Our Georgia Vacation (Part 1)

This year we spent Christmas with Elijah's family in Georgia.  We left on the 19th and came back on the 30th.  Elijah and I both pitched in and got our Christmas shopping done, Christmas cards sent, house cleaning accomplished, laundry washed, and packing finished by the time we left for Georgia.  When we arrived there, we just had to relax, enjoy the family, and eat good food.  

My children have a very close connection with their Southern grandparents and extended family.  For starters, Gillian spent her first two years of her life there and Jefferson was born in Georgia.  Furthermore, while we lived in Virginia, and especially after Elijah finished his law school and worked for the government (with every other Friday off and plenty of national holidays observed) we visited Georgia at least every other month.  Visiting them for Christmas brought out warm memories in all of us, and reaffirmed the feeling that home is where your heart is, and it's obvious our heart is in Georgia.  But maybe we left some of it in San Francisco :)

We checked out only one suitcase with all of the gifts, and as we boarded the plane they offered to check out all of our carry-ons for free (each of us had one with our own individual clothing and other personal items).  That was a blessing as we didn't have to drag them all throughout the huge Atlanta airport. The kids did marvelously well during the flight, each reading, drawing, or playing with each other.  Elijah and I took much needed naps and talked to each other.

 

  

James tried very hard to stay awake when we arrived, but a little boy can do so much.

Our stay in Georgia was filled with fun, love and fond memories.  It would take me days to capture some of those feelings and record our adventures.  For my children's sake, however, I'll try to pin down  some of the highlights of our Georgia vacation.

Of course, as you'll notice throughout the next several posts, our favorite thing to do was being with family.  That was the first thing we did when we got there.  The kids visited with their grandparents, aunts and uncles, great-grandparents and great-aunts and uncles, and ...without a doubt, the family dogs.

At home with Papa, Mama, Abel, and Rebekah

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa (my children's great-grandparents). They live next to Elijah's parents, on a property of 200 acres of beautiful land.

Visiting Elijah's granny (from his mother's side). She lives in town and Elijah has fond memories of spending the night with Granny watching Star Trek and eating plenty of candy.  Needless to say, neither of them have healthy teeth, but they both speak of those adventures with sweet reminiscence.

As always, my daughter, who has the imagination of ten people combined, and can come up with something hilarious anywhere, made us all laugh when she introduced herself with a straight face as the wicked witch of the West.  Here she is competing with Granny for the title of the most wicked looking witch, after finding an artificial grape laying around on the table.  They both are pretty good as witches..., but I think Granny takes the cake as the most scary looking one.

Charlton's cynophobia (a.k.a. fear of dogs - I had to look that up) almost disappeared as Papa's dogs kept jumping and licking his face continuously.  I don't think he really liked it, but he kept telling me that Drover really liked him because he kept giving him kisses.  Obviously he was trying to convince me as much as himself.

Papa had postponed picking a Christmas tree till the kids got there, so the morning after we got there we went out in their property and looked for a suitable tree that pleased all of us.  The kids and Rebekah had just finished watching Charlie Brown's Christmas and the kids wanted to make Rebekah happy and choose a Charlie Brown kind of a tree - her pick.  Finding the right tree was easy, but getting it done while being distracted by the gorgeous sunny day, fun bails of hay, rides on the golf cart, turned out to be hard. 

Here we are walking and enjoying the fresh crispy air

Remembering the many fishing hours spent on those chairs

Enjoying a ride through the property on a golf cart

Posing for pictures while loving the sunshine and the beauty all around us

 

I passed my camera to Rebekah and joined my family on top of the bails playing tag with each other.  Thanks Rebekah for capturing our fun in pictures. I sure did enjoy myself.

When we were done having all the fun that was to be had, we turned our minds back to our original mission - getting a Christmas tree.  Jefferson, Gillian, and James used their skills and strength in cutting a tree that suited Rebekah perfectly.  And then, Gillian carried it home.

It had been a productive day, so much so that as soon as we had the tree decorated Charlton found a spot and enjoyed himself a nap.