rocky top, you'll always be...

Last weekend, my little family joined all my aunts, their husbands, and my cousin and Grandmama for what is becoming our annual post-Christmas Christmas gathering. We went to this same cabin last year - The Old Mill at Dry Creek - near Smithville, Tennessee. You can read more about our travels to this wonderful place last January 2012 trip here and our Memorial Day trip here and here. 

After our trip, we swung through Camp Bethel in Waynesville, which is about 30-40 minutes West of Asheville, to spend the night with our friends The Stiggins and spend a little time with Richard. His lovely wife Karen was in an unfortunate accident riding the previous Thursday when their Polaris slid down the mountainside with Karen in it. It eventually rolled over Karen and she sustained some pretty significant injuries. Thankfully she was able to come home after a few days and we were able to see her before we left. We are praying for her quick recovery.  You can read more about Camp Bethel and previous trips here and here. We absolutely adore these people, their hearts, their true joy, life, and freedom they demonstrate can be had through living as Jesus asked us to live - sacrifically and for the well being of others. We love them and cannot wait to return. Of course, we were too busy visiting for me to get any photos this time.

As usual the Stiggins sent us home with something harvested from their land. This time it was about ten pounds of ground beef from the cows they raised last year. 

Here are photos from our trip.