Part 2 (still fighting with pictures)

Part 2

As we were driving along, we looked behind us, and could see the kids dancing, and singing, and being crazy in the van behind us. I don’t know what they were listening to at the time, but by the motions we could see, I think it may have been The Chicken Dance! We were glad they were having fun, but also glad that we didn’t have to listen to all the FUN!!! ;-)

We had barely been driving at all, it seemed and the girls text us and say someone needs to go potty! So we pull off the road at the next exit, and potty and get gas. We hadn’t even gotten to Chattanooga yet! While we were stopped, I looked over and saw the sun in the sky as it was beginning to fade away. It was beautiful, so I had to get out and take a picture or two. At one point Sariah jumped out of the van and ran toward me to scare me! Silly girl! I wanted to get her picture, but she was too fast, and I only got her backside as she raced away from me and back to the van.

We started out the 5 hour drive several hours later than we’d hoped, so when we arrived in Gatlinburg, it was already dark. Very pretty to see all the Christmas lights and decorations for the season, but it would make it a bit more difficult to find our cabin. Apparently Liam started yelling out, “It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!” when he saw all the lights. We had to first fine the rental company to sign in and get the key to our cabin and directions. Then we were off! We drove through town, and began up the mountain roads. They had snow several days before and said there had been some problems with the road our cabin/house was on, but it had gotten cleared that day or the day before, so we should be o.k.

The road was steep and narrow, with lots of switch backs. The kids weren’t comfortable with that, and quite frankly neither were we, so I swapped out with Amanda, and I drove the van up the mountain road, following behind Bill. At the first stop sign, it was quite steep and a pretty sharp turn. The next corner we had to turn at however, was really steep, and at a hard angle. The road had was a bit slick, and my turns were just spinning for a moment. I got a bit nervous at that point. It was probably good that it was dark, as I couldn’t really see how high up we were going, or how far down we’d fall if we perhaps went off the edge of the road. The kids were all very quiet, and that was good as well. All I needed was to hear them all talking about dying or something!! Thankfully, they didn’t start talking about how scary it seemed until after we stopped and got out of the vehicles. We found our cabin, after driving down quite a steep incline as well, and it seemed you looked straight down the mountain to all the lights of Gatlinburg below.

We unloaded and made dinner and settled in. (Bill finally ate an actual meal, and enjoyed it!) After dinner the kids enjoyed the hot tub. Bill and I went back to town, to shop for the rest of what we needed for food, etc. for the next several days. We didn’t get back till around midnight, and as a passenger, it was a little bit different drive. You know how it is when you aren’t the one in control of the vehicle... I was a bit more nervous. We arrived back and we all settled in to bed for the night. The cabin had a master bedroom upstairs with a king size bed, and on the main floor the bedroom had 2 queen sized beds, and the sofa in the main room folded out as well.

Thursday – Christmas Eve day

Bill had done a little searching on the internet about what activities might be fun for the family. We had purchased tickets for an indoor water park, so off we go in our bathing suits, down the mountain to the water park. Winter coats over bathing suits, what a look! We had fun at the water park, but would I do it again? Probably not... the water in the lazy river was a bit chilly, and the big water slide was WAY COLD!!!!! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

The best part was the kids wading pool, it as shallow enough to stay warm, and then, the hot tubs. Those were nice, and big enough that when we first got there, (when it opened at 11:00) there weren’t very people at all, so we mostly could do whatever we wanted. Liam liked the warm water in the hot tubs, which weren’t HOT, but nice. They were quite big, you could almost swim in them, and Liam kept wanting to play tag. We had been there nearly 2 hours, and were quite cold unless we were in one of the hot tubs, so, at that point, we sort of decided, if we wanted a hot tub we could just go back to our cabin and use the hot tub there!

We went home and showered and dressed in warm clothes, and we considered going out somewhere to see some sights, but after he late night the night before, we were all a bit worn out. Bill needed a nap, so we decided to stay ‘home’ and prepare for Christmas. Sariah had a project she needed to finish – she was making a sock monkey for Rebekah. She needed a little help, so, I ended up doing a lot of the hand stitching of the parts to attach them, and then, She decided she didn’t want the hat to be matching (part of the sock). She asked if Amanda might make a crocheted hat to match the one that she’d made for Rebekah for Christmas, to go along and match for the sock monkey. So... as a result, we spent most of the afternoon in the bedroom upstairs. Rebekah had to hold down the fort downstairs, with all the other kids. Thank you Bekah! She made Christmas cookies with the kids. (I had bought some gingerbread cookie mix, but forgot to bring the cookie cutters with us! And then she did the pre-made sugar cookies.

We had a casualty... Rebekah burnt her finger on the cookie pan the last batch. It was really hurting her and throbbing/burning for hours. I wanted to get some ice, so I ran outside and got some snow. Snow - Natures ice pack. As soon as it melted, her finger would begin to burn. It had begun to sprinkle, and was supposed to rain quite a bit that night, so I got some more snow and put in the freezer, so we'd be sure to have enough for her. She took some medicine to help reduce the pain, but was still up nearly every hour all night long in pain, and needing more snow/ice.

After this we prepared for our traditional Christmas Eve Bethlehem dinner. Where we eat simple foods that might have been eaten by Joseph and Mary and the people in those times – we sit on the floor and eat by candle light. We have fish, and cheeses (like a brie) and grapes, and crackers. After we have eaten our meal, Bill reads us the Christmas story from Luke 2. We started this years ago when we lived in Japan, and it has become our family tradition. We never miss a year. We did this when we had Christmas with grandma and Grandpa in Virginia one year. We did it the year Bill was deployed, I prepared the meal and he called us and I had borrowed a speaker phone so we could all hear him and he was there a little bit more than just in spirit. It was special to be able to hear him read the Christmas story to us, even though he was so far away. So, even though we were in a cabin/house in the woods, we bought the food to have our special dinner.

After that part was over, the kids quickly like to move on to the next tradition of opening up their new Christmas jammies! Then after everyone gets dressed and ready for bed, we let them open one more present. Last year we started doing a secret santa between the kids (the idea is then I don’t have to try to run all over town and help the kids all buy things for each and every one of their siblings... not that it isn’t a nice idea, but it gets hard with all 6 kids). Anyway, so we let them open the present from their secret santa. Then we had to get 6 kids settled and down to sleep for the night in preparation for Santa to come.