From our family to yours...

wishing everyone a very

Merry Christmas!

Silver bells, silver bells....

...it's my 25th Wedding Anniversary! 

OK, so that phrasing doesn't really fit with the song, but it was the best I could do.  :)

And on top of that, today isn't really my anniversary, yesterday was... but I was just too busy to get this posted yesterday.  ha. 

But I am very happy to have reached this 'Silver Anniversary' milestone in life.  And I wanted to share a few pictures from a trip this past weekend that Jack and I took to Gatlinburg to celebrate.  25 years ago, we spent our honeymoon there and it was fun going back trying to remember what things were like then and reminiscing over all these years together.

So to begin with, I had these three pictures from a photo collage that we've had up for all these years that were taken while we were on our honeymoon.  One from in front of an old cabin out in Cades Cove.  One of me in the middle of a stream.  And one in front of a ginormous Christmas tree that I *think* was in front of a really nice restaurant that we ate out at one night.  I actually had kept the Coca-Cola sweatshirts that we wore those many years ago - call me a packrat if you want, but it turned out to be a good thing! -- and I thought it would be really fun to try and 'recreate' these three pictures while we were there. 

 

 

Well, as with all noble plans and intentions, some succeed and some fail.  :)  The above two picture recreations were thwarted by bad weather.  It pretty much rained the whole time we were there.  So getting out to Cades Cove and hiking really wasn't a good idea and I think if I had tried to stand in the stream for a picture, I probably would have been washed away!  So those two didn't happen. 

 

What DID happen instead, was that we set about trying to find the huge Christmas tree - it doesn't exist anymore - go figure.  Neither does the resaurant - as best we can tell, it is now the Nantahala Outdoor Sports Store.  :)  SO, we just started taking pictures in front of whatever Christmas trees we came across.  :)    I'll include a couple more of those down below, but I thought I'd offer up this one as a side-by-side comparison and see what you think after all these years:

 





So.... a few more years, more wrinkles, more pounds, less hair....  ha.  But hey!! We still fit into our sweatshirts!!  Yay!  That's more than I can say for my wedding dress, but we won't go there... 

Now for a few more pictures...

 

The Bearskin Lodge - we had an awesome suite with a fireplace overlooking a beautiful stream - very nice!

 

 

These were waiting for me in the room when we arrived.  :)

Dinner at Mellow Mushroom and another Christmas Tree picture.

 

Our first stop of the day was to buy umbrellas....haha... THEN we did indoor activities like the Hollywood Car Museum.  This is one of Jack's favorites - the 'other woman' in his life - "Eleanor"

 

This is from that Nantahala Outdoor Store that I mentioned above...

 

Cheesy self-timer picture with the camera perched precariously on the passenger door window at an overlook with Gatlinburg in the distance.

And no Anniversary trip with a car-guy is complete without more pictures of cars...  :)   This one is from the Muscle Car Museum in Seveirville.  Again, Jack's favorite car, a '69 Camaro. 

So that's the trip in pictures.  We had a really nice couple of days away.   The weather wasn't perfect and there were silly things that were annoying like trusting that if a hotel tells you that it has a jacuzzi it doesn't necessarily mean that it really works quite right...  grrr.  But it's kinda like our marriage - it's been a wonderful 25 years, but it hasn't always been picture perfect.  We've had some great times that I remember with much happiness and some very difficult times that have definitely left some scars.  But over all these years, God's grace and faithfulness to both of us has shown through in ways that when I really think about it, is hard to comprehend.  And this verse just came to mind:

I Corinthians 2:9:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

 

So today I am unbelievably thankful for the amazing husband that God has blessed me with, the two beautiful girls that have been entrusted to our care, and the life that we have together.  I look forward to many more years in this journey together.  :)