We Thought We Could.......We Thought We Could

REPEAT

over and over again

..............

WE WILL GET TO OUR CABIN

The youth Group from our church

Central Church of Christ

headed out the day after Christmas for Gatlinburg.

I always go on trips with this wonderful group of young people

and

they really are a great group of kids.

Talented, smart, kind ,helpful, polite and good looking

and I am not kidding.

They always make me proud

and are very sweet to this old woman!

When we exited the interstate and turned onto the highway

to take us to Gatlinburg everything changed.

The road up until that point had been great.

We enjoyed the snow all around us while driving on completely dry roads.

It was a little shocking when the tires spun out the first time I tried to speed up a little.

We were staying in a cabin at

"The Preserve" in Wears Valley.

While we were shopping in Wal Mart

we tried calling the office of the cabins.

They were already gone

so...

we called the police

they said

you can't get up there.

We were shocked!

What were we going to do with 22 people!

We went across the road to TGI Friday's.

If we were going to be stranded in the vans we at least needed a full stomach!

The people at TGI Friday's were so helpful.

They did some calling for us and they also agreed that we couldn't get up the hill

so.....

they helped us find hotel rooms in Pigeon Forge.

The next morning we headed out for Gatlinburg so the kids could walk around

and we could eat lunch. We hoped that we would receive word that we could go to our cabin.

After lunch and after reading several posts on Facebook we finally got a live person

on top of the mountain at The Preserve. That was when we found out that the people in our cabin on the mountain were still in it because they couldn't get down the mountain.

We started looking for rooms again.

The place we had stayed the first night was booked but we did manage to get rooms at the Holiday Inn and we went to see The Dixie Stampede that night.

The next morning we got up early and took the kids to Ober Gatlinburg.

When we got back to the Holiday Inn (they were nice enough to give us a 2:00

check out) me and one of the college boys drove over to wears Valley to look for ourselves. We were feeling pretty good about things.....no snow on the road all the way to Wears Valley.....until we turned up the main road to The Preserve. We went up the first hill and then we saw all the tow trucks. We parked and walked up the hill to look. The tow truck guy said that we could go a little further but then it turned to ice. We turned back. I could see that I would be scared in my Yukon with just the luggage but the two vans with kids that their parents had trusted us to keep safe......wasn't gona happen. We called back and told them to start making plans...we wouldn't be going to The Preserve today. As we pulled up to the Holiday Inn a Search and Rescue Truck

pulled up and a family with their luggage got out. Something made me ask them where they were coming from. Guess where...the Preserve. We told them that was where we were supposed to be going. They said...DON'T GO! Then the lady driving the Search and Rescue truck told us that they were closing the road to The Preserve as soon as they got everybody off the mountain.

So

We loaded up our vans and came HOME!

We were supposed to cook and take supper to a mission in Knoxville

since we couldn't cook...no stove at Holiday Inn

and the roads wouldn't let us go the night we were scheduled to be there.

We stopped at the mission and left all our groceries that weren't perishable.

Oh Well

we are going tropical next Christmas!

OUR CHRISTMAS

Christmas Eve morning began with

what all us Alabamians have dreamed of

A WHITE CHRISTMAS

Checking to see if anything was in the stockings!








My Grand daughters are all into
"As Seen On TV"
well, about 10 days before Christmas Emma tells me about a new product that she saw on TV.
It was called Press Dough. She got out her Netbook and shows it to me. Since we spend all day together on Christmas Eve the kids usually do their cookies for Santa at my house. The island is just big enough for them to all work together and be in the middle of the adult activity. So...I thought...hey, this Press Dough would be really neat for their Santa cookies. So I order it........and it didn't get here before Christmas. The only thing that didn't make it! I really thought it would get here so I did not have a back up plan. Luckily, Kim saved the day. She came prepared for the kids to make these darling reindeer cupcakes. They had a ball working on them.


I started a tradition several years ago of giving the men in the family
a "man toy". Several of my vapor sisters do this also. We put our heads together every year and decide on a good toy and we all buy the same thing.
This year it was the "much advertised"
Duck Hunter
The big kids and the little kids had a great time playing.
The man toy is one of the gifts that gets opened early in the day and it
gives everybody a good laugh playing with it

The Lawson and Long men cooking supper

Our traditional candle light dinner

Abby Claire has been taking guitar lessons for about 3 months
She gave us a wonderful Christmas memory

A guitar rendition of Jingle Bells

We were so proud of her

MERRY CHRISTMAS

from

The Lawson Family

My view

Christmas in Dixie

It's Snowing in the Pines

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Christmas at our house

Brady got this Raggedy Andy his 1st Christmas

Brady and Courtney's first stockings

Santa Claus pictures

I made this caroler

(one of three......this is the only one left)

when I was 6 years old

made out of a Reader's Digest

Big Family.....Big Fun

The Lawson Family got together last Saturday for their

Christmas Party. We met at John's brother's new house to celebrate.

Uncle David and Aunt Linda live in Priceville, Alabama. It was a

beautiful day for a road trip and it made it feel so Christmasy!

Priceville is a smaller town (now not small like Berry) outside of Huntsville.

So neat and clean and in the valley right below mountains.

When I say that the Lawson's converged on Priceville...well we are a big family

and when we get together it is very noticeable. Also......there is the little GPS thing!

Priceville is a growing ever changing town. GPS can't seem to keep up with it

so......

there were many Lawson's driving all over Priceville before phone calls were made

and everybody converged and blocked the street in Linda and David's sub division.

My favorite thing about the Lawson get togethers are how much fun the little kids have.

My Grandkids look forward to Granny Lawson get togethers because they know

there will be a pile of cousins there.

Well.......this year...the now Daddy cousins and a few older of the Greats

had a football game going in the back yard that would have made the Kennedy clan proud.

We always have so much food that you leave stuffed and don't need to eat until the next day.

Of course, the younger cousins are counting the minutes until

it is time to hand out presents. PawPaw was always Santa. PawPaw

has been gone for 13 years. Every year one of the older Grandsons

takes on the job. This year Brady was Santa.

Justin and Kayla

This cute couple are getting married in June

More beautiful Lawson Grand babies in the future!

Uncle David (I am sure with Aunt Linda's help) had made the

backyard at their home gorgeous. You can see everybody enjoying the fire pit.
I made a great picture of the patio/firepit that had the back of the house in

the pic but because I love my SIL ( who by the way looked great from the back)

and nieces ( who would say why did you put in that pic and also looked great) I did not use that picture.

There was a small creek behind their house. Of course, the kids found it

and immediately started throwing everything they could find into it.

Oh Well.......

it really kept them entertained

and of course

Uncle David said...

It's fine...just let them have a good time

We joked later that night

that

Uncle David got on his rubber boots and cleaned out

the creek after we left!

and........

here is Brady cleaning John Brady's boots

after playing around (in) the creek

Last but certainly not least

The leader of our gang

Granny

cleaning up with Aunt Linda

Thanks......David and Linda

It was a great Lawson day!

Happy Birthday Brady

Happy Birthday to my wonderful son, Brady!

We love you and are so proud of the man we still see as our little boy.

Brady's 1st Birthday

I love this picture of Brady
His smile reminds me of JB3

Brady with his beautiful wife and family

Christmas Memories

Back in 2000 our church, Central Church of Christ, bought a

beautiful huge Christmas tree to put up in the sanctuary.

Everyone in the church decorated a ball to put

on the tree. We decorated Christmas tree balls for about 6 years until

we got the tree completely full. We haven't decorated any balls since.

So, every year we have a little get together after church to

put up and decorate the tree.

It is so much fun to read all the Christmas balls. Some of the members

aren't with us anymore and it gives us a time to think of them

and talk about fun times.

I had my camera with me so I snapped a few pics.

We decorated this ball.

for Cathy in 2003.

Cathy had just had open heart surgery and was home recooperating.

We thought she had come through that surgery and we didn't have

anything else to worry about.

The last one she decorated

and finally...putting the skirt around the tree.

Cole putting on the tree topper

it is a gorgeous tree