A String of Purls: The cabin....

As long as I can remember, my dad and I have been getting our Christmas tree in Floyd, Virginia. A family friend, Don, built a log cabin in nearby Franklin county. Since the 1990's, my dad and I have been going up there to help him, and we started a little Christmas tradition to head into the nearest town (Floyd) to get our Christmas tree. They are much more fresh, and less expensive up there. Every year, we head to Floyd, eat lunch at the Blue Ridge Cafe, peruse the Hardware store, and then get our tree at Slaughter's. Leah (Don's daughter) and I always decorate the cabin when we return - put lights up outside, the bows on the porch rails, etc...We've added families along the way, and now we also do an impromptu wine and food spread at the cabin afterwards. Everyone brings something - Don has his homemade sausage and his wife's amazing homemade cheeseball...this year, Jeff made individual bourbon cheesecakes...and we feast in this tiny cabin warmed by our company and the nostalgic wood stove.

I was not able to go the last 2 years, which really broke my heart, so I was beyond excited that we were going this year, and taking Emma. Don and my dad had discovered a place nearby Floyd where you could cut your own tree down (how's that for nostalgia?!), so we were pretty excited to partake in this Griswald tradition.

We started our day out with a last minute Walmart visit in Hillsborough to grab some last minute supplies -and let Emma gt some wiggles out....

running around the parking lot...

reunited with gamma and peanut!

Love these two:)

We literally turn off of about 8 roads (which don't look like roads at all) to get to the cabin. I would certainly NOT drive this by myself without my Beretta attached to my hip! A few years ago, Don built a bridge over the stream, so we don't have to LITERALLY drive through a stream to get to his cabin anymore....but it sure was fun when we did:)

Our trip to Slaughter's nursery to check out the holiday maze was a winner. Emma wants to "love" and kiss everything.....

posing with one of Santa's reindeer....

kissing baby Jesus in the manger (heart melting...)

this animal sorta creeps me out.....those eyes!?!?

safty? gotta love homemade signs!!

no one else got the "picture is over here" memo

love these little hands pulling the polar bear in for a smooch!!

SMOOCHIES for everyone!

Picking out our tree proved to be more difficult with a toddler than I had anticipated. Unfortunately, Emma only wanted to run down the mountainside at full speed....on soggy and steep ground. We retreated down to the small bakery at the base of the mountain to warm up and terrorize the inside customers. The vintage snowman sign inside was a casualty of this choice, but it's nothing a little superglue can't fix:)