Looking Forward to December
Many people warned us that the first holidays would be extremely hard without Todd, my other half, the girls' dad. So, I decided to plan something in December that we could look forward to, something that we had never done before, something exciting and fun. I spent some time looking into trips to warm places. Like most of this year though, Covid put a kink in many of the suggested plans. Determined to do something, we settled on a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. While we as a family often went to the mountains for vacation, we rarely spent the time in a cabin with amenities.
First let me say that anyone looking for a nice cabin in Gatlinburg, look no further than this one! The location, spacious rooms, views, and amenities were perfect! Both girls brought their boyfriends and the five of us packed up and spent three nights and four days in the beauty of the Smokies.
What's Gatlinburg without a little mining? Maggie made friends with the gem mining guy. He kept bringing out specific rocks and told her if she could name it, which she could, she could have it. Needless to say, they had some great conversation about things I've never heard of before!
The weather was absolutely beautiful and the sun on the large porch with a view felt great!
We relaxed and played games at the cabin. Colin won every game of eight ball we played and Mike enjoyed the Pac-Man/Galaga arcade game, even when he had to play Caroline's turn.
We visited lots of places,
saw plenty of things that made us laugh,
and used a gallon of hand sanitizer!
I also learned that Mike is a great coach...on a misty mountain, in the dark, on extreme hills! He was riding shotgun as we drove back to the cabin in the dark on a Waze "shortcut" during a fog advisory. No pictures of this event since you couldn't even see 2 feet in front of the jeep!
All in all, it was a wonderful trip and December getaway. As for the holidays being hard, every day without Todd is hard so I can't really say this time is different than every other day. We share memories of him on a daily basis and often look for the ways that he would be enjoying, or not, what we are doing in the moment.