Last Thursday morning, we loaded up and took the "long-cut" (in the boy's words) over to Tennessee since I40 is still closed due to the rock slide earlier this year. We had big plans for a long weekend adventure full of Dollywood and outlet Christmas shopping. All was well Thursday--we rode the rides, saw the shows and were dazzled by a million Christmas lights in the park. When we arrived at the condo, we heard that they were calling for 10-15 inches of snow back home. You want to know what I thought of that? YEAH RIGHT! You see, they call for snow all of the time around here and it starts with 6-8 inches and then around 10 pm they change the forecast to 2-4 inches of snow.... then to some freezing rain....... and finally in the morning, we wake up and it is raining. just raining. However, I am sure the news stations got fabulous ratings as everyone and their brother stayed tuned in all evening. Yep, I see right through them.

Well, for once they got it right and we got more snow than we've had here in the last 10 years.

Friday, much to my dismay, we decided to make the long trip home just in time to beat the storm. Seth stopped by the 'rents house and got us back home..... just in time for the power to go out.....which would have been fine if we just had some heat. The boys would have been fine either way because they literally stayed outside the entire week in the snow. Annabelle and I were ready to leave. We stuck it out Friday and Saturday before we made it out to Mom and Dad's house where they had power.

Annabelle was content to watch from the window. Do you like her outfit?
very typical these days......
Uncle Jonathan says we need to get her about 10 cats to go along with it and a grocery cart.

Everything was great when we got there because we had a dryer for the wet snow clothes and best of all.....the HOT TUB.

Caleb was a sledding fool and I barely saw him the entire week. Adam was right there with him 85% of the time but he came in more regularly for meals and to dry his clothes. It was sweet to see how much they enjoyed it all.

They made some impressive jumps in their adventures. I will get some videos up later.

I hope to blog a bit more often in the New Year. I feel like I need to give an update on home school, record the Christmas happenings, get all of my outlandish New Years resolutions down, and although it feels like a distant memory now, say a little more about the wedding (we have the photographer's pictures now and you will be amazed!)

So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year folks. I love you all!