One Beautiful Life

Christmas Week Has Begun!

My first Christmas gift came last night when I received a phone call from my Houston store letting me know the BOX ARRIVED! Abby and I were on a sushi date and I almost squealed out loud! But we did a table version of the happy dance instead!!! (many thanks to those of you who prayed for my box to arrive!)

So Christmas week has officially begun and my brain is officially Georgia Jewels unloaded! Abby and I started our Christmas week celebration by making our first two batches of hard Christmas candy. We made cinnamon and peppermint and it is oh so yummy and pretty! I had originally planned to put it into jars I and my friends have been saving BUT, a batch makes less than I had thought and I'd need about 20 batches to fill my jars! So Abby and I went out and bought little bags and some Christmas stickers and we'll move onto plan B for packaging.

Christmas week actually began last week for us. Amidst all the craziness of bead counting (oh... headache trying to break through just thinking of it) we stole away to Callaway Gardens for their "Fantasy in Lights" Christmas celebration. We kept it as a surprise for Abby... we love to surprise her. She was thrilled and we were rewarded with "that" precious, gleeful, simply and innocently genuine smile of happiness that fills us from head to toe with parental satisfaction!

We entered a HUGE bubble tent that was FULL of various themed Christmas trees, Christmas crafts, Christmas booths, and Christmas treats. Abby burst with joy when the Gingerbread man walked around the corner. She looked over for permission and then ran to him and embraced him with a big, lllllloooooooonnnnnnnngggggggggg hug! "You can let go now Abby". When I got the picture home and downloaded it, you can see the woman's face as plain as day in one of the eyes! I am not sure how Abby is going to feel about that as I am 99% certain she has no idea there is a person inside the gingerbread man!

There were Georgia Bulldog trees, lake trees, beach trees, sock monkey trees, dog trees, cat trees, fancy trees, simple trees... and a VERY interesting and strikingly beautiful black tree! It was really stunning. It was black and decorated with silver and glass ornaments. I couldn't stop starring at it... maybe next year!

I am not sure who invented the idea of "face painting" for children but they are simply genius. It was the best $2 we have spent in a long time. The most precious "Southern Lady" painted Abby's face with an adorable reindeer and then gave her a red glitter nose, all the while telling her in her drippy sweet voice how precious and beautiful she was... if she only knew how true that really is. It was sweet and Abby was thrilled to squeals with her new look!

After some dinner and purchasing some sugar and cinnamon coated almonds, we braved the line to ride the trolley on the one hour ride through the woods full of gleaming lights. The weather was perfect. The lights were beautiful and we had a blast singing carols with our fellow trolley riders. I can't even do justice to how beautiful the lights are there. Callaway really does a great job and it will become one of our new Christmas traditions!

It's amazing what simple lights can do to your spirits this time of year. I am amazed to see adults so touched by them each year. To me, they reflect the simple beauty of light, light that brings hope into a dark and hurting world, and a joy produced by embracing the simple things that truly are so big... like family time together.

I hope you are all off to a wondrous and joyful Christmas week! We send much love to you all.