Great memories being made

I celebrated Christmas with my Berry girls last Friday night, so Corin took the kids for a quick trip to Knoxville to visit Gran and Grandaddy. See, until just a few years ago, we always went to Knoxville for Christmas and we shared in some really lovely traditions there. When the family agreed to start coming to Atlanta for Christmas to ease the growing difficulty of traveling with the kids this time of year, there were many things we knew we'd miss about spending Christmas in Tennessee. Near the top of the list was the tradition of cutting down a tree off the farm on Christmas eve (or the day before), bringing it in and decorating it. Last time we did it, Pressley was a mere babe riding on Corin's shoulders.

So, Corin was able to take advantage of the free evening and squeeze in a trip to recapture that tradition. They arrived in Knoxville late Friday night, and after some breakfast and some play time, they headed out with Grandaddy to cut down a tree. I begged Corin to make sure he took some good pictures. He has this habit of not taking pictures of fun events if I'm not there. Bless his sweet heart...he did good this time. I felt like I was watching stop-action animation when I looked back at what he'd captured.

Apparently, Evan was very into the whole tree harvesting process while Pressley...not so much. She's our girly girl and there was cold and mud involved. Though, when the tree was in the stand and ready to be decorated, I'm told she rallied and participated while Evan...not so much. Here she is with Gran in front of the decorated tree.

As an added bonus, they also cut down a small tree to bring home. So now the kids have their own little tree in our office/playroom that has colored lights and great homemade ornaments. This is the room they'll be sleeping in once the family arrives tomorrow night, so I know they'll enjoy falling asleep looking at their very own special tree. Great memories being made around here....