2013 was kind of stressful. Not because I lost a loved one or went through something heartbreaking but because I worked, a lot. Having a full time job and starting a business kept me working many days and nights and kept me away from my family a lot. I was very thankful for the holidays to slow down and spend time with my peeps.
On Christmas Eve Eve we were in Chattanooga and planned to go to dinner with my parents, brother and sister-in-law and the kids then go see the lights at Rock City. We started at the New York Pizza Department in Chattanooga. We all had really good pizza with the exception of my little nephew Brycen. Because of some allergies he couldn't eat pizza and was (hopefully) happy with his strawberries.
We said goodbye to Ben and Bonnie and headed to Lookout Mountain to see the lights at Rock City. What I didn't realize was that that was also the plan of every other person in Chattanooga. We had to wait in line to get up the mountain and when we got there realized (from the warmth of our cars) that the line to get in looked like the line for Splash Mountain on a hot day. Since waiting in line in the cold for an hour with two young children sounds about as fun as being bitten by a brown recluse, we decided to look elsewhere for lights.
I had heard the night before that the window displays at the Chattanooga Electric Power Board were neat, so window hunting we went. After a forgotten gloves fiasco and some driving around, we made our way downtown.
It was cold. I mean cold. Cold enough to make me want something warm to drink, so we walked to the Reid House ,where Steve and I stayed on our wedding night, and had Starbucks. If chocolate milk is liquid gold to the kids, hot chocolate is a blessing straight from Santa's workshop. (Though I bet Santa supports local business and went to the local coffee shop for some Colombian brews.)
