gatlinburg and great smoky mountain national park

For something fun and festive, we headed up to Gatlinburg for the night to show Grandma and Grandpa the sights.  We stopped at Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack in Asheville for a delicious Tennessee-style hot chicken lunch on the drive up.

After we checked in to our hotel we walked around the streets of Gatlinburg, enjoying all of the Christmas decorations and after dinner, we relaxed by the fire at our hotel with hot chocolate and cookies.  Ellie only screamed while she was sitting on the hearth-- she much preferred sitting on the floor or the couch!

We bought tickets for the Gatlinburg Trolley "Ride of Lights" to see the Christmas lights around town.  We drove over to the aquarium to park and walked around that end of Gatlinburg for a bit while we waited for our tour.

Christmas lights in Gatlinburg.

After our tour, it was back to the hotel and straight to bed-- after taking some pictures on the empty streets of town.

In the morning we introduced Grandma and Grandpa to our favorite Gatlinburg breakfast at Crockett's Breakfast Camp!

The Little Country Church-- one of the smallest churches in the United States.

We took the scenic drive home through Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

There was some construction (and clean up from the massive wildfires from the week before) and the slowdowns allowed us to really enjoy the fresh snow on the sides of the road.

We stopped at Newfound Gap to enjoy the views before heading into North Carolina and back home.