It was a rainy day with lots of fog on the route when we set off for the MINI Christmas event in the northeast Georgia mountains. Arriving mid afternoon, the MINIs were staring to line up in the parking lot.

Some had added some holiday cheer to their cars. They are still fun to see, even in the drizzly weather.

The hotel was on a lake, and even with the fog it was beautiful. Later in the evening, this firepit was lit, and we toasted marshmallows for s’mores. We couldn’t sit down because the chairs were wet, but we didn’t care. We gathered around a crackling fire and enjoyed catching up with friends.

We lined up on the road out of the parking lot to drive a nice twisty route to the Rollins Planetarium for a show on the history of astronomy, then a meal at a marina restaurant.

The next morning, the fog had lifted enough to see more of the lake, and the mountains beyond. I walked down the stone path to get a better view.

Beautiful, isn’t it? Quiet and serene in the early morning when no one else was up.

It wasn’t raining when My Sweet Babboo and I went across the parking lot for breakfast. There was still no one out, so it was the ideal time to ‘duck’ the cars. We put the ducks on the door handles, and waited for them to be found.

I did hear one person shout out “I got ducked!!” as the car owners found them. Most put theirs on the dashboard, but no one questioned who did it. Since none of them read my blog, I don’t think anyone figured it out. Or they assumed the organizers did it. My secret is safe for now, LOL!! These won’t be the last ducks I do, so we’ll see how long it takes for the group to figure it out.

We drove over to Helen, to see the lights and visit an historic home. Pastoral scenes were harder to see with the fog, but we enjoyed the drive just the same.

The leaves were gone from the trees, leaving only the architectural branches reaching into the clouds.

We arrived at Hardman Farm, and got a tour of this wonderful historic home.

Every room was decorated for Christmas, most had a tree and garlands on the fireplaces. This tree had an antique quilt around the base. Not sure how I felt about that, I would rather see a quilt displayed on a bed.

One of the bedrooms had an antique sewing machine that looked like a vibrating shuttle machine.

The house was build in 1870, and this was the kitchen house, set away from the main house and connected by a covered walkway.

Back to the hotel, we set up for the silent auction. My Sweet Babboo helped a lot.

We set up a stand, and hung the quilt to show it off to its best advantage. It was put in a place of honor, at the beginning of the tables and in front of the gorgeous stone fireplace. During set up, I put the opening bid on the bid sheet. It did not take long for more bids to come, and I had to text my proxy buyer for a decision. She upped her final bid, and won the quilt, with a bid of $250. The chocolate mixes did not get a lot of attention, even though they were in MINI mugs. The handmade MINI Christmas cards didn’t do as well as I had hoped either. Oh well, those things did bring in a bit of money, just less than I hoped they would.

Then it was on to the Reindeer Games! Each table was given a name. We were Team Motoring.

And motor we did, with one of our table mates getting a bingo on the first round. My cards didn’t get even three in a row.

We didn’t do as well on the wrap ball. This is a plastic ball, with toys and things wrapped in plastic wrap. You have to unwind it while wearing oven mitts. It is a lot harder than it looks! I think we came in last or next to last on that one.

But two of the people at our table got second place in the Pajama Parade, and I won this glass tree full of kisses by guessing the number closest to the actual number without going over it. I guessed 156, and there were 157 in the jar. The little MINI in the wrapper is an air freshener that came from the wrap ball game.

The last morning was still foggy and drizzly. I took a couple more photos of the car decorations as many went to some effort. The one on the right end had magnetic lights and a Grinch face.

Several had cute things hanging from the mirror.

Here’s a closer view of the green MINI with the wreath.

The last view of the lake before we left for home showed more of the scenic view as the clouds were lifting.

Such a fun weekend, seeing friends, and enjoying our beautiful world. Do you have a fun trip planned for the holidays?

************************

This weekend, take 30% Off Products Made by Milk Street! Just enter code MILKSTREET30 at checkout to get the discount. Sale ends Sunday December 10. Email subscribers, if the link doesn’t work, it is because your email program is adding code. Click on the post title to see it online, and the link will work from there.