Christmas Vacation in NC

Rick and I decided to spend the majority of our Christmas money on a vacation...instead of toys that our kids would be giving to Goodwill within 6 months.  We found a great cabin in Franklin, NC and booked the week of Christmas.  We were so excited as were the kids...they quickly agreed to less presents in exchange for a place in the mountains for a week.

Here is the cabin we found.  It is so cute and just the right size for our family.  It was fairly new and had everything you needed already there.

We got lucky and it snowed the day before we got there...so there was lots of snow on the ground when we arrived.  The kids were so excited.  The first thing they did getting out of the truck was to have a snowball fight (Rick actually started that...shocking).

Everyday we hiked the paved path to the top of the mountain where our cabin was.  It took us about 30-40 minutes.  Thankfully we borrowed this carrier for Savannah but Neil was able to hike it himself and the girls did great too...most of the time (sometimes Melina need a piggyback ride).

The view from the top was amazing.  It was so quiet and peaceful (when the kids weren't yelling and running around wild).  It was cold the whole week but we managed to find enough warm clothing to bring for the trip.

Here is a waterfall that we went to.  You had to go down some concrete stairs and follow a pathway to get there.  Which was fine except it was all covered with ice.  We had a few falls along the way but managed to make it.  It was beautiful.  My sister Adrienne went with us on vacation...it was nice having an extra set of adult hands there.

Here is a view from our porch one night.  We ate out one night but we usually ate at the cabin.  There was a walmart and grocery store within 5 minutes of the cabin so that was very nice.  We watched lots of Christmas movies and played games.  Neil keeps asking when we are going back to 'our' cabin.  I had to explain to him, more than once, that it isn't our cabin...unfortunately.

We also went to the Smokey Mtn. National Park one day.  Since it was the week of Christmas most things were closed down...including the scenic drive through the mountains (because of all the snowfall).  So, we just looked around some.  The most fun was a beautiful river we found and we hiked along beside if for a while.  The kids threw rocks in and it was just fun to be together and not have anywhere to be.

Christmas morning was fun.  We surprised the kids with Band Hero...which we are shockingly horrible at.  They didn't get as many things as they normally do...but we had convinced them they were getting next to nothing so they were all plesantly surprised on Christmas morning at the things we did get them (I learned that trick from my parents...we fell for it every year).

Here is a pic of my kids with my Dad and Stepmom, Janice.  We went to see them on the way to the cabin and spent the night.  The kids love seeing them and we enjoyed the visit.