Xmas in Georgia, Part 1

December 20, 2013

On Thursday, Liz and I headed to Georgia to visit with family, and to celebrate an early Christmas. This year we were staying with Tricia and Darryl, and I was lucky enough to wake up early on Friday to go with the kids to school.

It was a really cool experience, as Tricia and I got to walk Paige and Audrey to their classrooms. Instead of simply dropping them at the school curb, all the parents typically park and walk inside with their kids. I got to meet the school principal, the kids’ teachers, and I have to say – it was just an awesome feeling of community – seeing all the teachers and parents, everyone greeting and waving to one another.

After experiencing that kind of dropoff, I can’t imagine simply driving up and letting your kid out the car door. It was a great experience.

For a part of the morning afterwards, Tricia and I drove a bit around Decatur and she showed me around. Before heading home, we stopped over at a place called Revolution Doughnuts.

In a word: delicious. We loaded up on a ton, and brought some back for Darryl and Liz for breakfast. Naturally, I couldn’t say no to the Bacon Caramel Doughnut.

Later on in the afternoon, Liz and I accompanied Tricia to an event called “Community Circle.” It’s a thing that happens on Fridays, where all the students gather together, dance, and sing songs as a way to end the school week together:

Fast forward a bit towards the evening, and we were trying to get the kids tired for bed. To help rid them of some excess energy, Tricia asked them to run a few laps around the kitchen. They ran…

And then they ran some more. I think Paige may have gotten upwards of over 100 laps in. Seriously.

Some not so great pictures from my cellphone, from an evening out at Brick Store Pub.

Tricia and Darryl.

After some nice beers and good food, our server John was kind enough to give us a small tour of their beer room upstairs.

Some rare Founders beer.

Some very rare beer, at least from what I was told. Think this one came all the way from a monastery in Belgium, and may be worth upwards of over $1,000.

Another view of the room. A very cool way to end the evening, at one of the local, neighborhood watering holes. Prior to us coming here, Bob was adamant about us getting Tricia and Darryl to bring us here – and after our night here, we understood why.