An Award and Our Trip to Gatlinburg!

Let me begin today by saying that I'm probably the worst person I know about posting awards that I have been blessed with!!! It's not that I don't appreciate them....as a matter of fact, I'm very humbled by them..but my mind is always going in thirty different directions and I always think about them when I'm not at the computer posting.

My sweet, sweet, patient, encouraging friend Kristen over at Hands, House, and Heart Full gave me this award last Thursday!! It's the "Honest Scrap" award.

I am suppose to list 10 secrets about myself and then pass it on.

Well, now that's something I need to focus on and so......I'll do this post on Thursday and pass it on as well.


Now to tell some more about our trip to Gatlinburg......

We actually stayed in Pigeon Forge. There is a hotel there that has unbelievable rates, is clean (this is HUGE to me!!!) and the staff is always friendly and eager to help! The two night stay only cost $78!! Our room had a balcony over the river which just delighted my sweet Momma.

Momma is a smoker--which I lovingly gripe about regularly--and I have a daughter with a heart condition, so the balcony (which I forgot to ask for when I registered---thank You God for taking care of things!!) was a total blessing. The blessing for me, was hearing Momma squeal when she was able to stand out there and watch ducks and Canadian geese coming and going!

Understand, this is only the second trip that Momma has ever taken other than trips back and forth to West Virginia when her parents were alive. This is the first girl's trip she's ever had and she fully enjoyed it!!

That first night we just did some shopping in Pigeon Forge. Now, bear in mind we had a 19 year old female with us, so the outlet mall was a must! Momma was so cute!! Even in stores like Old Navy and Pac Sun, where she had no interest at all, she could be found looking at and touching the clothes.....then shaking her head at the prices. We went into a kitchen gadget store and, like me, she couldn't help but look at everything!!

A drive through town looking at the lights that were still up from Christmas and a meal at KFC found us heading back to the room for some rest.

I couldn't help but get tickled as Momma got out of the shower, put her pj's on and stretched out on the bed like a teenager. She didn't care what was on tv, she just enjoyed that it was 'girl' stuff.

The next day found us in Gatlinburg on the tram. Now, DD doesn't do heights and gets motion sick, Momma doesn't do heights. But the only other option to Ober Gatlinburg was driving up and DD would never have made it, even with her Ginger Root!!! So up, up we went. Momma actually did quite well, although DD was hanging on for dear life...white knuckles and all!!

At the top we watched those that were snow tubing and the skiers as well as the ice skaters.




We also went to the wildlife habitat and watched the otters being fed and was blessed to actually see a bear! They are suppose to be hibernating right now, and we were warned that we probably wouldn't see one, but I think that seeing that bear was God's way of giving Momma a blessing.



Back down in Gatlinburg, we settled in for a day of shopping. Momma just couldn't seem to take in all the different shops and what they had to offer. We went in store after store and she seemed to pick up some kind of trinket in every store she went in. She even got tickled at her own self, but said that she didn't know when she'd get this kind of chance again and so she was going to make the most of it.

We decided to eat at Cracker Barrel that night. Now, that may not seem like a big deal to you, but to my Momma, it was huge. You see, I didn't learn until just a few days before our trip that she had never been inside a Cracker Barrel!!! Well, being a dumb daughter, the first thing out of my mouth was, "You're kidding!!" But she was serious.

So, into Cracker Barrel we went. We hadn't ate since breakfast and DD and I were pretty hungry. Momma just couldn't quit looking and shopping and DD and I just let her enjoy. It was such a blessing to watch her eyes and see her smile. An hour or so later she was ready to eat and we enjoyed some of the best home cooking!! I love eating at Cracker Barrel, especially when you're traveling. There is only so much fast food you can stomach before your tummy wants the real deal!

All too soon Wednesday came and time to head home. We made one last drive through Pigeon Forge stopping at a few shops we hadn't had a chance to before and then began our trip home.

God blessed us with health and safety and more wonderful memories than I could have ever imagined. I told DH later that night as we lay in bed that he couldn't have given me anything more precious for Christmas.....watching my Momma relax, smile, laugh and have fun...