a christmas break day trip with everyone and no one died

christmas break has arrived and we've broken it in by yelling and fighting and cleaning. the thought of another day at home, while productive, sounded utterly miserable and stifling. so on day 2 i decided to brave a fun day with the kids. monroe, georgia is about 45 minutes from our house and is exactly what you would expect from a small town in the South. a darling downtown full of junk/antique shops and restaurants and wonderful heavy accents. 

i managed to keep all the children happy and content while we ate a little cafe. it was okay food. the toasted bread on my pimento cheese sammich was good, but the cheese wasn't melted at all. certainly not a grilled pimento cheese sammich if we're being technical. but, by the time hersch was restless, we were done!

a big accomplishment was when i had to take the little kids to the bathroom and i was able to leave reagan at the table and he did not get too worried about me being gone too long. baby steps are big steps. in fact, he was annoyed that i was worried he would be worried. "mom, i'm fine. it's not a big deal. everybody goes to the bathroom." well, that's not the tune you were singing before. 

maybe you've heard of the story shop from the news or various forms of social media?  the story shop is a really darling local bookstore that makes you want to read and redecorate your whole house.

i was ready to move in. 

i didn't get the best picture of this wardrobe a la the lion, witch and the wardrobe that opens up into the story time area. hopefully you get the idea. 

beautiful and creative literary inspired design everywhere. 

i have been stalking this rug online for my next big rug purchase i make and they had it in the shop and it was even better than i imagined. 

by the restrooms:

a space for parties. yes, please.

hurray for reading! i bought two books. which is two more books than i planned on buying but how can you not support this? 

after the bookshop, we wandered in the drizzle down to the historic courthouse and live nativity site.

very reasonably priced hard scoop ice cream. 

reagan still loathes ice cream so i paid for this marshmallow stick thing and he picked the m&ms off of it and blythe finished eating it for him.

oreo cheesecake:

snickers:

blythe got an amazing homemade peanut butter sheets in chocolate ice cream. i tried to finish it after she pooped out.

but my poor intestines know i can't handle ice cream anymore. 37 years old and i can't handle my ice cream anymore. go ahead and start digging my grave. what's the point of going on without ice cream? 

just darling. so darling!

we attempted to peruse the state of georgia's largest antique mall, located in a gigantic old mill, but hersch wasn't having it. he was excited by all the junk but not in the same way i was excited by all the junk. 

we drove home. athena blythe heard that terrible hippopotamus christmas song on the radio and was instantly hooked. besides that, the day was a success. i'm going to call upon this memory on days when i have to take everyone places and i don't have the faith or the strength.