Neither my husband nor I are the greatest of travelers-it is just not our thing. We are home bodies and find our joy close to home. And yet, we have done some traveling over the years and have our favorite spots. Fast forward to when the girls were beginning to think about how they would want to celebrate our special day. They began to probe and question and my answer was always the same..."I would just love some free labor for a few days to help us do some of the stuff we can't do any more". That sounded like the perfect gift for us-and we would still all be together so we could watch movies or play games in the evenings. But, that was not to be. The girls wanted to do something special and since they knew that our favorite city was Savannah-we have been there many, many times for work, G.S. and family vacations-they took it upon themselves to begin the planning.
Everything just seemed to fall into place. It is not easy to get all 16 of us free from commitments at the same time, but they did it and early the day after Christmas, we were off!
We took a number of cars because dogs were coming along as well as some of the gang was going on to other destinations from Savannah-daughter #3 and her family were going on to Charleston to visit with in-laws and my SIL and four oldest grand daughters were on to the Appalachian Trail for a few days of hiking. Our oldest daughter served as our chauffeur and we got there before everyone else, so we headed down to the Riverfront for a glass of wine and appetizers.
We got back to the hotel but we weren't "allowed" into our room yet so we headed back to the river to stroll and people watch.
We strolled so much, that we worked up an appetite so we found a wonderful little place for a delicious dinner.
By then, I guess the "all clear" signal had been given and we were finally allowed into our room where we were "surprised" by the whole gang. The kids had decorated the room, put all of our stuff away, stocked the frig and pantry with tons of our favorite treats and were waiting with gifts and games.
After all of the gifts were given-my brother and sister-in-law joined us from their Christmas in Raleigh-Caitlin asked us all to have a seat. She had interviewed us recently on marriage for, what we had been told, was a psychology project on relationships. She has interviewed us before for other projects, so we really never caught on. She used our interview and then interviews from other family members to make us a video. It was wonderful and there wasn't a dry eye in the room when it was over.
We couldn't end the night crying, so all 16 of us (yes, in our hotel room) joined in a rousing game of Head Bandz. It was loud and crazy and crowded and I can't think of anywhere else I would have rather been or anyone else I would have rather been with.
Tomorrow promised to be a fun family-filled day so everyone was off to get some sleep. So much more to come but I am off to get some "Christmas" cards written. I wanted to wait until we returned in hopes of having a few group pictures I could send-and I do. Stay tuned.
Thought I would show you where this frame stands now. I just painted it black. I like it a lot better but it looks a bit too harsh to me so I still might do some sanding or highlighting-we shall see!
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