It's a new year!

And, WOW, did it start off with a bang for us! I'll back up a bit though.... After spending a "Texas Christmas" with my family, we left Christmas Eve and headed to Tennessee to be with Mark's family. Part of the time we celebrated with his aunt and uncle in the southern part of the state, then the day after Christmas the whole crew headed up to the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area. We had rented a couple of cabins at a small retreat center there.

Hubby and I on a "hike" in the mountains.

We enjoyed spending time with family! We had a lot of fun playing games and visiting (and eating YUMMY food!) Our favorite attraction at Pigeon Forge was the Titanic Museum. Of course, I like about any museum, and this one was very well done. Another plus was that it wasn't overcrowded.  

We went with Mark's brother Ryan and his wife Mary while most of the rest of the family enjoyed the wild and crazy (and jam packed) Wonderworks. :) (Let's just say that the week between Christmas and New Years isn't the easiest time to enjoy this area of the Smokies... WAY too many people!)

On the way home, we spent Sunday with some wonderful friends: 

(Thanks for the picture, Brittany!) :)

We really enjoyed our visit with them, although as always, it was way too short!

After our stop in Alabama, it was homeward bound!! We got home with just a few hours to spare to celebrate the new year with my family!! The next day, disaster struck... the flu bug bit. Hard. Mark went down first and I followed close behind.  (Although my recovery wasn't quite as easy as his, my "bug" settled in my sinus and necessitated a trip to the dr for some antibiotics! Painful yuckiness!) We are so grateful to recover from that!

 This past weekend was also a big one for us as we celebrated Mark and Ryan's birthdays! Ryan's birthday is the 12th and he turned the big 3-0 this year! Mark's birthday was the next day, so as you might have guessed, I had two cakes to make this weekend!! :)  (But you'll have to wait to see... one of the cakes will be my finished object on Friday - just a week late...) :)

And thus explains my long blog absence!! :)  I will try to be a bit more faithful to this little blog, but it seems this year is already promising to be a busy and hectic one. I'm holding onto faith for good things this year! :)