We had a wonderful Christmas!  Just wonderful!   But, the whole Christmas season ate my lunch. 

So, we decided to take a quick, little post-Christmas getaway to the Smoky Mountains.  Just our little family and Blair's sweet boyfriend, John Samuel, who we basically consider one of us now.  We had a great time!  I'll hit the high spots with some pictures because who doesn't like vacation slides? 

Nine hours in the car together and the lines of personal space start to become blurred.  We had one in the backseat with a bladder about half the size of a walnut and two others who would've been up for eating at each exit if given the chance.  Davis is all about the ETA and I was the mediator betwixt them all.  By about hour #8, Carson best summed up the mood in the vehicle, "I think we're all starting to get testy."

Different people have different ideas about what constitutes a vacation.  The rest of my family lives with the delusion that vacation must involve vertical movement and accelerated heart rates while I maintain that just the opposite is true.  Our first little hike started out ok.  I was keeping up at first but everyone started pulling farther and farther ahead......except for Davis who was being chivalrous and hanging back with me.  Soon, the kids disappeared like they were part mountain goat and I insisted that Davis go ahead and catch up to them.  I mean there wasn't any reason for us both to be slow and miserable.  At about the point pictured below, small children and elderly Chinese women with canes started passing me.  I tried not to think about the warning posted at the trailhead stating that there had been a bear mauling death on this very plot of land.  I'm not sure what my family was thinking but could've been something like....."Hey, let's take Mom, who's been convalescing for the last couple of weeks, up the side of a mountain and run off and leave her for dead."   
Anyway, while I was back who knows where with the bears and the international elderly, they all ran to the top and took pictures.  I suppose so they could each remember where they were the day their mother was mauled. 

              
If I might add here......another clue that you might not be on a relaxing vacation is when the subject of death keeps coming up. 
 

I did try to appear somewhat rugged and outdoorsy for some of the pictures. 
 
One day, I did do enough to cause my Fitbit to refer to me as an overachiever.  So, there. 
                             
As if climbing mountains weren't enough, Blair would lead planking and ab sessions in the floor of the condo each night for anyone interested.  Not pictured: Joni.  She, being 4 months and 1 week away from a degree in nutrition, was also quick to interject a, "We don't need that," at each mention of fatty or fried foods.  Vacation killjoy.

Anyway, I came home and there it all was.  It looked like Christmas had vomited all over our house and it had been left there to dry for about a week.  Now, generally, I'm the one who is taking all the decorations down the morning of the 26th because I am a firm believer in "when it's over, it's over".  But, our schedule didn't allow that this year.  We did take the tree down on Christmas night because of its eerie likeness to kindling but we left the rest in its place.

Today, I started taking all the decorations down.  You know how your house looks so empty when you take down your Christmas stuff?  I mean, you get used to having large trees and evergreen garland in your living room and then when they're gone, you're like, "Dang, we need more shrubs and landscaping in here."  Now, it looks like Cindy Lou's house after the Grinch got through with it.  Just a bunch of emptiness left.
So, I'm trying to get everything back in order.  Clean.  Organize.  Laundry.  Restock the kitchen. You know.......try to return to life as we once knew it.

It was so good to get away with my little family, enjoy God's beauty, and just unwind. 
Blair graduates in May so who knows where she'll be when our next trip rolls around.  I want us to enjoy as much of life just as it is right here and now.  You know....while we can. 

Y'all have a Happy New Year!  Hope it's one of your best yet!