Joe's Surprise 80th Birthday & Helen, GA on the Way Home

Even though it was quite hard to make the time to drive all the way to Atlanta for a birthday party, it was important to celebrate this amazing man who takes such good care of oma! Joe's son and daughter-in-law planned a surprise 80th birthday and we were all there to celebrate with him! On the way back, we took a small detour to go through Helen Georgia that since the 1940s or so has been designed to look like a Bavarian Christmas town. You could tell it was a lot of families Christmas traditions!

Christmas Eve 2025 : Reigniting the Tradition of The Grove Park Inn

There was a time many years ago when each Christmas Eve we would go to the Blue Ridge dining room and have a family dinner and the girls have been asking to reignite this tradition for years. Now it is my gift to the family every Christmas eve! Although we couldn't get into the Blue Ridge and Leia couldn't eat her weight in Crab legs, we did get a reservation at the Edison and enjoyed all of the Gingerbread houses. There is even a life-size gingerbread house that is all edible! There was even a neat display by an artist who burned pages of Harry Potter books to make incredible sculptures! We really enjoyed this evening after the mass at immaculate conception!

Had to take this pic of Shana because of her participation as a Gingie in Pickens this year! She made the front page!

Thompson Christmas 2025

This year at the Bohemian Bull and then back to Aunt Cassie's for gifts and dessert!

Annie Gets Into UNC Chapel Hill +

I took this picture just because it reminded me so much of my own experience, opening College acceptance letters. So much of it is done online now though! And we got some unexpected correspondence from Annie while she was in New York City that she got into UNC Chapel hill, then NC state, then Lenore rhine, then UNC charlotte! We are so proud of her!

Annie & Corey in New York City

Here are Annie and Corey outside of Macy's, the famous department store! They saw all of the sites including Rockefeller Center Radio City Music Hall and the subway and Central Park St Patrick's Cathedral and even viewing Statue of Liberty the Empire State Building and the Chrysler building. For Christmas I gave Corey and his mom and Annie a trip to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall in their Christmas Spectacular which just so happened to be the 100th anniversary! Both Annie and Corey absolutely love the big city! I wouldn't be surprised if City life is in their future.

ICE : The Reality of the Trump Presidency Hits Hendersonville

It took a while, but the reality of this man being president came on November 18th 2025 when ice entered our area and camped out at flat rock. I leftist friend of mine who I used to work with immediately texted me and told me to get the word out to our Hispanic Community we work with. But I didn't realize was I needed to tell our micronesian community as well, and so I also texted my friend Youlene. The ice agents were seen all over the town and everyone was staying clear. What was interesting was the day after my micronesian friend was stopped on the way to Walmart to go to work. The officer simply asked after seeing the Walmart vests, oh do you work at walmart? When they said yes, she simply let them go knowing that Walmart only hires citizens. That seemed really sketchy to me and that they were profiling people on the road of other nationalities especially near 5:00 a.m. when Hispanics are going to work on yard work. Luckily, there wasn't a huge raid, but the entire hour Lady of Guadalupe celebration at the Agricultural Center was canceled as a result.

Leia's UNCW Graduation 2025 : Graduation Gifts & Dinner at The Melting Pot

Leia requested her special graduation dinner be at The Melting Pot and we all shared the famous yin and yang martinis! A fun time was had by all! Leia received some incredible gifts, not the least of which was the heirloom recipe and family history book I created. For more about the book, look at the previous blog post entitled labor of love.