Summary
Friends from the Macon-WR area decided to have a weekend getaway in the Georgia mountains. After much searching, we decided to go to Helen, GA. In all, 11 families decided to go away together.
Most of the families arrived on Friday night. For 3 days, we all cooked together, played together, danced together, and laughed together. Many made new friends. Many reinforced their friendship.
Much of the pre-trip preparation was done "behind the scenes" by a handful of people.
During such "outings", it is quite difficult to keep all members of 1 family happy, let alone 11 different families.
As you can imagine, it is also very hard to anticipate and satisfy everyone's dietary desires. We tried as hard as we could to serve up delicious meals for the 3 days.
Bonding with friends was the primary focus. At the end, I believe we achieved our goals.
Purchased items or monetary gifts are quickly forgotten or lost. The gift of a wonderful memory is priceless, and will never be lost or forgotten. I believe each of us were blessed to be able to share 3 days together, creating unforgettable memories, which will last a lifetime. For Christmas 2009, the memories we created during this weekend was the best gift we could have given each other.
Accomodations
We stayed at a mountain resort called "Tanglewood Cabins", which is about 4 miles outside of Helen, GA. We rented a large 6 bedroom lodge and an extra 5 bedroom cabin.
Within the lodge, the main floor had 2 kitchens and a large gathering area with a large screen TV. We had 2 fireplaces lit and burning wood during the entire weekend. On the second floor, the lodge had 6 bedrooms, with each bedroom housing an entire family.
The extra cabin had 5 bedrooms, with a fireplace in each bedroom. There was also a cozy sitting area, and a large dining table perfectly suited for poker. There was also a large game room with a dart board, ping pong table, fooz-ball table, air hockey, and a basketball hoop.
Weather
The weather was incredible during the weekend. It was drizzling a bit on Friday, but Saturday and Sunday was gorgeous. The temperature was a little chilly, but warm enough to enjoy the great outdoors. On Saturday night, we got a small amount of snow flurries.
Children
We had 16 children, ages 1 year old to 18 years old. They had an absolutely wonderful time. They were left to play wherever, whatever, and whenever they wanted. Most of them stayed up until 1 AM each night. It was a true joy watching the children enjoy themselves. They played Billiards, Tag, Musical Chairs, Nintendo-DS, Bingo, Karaoke, Charades, Volleyball, Dodgeball, plus many more games. They all bonded with each other. Amazingly, there was not a single disagreement amongst all these kids, there was no crying, and no mis-behavior. They were all true Christmas Angels (at least for the duration of the trip).
Adults
There were 25 adults who attended the getaway. It was a therapeutic relief to not have to worry about work or other responsibilities. We all "let loose", telling jokes, making fun of each other, drinking wine and margaritas, dancing, singing, and resting. We all took care of each other's children as if they were our own.
Many people also opened their hearts to each other, and "listened" when someone wanted to get something off their chest. We got to know the true nature of people, and realized that we would "be there" for each other. In short, we bonded like one big family.
Attendees
Arora - Sanjeev, Aakash
Athni - Ashwini, Sudhir, Tejas, Sripadan, Indira
Datta - Sandeep, Renu, Ambar, Arya
Ghosh - Tarun
Masand - Geetu, Preeti, Aman
Narsinghani - Umesh, Ritu, Ishaan
Pagadala - Rajesh, Neelima, Sai, Nandu, parents
Patel - Vipul, Susan, Anmol, Krish
Singh - Mahipal, Pushpa, Aditya, Arpita
Vangala - Rahul, Divya, Maithri, Shreyas, Sahan
Vemuri - KP, Kavitha, Manasa, Meghana
Details
Friday, December 18, 2009
Most of the families arrived between 7 pm and 11 pm. We all had already eaten dinner, so a formal dinner was not prepared. A couple of pizzas were ordered for the children. As soon as everyone settled in, the wine started to flow. We laughed a lot as our version of Hindi Karaoke was quite unique. People who don't speak or understand Hindi were attempting to sing Hindi songs. That was fun to witness.
Since we had all driven a few hours to get to the cabins, we were quite tired. We just sat around, drank a few glasses of wine, and relaxed. Eventually, most everyone went to bed around 1 am.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
We slowly woke up between 8 am and 10 am. For breakfast, Upma was freshly prepared, along with cereal and fresh fruit. We also had bagels and eggs for those who preferred non-Indian food.
Once our tummies were full, the whole gang played volleyball. Each team claimed victory, even though we could barely get the ball over the net. We then played dodgeball - adults vs. children. The adults thought they could win, but the children were the clear winners.
After few minor head injuries and a lot of dirty pants, we all decided to go to Anna Ruby Falls. We hiked up to the base of the falls, following a beautiful stream along the way. We had a lot of fun climbing the rocks and taking a lot of fun photographs.
When we got back to the lodge, KP had prepared Chinese Vegetable Rice from scratch. As soon as the group got home, Tamarind Rice, Yogurt Rice was added to the spread. Everyone was quite hungry, so we inhaled the food quite rapidly.
In the evening, the adults played some pool, sang some more Karaoke, and just sat around having fun.
For the dinner meal, KP took charge, and prepared 2 types of chicken, pillau, naan, rice, and 2 types of curries. Many of the ladies were his assistants. The meal was absolutely fantastic, easily adding a few extra pounds onto everyone.
Late in the evening, the ladies and all the children watched a nice movie. While the movie was running in the main lodge, a "few good men" went off to the secondary cabin and enjoyed each other's company while playing 3-card poker.After 3 hours of playing, most everyone was "even" not having lost much money. We even had our own resident teenage loan-shark, charging 20% interest, per hour !!
With the wine bottles and margarita glasses flowing, everyone laughed and joked into the late night.
Sunday, Decemebr 20, 2009
Sunday was Manasa's 10th Birthday. KP and Kavitha prepared vada and almond chutney for everyone to enjoy during the birthday breakfast. Many of the other ladies were their assistants. Although vadas are typically "round with a hole in the center", these vadas allowed us to learn geography - they were each shaped like a different country :-) Along with the vadas, we feasted on some laddoos, hash brown patties, and freshly baked cookies.
After breakfast and birthday celebrations, some folks went to downtown Helen to enjoy window shopping, while others headed to the Cabbage Patch Factory. Some adventurous ones went hiking in the mountains. The nature trail hike was absolutely beautiful. During the hike, we realized that Mahipal is actually Tarzan in disguise :-)
We hiked for almost 2 -3 hours. We had to end the hike before the park closed, but we were all wishing for a longer hike.
Upon our return to Lodge, the whole group prepared Bhel Puri with sweet and spicy chutney.
As the evening wore on, we played some family games, including Chinese Whispers. You would be amazed at our creative "whispering". These whispers were rated NC-17, and hence only the adults played.
After many good laughs, the entire group prepared dinner together, using "what ever was left over" from the previous 2 days. Some unique, but savory, dishes were prepared. We enjoyed freshly made geera rice, yogurt rice, hot naans, multiple types of chutney, vegetable bhaji, omlets - to name only a few. There was so much food left over that we could have served dinner to another 40 people.
After dinner, we played male vs. female "antakshari". In reality, it was Geetu & Preeti vs. Sanjeev & Mahipal. These 4 are good... really good !!
As the night started to wind down, we started to do our final cleaning of the cabin. We finished around midnight, after which we all went to bed.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Everyone got up fairly early to get ready for check out. We all had a light continental breakfast before departing.
We left the cabins wanting a few more days together. The friendships that were created and strengthened will last a lifetime.
We are already planning for our next group vacation.