What's wonderful vacation!

We had a great holiday!

This year was the first time in 11 years that Matt and I got to ride to his Christmas party for work since he is at a different job.  It was a much more relaxed dinner with the employees and spouses.  Even though it was a weekday, it was a nice evening for Me and Matt.

This Christmas Eve we had our traditional pancake dinner, but we watched White Chriatmas instead of Polar Express this year...all snuggled up on the couch together.

The boys had a good Christmas morning...new bikes with gears! First Ben woke ho 4:30 AM to tell me that the sprinkler pump was malfunctioning.  I sent him back toned but then we couldn't fall asleep.  So, up we were at 5:15 AM.  Ben got a pocket knife from Santa for his Cub Scout Whittling Chip he was going to earn in January.  Lucas got a new baseball bat.  Ben also got a trip to Chattanooga, which we added on to our to trip to Georgia.

After gift opening, we had to wait for it to get light enough for them to ride their new bikes.  They flew on them and were so excited with how fast they could go.

The over-shadowing feeling at Christmas though was the emptiness from not having max around.  We used to make doggie cookies each year and Max always loved opening gifts with us on Christmas morning.  The boys kept bringing up these memories during the holidays and had said that was really what they wished for more than anything at Christmas was a new dog.

After trying out the new bikes, we headed to Don and Wanda's house for a cozy relaxing Christmas day.  The next morning we headed to Georgia to go visit Grandma Gunn.  We stAyed at Faiths houses in Georgia, however they were down at Disney in Florida, so unfortunately, we didn't get to see them.  The boys got to play wit Garrett and Lance and enjoyed every minute of it...especially trampoline time!

We stayed in Georgia for 2 days and then headed north to Chattanooga.

It was 38 degrees and raining our whole time there.  When we first arrived,  we headed straight to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.  We got to take a train ride, which on part of it involved deboarding the train to watch a turntable in action.  That was really impressive to watch!  The museum had a bunch of engines and train cars parked out front and it was amazing to walk around see them up close!  The steam engine was gigantic.

We stayed at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel and that's where we spent most of our day in Chattanooga.  The lobby is a historic train station and it has the original train platforms and an engine and cars, as well as a trolley out back.  The boys got to climb on the steam engine and we visited a huge model railroad layout there as well.  For dinner that night, we went to the onside restaurant that had a singing waitstaff.  We enjoyed the evening.  By the end of the day, I think we were already to start heading back home.  The next morning, we decided to check out Ruby Falls before getting on the road.  That was amazing! We took an elevator 260 feet down into a mountain and then walked 1100 feet into the middle of the mountain and then we saw an amazing waterfall inside.   The caves themselves we so neat to see.

We drove 9 hours back to Don and Wanda's that day and stayed the night.  The boys decided to stay with the grandparents for a fe ads...including New Years.