November 22 - December 22

This has been a busy busy month as you can imagine. We've had lots of Christmas parties and events to attend. We also spent a weekend in Gatlinburg and went to Dollywood for a day.

On the Nov 22nd we attended the annual Festival of Trees with our friends Joy and Wayne. We had a great time rubbing elbows with the Whose Who of Spartanburg. They had lots of nice items up for bid as this is one of the Hospital Foundation's main fund raisers. Every bid rose higher than my budget so we just watched the rich and famous bid higher and higher and pay way more than anything was worth. It is fun to watch rich people spend money.

Anyway this was for a good cause and we had a great time. The band was very good. A fellow member of our neighborhood homeowners association was the drummer. They played mostly oldies from the 60's and 70's so we really enjoyed the music.

We left on the 4th for Gatlinburg. We had a great cabin with a great view and all the comforts of a luxury home. We had a hot tub outside on the deck but it was so cold we didn't make it out there. We played pool and Foosball in the basement and enjoyed cuddling by the fire in the living room and watching movies. It was a great weekend and gave Susan and me a chance to unwind, relax, and get ready for the craziness of the coming Christmas season.

Here we are about to enjoy dinner at a restaurant in downtown Gatlinburg after shopping.

Here we are on the deck of our cabin. The view was spectacular.

Dollywood was great. We spent the entire day running from show to show. We especially enjoyed all the Christmas lights. The place is beautiful at Christmas and I highly recommend going if you haven't. We are not mountain people. We prefer the beach. However, if I go to the mountains, and especially Gatlinburg, I only want to go at Christmas. The town is beautiful with all the Christmas lights they put up. We watched the parade and had a great time. We also did some Christmas shopping.

A small sample of the lights at Dollywood.

On the 9th we attended the Spartanburg Christmas Parade downtown. We hooked up with some of Susan co-workers and enjoyed watching the lighted floats and listening to the local high school bands. The parade is allot better than it use to be. It's at night and they have more bands.

On the 12th we went to a pajama party (yes, I said pajama party) but not like what you are thinking. It was just a party at Susan's co-worker's house where we all wore our pajamas. There were 6 couples there and we played games, exchanged gag gifts, and had appetizers and drinks. It was allot of fun.

On the 15th, Susan went to a jewelry making class and I attended a Lutheran Men's Christmas party stag. It wasn't too bad since I did get to eat and I got Susan a nice snowman canister in our Dirty Santa game. She was very pleased even though I sacrificed a bottle of wine for it.

That's about it for now. Christmas is coming Thursday and we are pretty much ready except for the last minute food shopping we have to get done. We'll have Susan's sister and brother-in-law for Christmas dinner along with my Mom, the kids and their husbands. The house will be full and we will exchange gifts and eat like there is no tomorrow.

Church and choir has kept us busy but my Dave Ramsey class finished up Sunday and we also had our Christmas Music program.

We are planning to go out for dinner Tuesday with the kids so I'm looking forward to that.

I'll update the blog after Christmas and post some more photos then.