It's that time....Christmas time is here...

We just got back from our much anticipated overnight trip to Callaway Gardens Fantasy in Lights! We had been in discussion forever about if we were going to go, when we were going to go, etc and finally nailed down a date to go down with friends to see the lights and get everyone in the Christmas spirit! (Luckily for the Smiths and Hunters, we booked a room in the cottage and they were staying in a villa!) I woke up feeling a little under the weather and felt like I had a stomach bug coming on but didn't want to admit it since I had also stayed out too late at a fun party the night before! :) We got up, went to church, taught 3K sunday school, came home and packed our bags for our fun overnight trip! Grandmommy and Granddaddy had had the girls over for a spend the night party (and they had so much fun!), so we picked them on the way, then headed down to Senoia for a Christmas visit with Great-grandmommy and Great-granddaddy! Let's just say the ride down there, especially in the car, I felt like I had been hit by a train! Ugh - misery! Anyway, I wish we had gotten some pictures of the girls with Great-Grandmommy and Great-granddaddy, but the girls had so much fun, enjoyed a delicious lunch and loved their new Frosty the Snowman dolls! After a fun but too short visit, we headed on our way down to Callaway Gardens to check into our cottage. We got to the cottage to find out the heat was broken...but, I took a very brief nap to try to see if I could bite the bullet and go to the lights that we had been looking forward to for so long! :) Someone came over to check out our heat and said they would have it fixed by the time we got back from the lights, so we bundled up and headed out!! We decided to take the "Jolly Trolley" to see all of the nights and it was such a neat experience! Here are the only pictures I got from the weekend of Ryan and the girls on the trolley, right before our ride began...

The girls LOVED the first 20 or so minutes of it, but about 20 + minutes in, Rhodes started to get a little antsy and the stomach bug decided to hit Ali!!!!! On the Jolly Trolley!! Luckily she had an "window" seat!! (I know, too much information...but so many things went wrong on this trip, I was laughing at the end of the night and I want to remember it all when our next trip is perfect! :)) We made the call to head back to our cottage afterwards (and thank goodness we did, because we had a long night ahead of us!) and skip the rest of the attractions/Christmas village/dinner/etc - we never even got to see our friends! :( (But, I am so glad we didn't since both of my friends are pregnant and one is due in less than 3 weeks!! The last thing they needed was to be hanging out with this sickly family!) We got back to our ice cold cottage that still was without heat and called and had to drive back to the Lodge, get a new room and finally settled into our new cottage with two really tired little girls, one of them miserable with the stomach bug! (We think Rhodes had it this past week - I didn't send her to school on the last day, but she got over it so fast, I wasn't sure if she was really sick! Praying she was though and that she doesn't get it again this round!) Poor thing! I quickly had to suck it up and take care of my little princess who was so tough and never even cried - not even on the trolley - she was such a trooper! Later that night, Ryan was the fourth victim (and he is still bedridden as I type!) - but I am so grateful that we all got it yesterday/today. I woke up feeling a ton better today so it is luckily short-lived and I pray we will have a healthy family of 4 come Christmas Eve!! Honestly, little mishaps like these make me feel so grateful today for all of the things we take for granted - like being healthy! And today I am feeling very much in the Christmas spirit and grateful for two healthy children today - and praying for a healthy husband tomorrow!! We are also praying hard that all that we came in contact with this weekend (especially Grandmommy, Granddaddy, Great-Grandmommy, and Great-Granddaddy who we saw that day!!) do not catch this bug!!!

I just can't get the Christmas Vacation theme song (note the title of the blog) out of my head...sometimes our lives can just be too parallel with those Griswold's! :)