave us both some of the Rudolph mix. I got a bottle of Bailey's with a mug, a tin of hot chocolate, and a packet of Russel Stover chocolate Santas that you add hot water to make hot chocolate. And then there's the cookbook---"Break an Egg!" A take off of "break a leg" on Broadway. There are recipes from all the different shows. It's going to be fun to make some of those recipes. 

So, now you know why we had such a good time. When we go to Sandy's, I always feel like I'm on vacation. She doesn't let me do much. It's the ultimate pampering!! We love it! 

Of course, I'll miss them this weekend when the rest of the family gets to town. But we've learned to be flexible. As our family grows, we have to be. I'm grateful that we've been able to start a new tradition with them. We look forward to it every year. I'm just happy that they are only 3.5 hours away now. It makes weekends possible.

Thanks Sandy!! I (we) love you!