Christmas

Sara and I were lucky enough to get to spend our Christmas break back in Tennessee with family and friends.  We both were able to take a full week off from work, so we got to spend 9 days back in Johnson City.

We flew home on Saturday the 21st.  Abe had his 'Classy Christmas Party' that night so we hung out at his party for a while before going out to celebrate the engagement of our friends Antonio and Jaymie.

Christmas Eve morning I had the itch to get out and do a bit of running in the East TN mountains.  I decided to go run up to the Pinnacle Mountain Fire Tower in Unicoi.  It is about an 8 mile round trip up to the fire tower and back down.  It was a cold, snowy run but great to be able to run in the mountains.

That evening, we went to the Christmas Eve service at Grace Fellowship.  It was good to be able to go to a service back at my home church.  After the service, we went over to Grandmommy Lois' house to spend Christmas Eve with the Greenwell family.  It was great to be able to get to see family that we haven't seen in a long time.  We had a nice night with great food, fellowship, and gift unwrapping.  

 Christmas morning we woke up at the Greenwell's and opened presents and enjoyed some breakfast bars and coffee before heading to mom and dad's house.  Grandma, Aunt Dolly and Uncle Bruce came in town from the Knoxville area for Christmas day.  We had a nice brunch of swedish pancakes made by dad.  After doing gifts we headed back to the Greenwell's for Christmas dinner with a combination of the Jacobson and Greenwell families.  It was a wonderful Christmas day filled with family, gifts, and food.

 The day after Christmas, Abe, Dad and I braved the cold for a day on the golf course at the Johnson City Country Club...

Saturday morning, Mom, dad and I went hiking at Spivey Gap near Erwin.  We hiked from Spivey Gap up to High Rocks along the Appalachian Trail.  From High Rocks there were 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains.

As usual, time flew by while we were at home.  It never fails that the trips are over in a blink of an eye.  It was great to be able to see family and friends that we rarely get to see anymore being in Texas.  Thanks to everyone who made it such a special trip for us.

Thanksgiving

Sara and I had the pleasure of hosting my family in Dallas for Thanksgiving this year.  Mom, Dad and Abe flew in Thanksgiving morning from Atlanta.  As soon as they arrived, we jumped straight into Thanksgiving meal cooking.  This was our first time hosting a Thanksgiving meal so a lot of preparation went into it.  I decided to grill our turkey and Sara did most of the other cooking.  She prepared mashed potatoes, corn casserole, green bean casserole, cranberries, and stuffing.  Mom helped with the sweet potato casserole.  The McAuleys were in town visiting Matt as well so they came over to our place to partake in the meal.  Everything went off without a hitch and all of us Tennessee transplants enjoyed a fantastic meal together.  Thanks to Sara, Mom, and Susan for all the incredible food.

Friday night, Sara, Dad, Abe and I went to the Stars vs. Blackhawks game at the American Airlines Center.  Another win for our Blackhawks over the Stars...

Saturday morning, we went to play some golf at Stevens Parks Golf Course and spend the rest of the day visiting relatives and friends...

Sunday morning we went to church at Watermark and then went to the Bishop Arts District to enjoy some Texas BBQ at Lockhart's.  Abe had to head back to Atlanta Sunday evening to go back to work on Monday.

After Sara and I had to go back to work on Monday, Mom and Pop continued their exploration of Dallas visiting Klyde Warren Park, White Rock Lake, the Dallas Arboretum, and friends all of the place.  We got lucky with almost perfect North Texas weather while they were in town with temperatures in the 60's and 70's.

We were very blessed to have family come to town and spend Thanksgiving with us.  We will welcome any and all visitors with open arms...we have plenty of space!

Ice-pocalypse

We got some interesting weather here in Dallas this weekend.  After temperatures were in the mid to upper 70's on Wednesday, a massive cold front came through on Thursday bringing with it lots of freezing rain and ice.  The ice storm started Thursday evening and lasted until mid-day on Friday.   With it came a lot of downed trees (one of which almost went through our front door) and treacherous driving conditions.  Temperatures have stayed below freezing until this afternoon so much of the ice has stayed around.

This kind of weather doesn't come around very often in the Dallas area so people aren't quite sure how to respond.  Dallas has no salt trucks so cleaning the streets has been very slow.  The ice/slush has slowly disappeared because of people driving on them rather than road crews cleaning them off.  The city has essentially been shut down for the past three days.  I was supposed to run on a relay team for the Dallas Marathon this morning but it was cancelled.  Church was cancelled this morning due to icy sidewalks and parking lots, etc, etc, etc.

While the weather has been pretty miserable, the ice has created a lot of beauty that we typically wouldn't see.  Here are some images that Sara and I captured: