{Girls Trip} - Christmas 2016 - Nutcracker Ballet at The Fox

So happy to see the month of December roll around once again and the chance to go see the Nutcracker at the historic Fox Theatre in downtown Atlanta.

Much like last year, the 5 of us got up early, drove down to Atlanta and grabbed lunch before Hubby and B headed out to a movie...

Sharing the magic of The Fox with my sweet girls is just the best treat!

Our show got out earlier than Hubby and B's movie, and we had some time to kill until they could get back to pick us up, so the girls and I walked a couple blocks down the street to see the church where my parents were married and where I was baptized as a baby...

It was sweet to see them sitting right there in front of the backdrop of a few special memories from so long ago!

From there, we bundled up and headed back over to The Fox to wait under the marquee for our chariot to arrive!

I'm already looking forward to next year!

{Weekend Adventure} The Tigers Take Tally

This weekend, we headed down to Tallahassee to watch our Clemson Tigers take on the Florida State Seminoles, and brought our little football expert along for the ride...

Because I believe that getting there is more than half the fun, we of course made a few stops along the way...

We trucked it clear down to Tifton, GA on Friday night.

Then, on Saturday morning after admiring the seemingly endless fields of cotton, we made our first stop at the First Presbyterian Church in the tiny town of Quitman, GA...

 

Though I think this building was built after his tenure, James Pierpont, author of "Jingle Bells",  once served as the organist of this congregation...

After crossing over into Florida...

we stopped in another tiny town, Greenville, FL, the boyhood home of Ray Charles...

 

 

After our musical morning, we continued on in to Tallahassee...

and grabbed lunch at Andrew's Capital Grill & Bar, a favorite among local politicians and sports fans alike...

before another run up the state capitol steps just a block or so away...

 {See that little bit jumping?}

You can read about his first capitol steps run in Tallahassee here...

From there we headed over to the stadium...

 

and enjoyed yet another nailbiting Clemson win...

On the way home on Sunday, we made a quick pitstop at a memorial to President Dwight Eisenhower and his support of what we know as our interstate system today...

Phew...it was a quick little trip, but some good fun with our boy...

{All In a Day} Confederate Vice President Alexander Hamilton Stephens - Crawfordville, GA

Having grown up in this neck of the woods, and given our family's love of all things presidential, I've been wanting to get the littles down this way for a day trip. With school out for fall break and Hubby out of town with the guard for the long weekend, today was the day!

We headed out mid-morning, and spent most of the day in Crawfordville touring the house, museum and grounds of Liberty Hall, home of Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy...

 

Stephens is buried on the grounds of his beloved retreat...

On the way out of town, we swung by Stephens' birthsite...

And, since we just happened to be in the neighborhood, we took a mini "heritage tour" detour through Washington-Wilkes, the little town that I lived in from the time I was a  toddler through elementary school.  The littles were amazed that the post office I used to ride my bike to is still a post office, and that the bank where I had a little savings account is still a bank...  Oh, and that my primary school is still a school!!!  I mean, I'm not George Washington, kids...  The 1980s weren't that long ago, were they???  Ha!!!

I can't help but think that maybe my daddy was smiling down on us as his three grandchildren posed proudly in front of his old office building on the square...

...and would you believe that my childhood home is actually for sale???