Living almost 3,000 miles away from family can make the holiday incredibly difficult. This year we decided to spend the Christmas holidays with our closest family members and friends down in the South.
We started off our trip by flying into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta airport and then road tripping down in Tallahassee, home of my college alma mater. I hadn’t visited Tallahassee since I moved away and I was missing my friends, so we made it a quick weekend getaway!
We stayed at the Aloft Tallahassee Downtown which served as the perfect home base for our trip. There was plenty of space for the entire family, which is important when traveling with 3 adults and a baby!
After a wonderful weekend of catching up with friends, we headed back to Atlanta for Christmas. It can be an odd feeling to celebrate the Christmas holidays outside of your home, but for us, it added a layer of excitement and fun. For the first time in a long time, we found ourselves out with the holiday crowds to find gifts and decorations for Roo’s first Christmas!
Even though Roo received 2 baby dolls as presents from family members we felt that it was important for to also have a doll who looked like her, because representation matters.
Because my family lives a few hours away from Cleveland, GA we made a day trip out of a visit to Cabbage Patch Babyland Hospital!
Although Roo won’t remember this visit, it was so nostalgic to visit a place from my childhood and to also find a baby doll that looked like our sweet girl.
My first born daughter Imani is buried in Atlanta and her birthday is December 27th so we make it a point to visit her and bring a memorial arrangement for her headstone. This was Roo’s first time visiting the burial site and it was a bittersweet moment that I will cherish forever.
No Atlanta visit is complete without a trip to the top landmarks like the Varsity & Fernbank Museum of Natural History. It was Riley’s first visit to a museum and she seemed to really love looking at all of the exhibits as much as we did.
We rounded out the rest of our visit spending quality time with family and friends and as we brought in the New Year, we found ourselves reflective of how wonderful 2012 had been for us, and how excited we are for all that 2013 has in store for us!
Check out our Southern Holiday picture slideshow:
