We spent part of our Christmas holiday with Aaron's family and part with my family.... We stayed in a fabulous cabin in the mountains and celebrated John' s70th birthday alongside of Christmas - it was so nice to be together with Aaron's entire family, a rarity with such busy schedules. We had a lovely visit to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC - it was beautifully decorated for Christmas and reminded me a lot of our days in Nashville at the Opryland Hotel...If you're ever up this way, it's a must see!!!
This was our view from the Sunset Terrace at Grove Park Inn where we had lunch while we were there...it was amazing!!
My two favorite boys!!!!
John Carl, John Aaron, and John Atticus...three generations!!!
We had to stop in the antique car exhibit while in Asheville (Dad, you will love this and I promise to take you on your next trip north!!). It was pretty spectacular (and all owned by one single person!).
Asheville is known for its plethora of art galleries, so we spent one morning walking through as many as we could squeeze into the day - several were "working galleries" and we could actually watch the artists create their masterpieces!! Grandma and Atticus took a break and shared a laugh and a smile over a gingerbread cookie!
Nathan on the other hand opted for the Chocolate Bacon Milkshake....yes, that is a piece of chocolate covered bacon sticking out of the top of his milkshake...interesting to say the least...and certainly not plant based so I passed on the offer to taste :)
It was a rainy day in Asheville so we picked up this adorable umbrella hat for Atticus...so cool!
While in the mountains we had a surprise 70th birthday party for John! Several of their extended family members live nearby so we secretly invited them to the cabin and had a covert operation to get a birthday cake and 10 large pizzas into the cabin without the birthday boy finding out! Atticus was eager to celebrate....and dance!
John and his sister Bev share the same birthday (this was her 75th birthday) so she was able to come celebrate as well...good times were had by all!!
Auntie M and Atticus are two peas in a pod - he loves her and I'm pretty sure she thinks he's an ok little guy too! Sweet moments together!
Happy Boy!
John got a Brookstone chair massager and we all got our turn in the hot seat! Thanks for sharing Pa Grape!
Just "some" of the Simmons family that came to celebrate :)
Gingerbread House time!! Thanks to Uncle Evan we had a pretty spectacular gingerbread house! Atticus did a lot of licking his fingers while Uncle Evan did all the hard work :)
The finished product!!!
After a few days at the cabin we came back to our house and opened presents!!! We combined Christmas Adam, Christmas Eve and Christmas all into one day since everyone was only at the house for a short time.
Christmas Eve it was just the three of us and it was perfect! We let Atticus open his stocking and he was quite impressed with all his loot...but his favorite was the silly puddy!!!!
It's amazing how much stuff you can fit into a stocking!!
We decorated gingerbread men cookies to leave for Santa...and some carrots for the reindeer!
Atticus tried to convince us that he needed to sleep by the fireplace and guard the cookies to make sure nobody else ate them (I guess he was afraid his mom and dad were gonna eat them...).
(I took this picture with the timer set on my camera and ran and jumped in next to Aaron...absolutely can not believe we are all looking at the camera with our eyes open and smiling!!!)
Christmas morning we opened presents and then it was a full day of playing with all his new toys!!
Aaron and Atticus coloring his new fireman puzzle!!
When we visited Santa there were a few things Atticus consistently asked for...here they are:
"a green garbage truck with noisy orange handle".
"a lightening mcqueen race car and track"
"a switch and go dino" (and he would sing the song that goes with the commercial)
Lots more pictures to come...stay tuned for Christmas Part 2 coming soon!
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