Family Visits

Before Christmas,  George and I made three separate trips to visit some of the family.  On Dec. 20,  we drove to Tullahoma to visit George's 100 yr. old Dad.  We took him to lunch ---and he woofed down some fried chicken,  onion rings,  slaw and a big brownie topped with ice cream.....   Gee---that man still can EAT.... Awesome,  isn't it????  The picture above is of  George and his Dad..  I love that picture,  don't you?

Then on Dec. 22,  we drove down to Dalton, GA to have dinner and spend some time with son Jeff and his bride, Dawn.  Those two are SO happy ---and enjoying their first Christmas together as man and wife.  We gave them a "First Christmas" ornament... They fixed some delicious Gumbo for dinner.... YUM... We had a wonderful time with them.  The picture above is their gorgeous Christmas tree --which they picked out together at a tree farm.  Isn't it pretty?

Here is a picture of the newlyweds which I took while we visited.   Jeff inherited 3 doggies.... Dawn is holding Henry.  The other two are bigger dogs which stay outside most of the time.  Henry is ADORABLE---but it has taken him awhile to share his Mama with Jeff.... ha

THEN--on Dec. 23, we drove to Nashville to have dinner and do some photography with George's beautiful daughter, Kelly, and her hubby, Chuck.  They live in Buffalo --so we don't get to see them often.  BUT-since they were in Nashville attending an event,  we took the opportunity to meet with them for some time together...

After dinner,  we drove to an interesting old cemetery to do some walking and take some pictures.  The cemetery,  Mount Olivet  Cemetery,  is really interesting.  The weather was TERRIBLE (cold and drizzly) --so we didn't stay long.  BUT--we did get some good pictures while we were there.  The picture of Kelly and Chuck above was taken at the cemetery.  They were standing next to a HUGE Magnolia tree (which I have pictured in the next photo below).  NOTE:  Chuck is really taller than Kelly---but she was standing on a large tree root.

The cemetery (250 acres) was established in 1856---so it is very old with some interesting sculptures.  Besides these sculptures,  there were some AWESOME old trees on the property.   The picture above was one of the largest MAGNOLIA trees I have ever seen.   Note the trunk of this huge tree in the photo above of Kelly/Chuck.

Besides the Magnolia tree,   I also saw the largest HOLLY TREE I have ever seen.  In fact, there were several Holly trees in this area ---and probably more Magnolias.  The picture above shows one of these gorgeous Holly trees.  They are LOADED with berries.... So pretty!

And here is a close-up picture of some of the beautiful Holly berries.

Finally,  I'll close with some photos of some of the gorgeous sculptures in that cemetery. 

 As you can imagine,  we had a wonderful three days with family.  That made our Christmas very very special this year.

We drove to Tullahoma yesterday to see Dad.  (We go down there about every other week.)  He is fine ---and kept talking about someone selling all of the horses... HA HA ---he has never had any horses!!!! Bless his heart.

Hope you have a great weekend.  I will see you on Monday.   HAPPY 2013 to YOU.

Hugs,

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