Mountain Getaway 2018: Franklin

Every Christmas, my family takes a mountain trip. In the past, we’ve always gone after Christmas but due to work schedules, we went last weekend before the holiday. We’ve tried a few different places over the years like Lake Lure, NC, Dillard, GA, and this year, we headed to Franklin, NC. My dad typically finds a house on AirBnB and this year he found the cutest remodeled farmhouse. It had a ton of history, dating back to the early 1900’s, which is right up Cory’s alley.

Cory and I headed up on Friday evening after a few appointments and met my grandparents at the house. My sister had ridden with them and apparently got hold of my phone at some point. Payback, Gracie!

A little backstory on this picture…we originally weren’t planning on going to the mountains this year because I didn’t want to be gone the weekend before Christmas. We changed our minds kinda last minute and I had already scheduled VIPKid classes to teach. There is a pretty steep penalty for canceling classes so canceling all 12 I had over the weekend was going to be impossible. I crossed my fingers that the “pocket wifi” would be good enough to hold a connection. Well, it wasn’t. So I taught from 6:00 – 8:00 am every morning. In the car. In the Walmart parking lot. It wasn’t ideal but worth it to get the time with my family and keep my side job.

It was so ghetto though. I did explain to all my students, especially the new ones, that this wasn’t my normal classroom because I wouldn’t book with me again if this is what I saw.

Heading back to the house each morning, I saw the prettiest views though. Saturday morning there was snow on top of the mountains in the distance.

And our house had the best views!

I know it’s blurry but I never tire of seeing these two snoozing together.

On Saturday evening, we headed to the Dillard House for dinner. If you’ve never been and are local to NE Georgia or Western NC, you must go! It’s some of the best “home cooked” meals around.

These are the many faces of taking a picture of Baker these days. That last one, y’all. She is so much like her dad sometimes, it’s scary!

But how cute are these little cousins?

Of course, she will always smile for Gaga.

Sunday morning I got back to the house from teaching (in. the. car) and it was so peaceful and serene. It was a chilly 28 degrees but the reflection on the pond was incredible. Most of this land is farm land and I believe we all said at one point how this area reminded us so much of our old family place in Asheville. My grandparents recently sold it so they could move down closer to the family. We are so thankful they are closer, but we all miss their place. It was where my Papa grew up and as a kid, we spent many holidays and summers up there.

Again with faces…

But she is mighty cute!

The owners of the home we stayed in suggested their church when my dad asked for a recommendation–we always go to church together if we are in the mountains on a Sunday. Being the Sunday before Christmas, most churches were having their Christmas program but we really enjoyed the service at Holly Springs Baptist in Franklin.

After church, our annual hike got rained out so we hung around the house and tried to venture down to the pond and look for the geese.

It started raining pretty heavily so we had to head back to the house and cooked a big Italian supper!

We’ve been pretty lax on Baker’s bedtime this break (I know we’ll regret it!) but she has been sleeping even later than normal, which is nice. On Monday morning, she was really struggling after staying up late Sunday night to see my brothers when they stopped by.

On Christmas Eve, we packed up, took our annual photos, said our goodbyes, and headed our separate ways for the holidays.

Since we started this mountain getaway tradition three years ago, we’ve gotten a generations photo each year.

This sweet girl, y’all. I love this time that Cory and I are both getting to spend with her this Christmas break.

Cory and I enjoy this time together so much. Each year, it means more and more to us to get this time with my parents and grandparents. Even if we don’t do anything but sit around, eat (a ton), and watch the kids play, it’s time together that we wouldn’t have otherwise. For this time, I am forever grateful.