Relishing in His Goodness: Keeping Traditions Alive

The December after my husband came home from war, in 2004, he took me to the home of a family who had one really spectacular light display, that we were able to drive through. I was completely enamored by the effort that was put into this expansive light display and I'd certainly never seen anything like it. This had become a tradition for Darrell, every Christmas, in the years before he met me and has since become a Christmas tradition for our family. "It doesn't feel like a real Christmas season until you've been to the Gaddy's." is what my babies often say.

Countless twinkling lights, painted scenery, and moving parts make up the conglomerate that is The Gaddy's Light Display! The family uses this display to not only spread Christmas cheer to the masses who come out in droves, every season, but to also hold a toy drive for Toys for Tots as well as to collect money for The March of dimes.

This video was from their submission to the ABC show The Great Christmas Light Fight that the family was featured in, in 2012 I believe. It's quite an old video and they have expanded the display by loads!!!

Because their light display is so popular to natives of the area and just beyond, it's common to have to wait in a bit of vehicle traffic before reaching their magical holiday wonderland. During this particular visit, Mr. Gaddy graciously stood out in the cold to greet each family who came out for the display, walking from car to car, to offer a smiling "Thanks for coming out! Merry Christmas and God bless." He toted bags of toy donations, as their donation boxes were already slap full for the night, and took ours as well. The absolute gratitude to getting a humble donation just blessed my soul.

What an inspiration that family is.

Here are just a few photos from our visit:

The line was long but mama was prepared with a Christmas movie and hot cocoa!

Getting closer!

My photos don't do the holiday cheer justice!

Of course, we never visit the Gaddy's without visiting The Stanfield's light display, too! They are just a few minutes drive from the Gaddy's, so if you've not been, I highly recommend! Their interactive tree is beautiful!

Just a few randoms that have made me happy this past weekend.

I found Ace like this on Ella's bed. Adorbs!

I think Dunkin coffees are far superior to Starbucks. I said what I said.

Two things about this photo. 1) Sam's Scan and Go feature makes me ridiculously happy & 2) Gas prices are going down. I literally did a happy dance in the sprinkling rain as I pumped gas into my gas guzzler.

Speaking of Sams...dinner was made super easy on this particular night because I bought a $5 rotisserie chicken and their frozen bacon mac & cheese, so I heated those things up and then simply sauteed broccoli. This was one of those simplistically prepped dinner nights that help make my widowed mama rockin world go round.

They snuggle like this, every night, and I am in love with that.

Plumb tuckered out!

This one popped up in my facebook memories. We were at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain. He really enjoyed taking the kids to the light display there, too. We created so many precious memories with them, in the nearly two decades of Christmases that we spent together.