Jack Daniel's Distillery

The Jack Daniel's Distillery is in Lynchburg, Tennessee. We hadn't planned on stopping there on our way to Nashville but that's the beauty of traveling without an itinerary. I have to admit that I wasn't entirely on board when Todd mentioned he would like to take a tour of the distillery. He suckered me in when he told me the story of when he had been by ten years ago when he and one of his fraternity brothers had ventured into "deliverance country" on the way to a fraternity conference but ran out of time before they could do the tour. Whiskey isn't really my cup of tea but once we got there, I really enjoyed it. The drive to the distillery is beautiful. The rolling hills, red barns, white fences...I could get used to that!

Christmas in July!

We are pretty big fans of Christmas ornaments. Shortly after we met, we were putting up Nic's tree and I made a comment about how I didn't care for her white tree and all teal ornaments. And that prompted a discussion on our views of Christmas trees.

I know that it isn't uncommon for families to have multiple trees if a house has the space to support it. And despite living in a two bedroom apartment Nicole found a way to have a second tree devoted to ornaments from our two schools in a second room where it wouldn't clash with her main tree.

My family only had one tree growing up and it was a true hodge-podge of ornaments that tracked back through the years to when my parents got married. There were ornaments from when I was a kid and also ornaments we had picked up during our travels.

The result of our discussion was that we both agreed that every home should have a "Family Tree" that follows the growth of the family and that grows every year as the family grows. There should be ornaments that can be tracked back to specific events and will stir up memories every time you look at your tree.

The white key is from the town of Senoia where we visited the Southern Living Idea House.  We found it at a local antique store where Southern Living got a lot of their decor.  The sand dollar ornament is from St. Simon's Island/Jekyll Island where we've spent several weekends.  And the little wooden ornament is from The Farmhouse at Serenbe.

Two of these are from our most recent trip to Tennessee and the other is from Callaway Gardens...one of our favorite places to go on the weekend.

Since that day we've made a point to pick up ornaments every time we visit a new location. We write the date on the back of the ornament if we think we might need help remembering where or when we picked it up.

We also decided that we wanted a collegiate tree.  Since I'm an Auburn man and she's a Gator, it is easy for our ornaments to fit on the same tree without disrupting her delicate eye for color combinations.

Two of our favorite companies for collegiate ornaments are Kitty Keller Designs and Coton Colors Pottery.

Most people are familiar with Coton Colors products even though they may not realize it. They make all kinds of painted trays and dishes that are popular with the tailgate crowd. Their ornaments are just as great and fit on any tree.

Kitty Keller focuses on a unique metal working process called Cloisonné. I'm not an expert on the process but I do know the results are awesome!

What are some of your favorite ornaments?  Do you have any Christmas ornament traditions?