Winter Blitz 2026

We didn’t get to sleep in this Saturday morning, because we had to get up and get Emerson to church by 8:15am. I pulled out my tiny waffle maker, and made tiny egg-waffles and topped them with cheese for a quick breakfast for the girls.

Jeff got Emmie dropped off, and Addie and I stayed home to shower and get dressed. We gathered up some things we would need for the day, and then once Jeff was back, we loaded up in the car. First stop was to 7Brew for “Jackpot” day, which means we got this cute little friendship bracelet for free with our drinks. We were only supposed to get one, but Jeff asked for a second, and the lady nicely gave it to us, so Emmie got one too.

We got some gas and then hit the road to Panama City. Addie was already getting feisty and grumpy in the car, so after begging and pleading and negotiating with her whiny, half-crying self, and finally got her to settle down and take a car nap. Then I got to read my Kindle for a bit while Jeff was driving, but eventually he was getting sleepy so I had to talk to him to keep him awake, so I just explained the plot of the book I was reading.

We made it to PC earlier than we needed to be, and we just happened to stop at a place for lunch right next to a giant Goodwill. So of course we had to go in and see what we could thrift! I found three dresses for Emmie, a dress and a shirt for Addie, and two books for me. All for about $3/each, $20-ish total. Pretty good haul, for a quick 20-minute thrift.

We tried this awesome little pizza place for lunch, called Gamo’s Pizza, which is a mix of Indian and pizza, and was SO good. We ordered a butter chicken pizza to share, and a little pepperoni pizza pocket for Addie. There is no indoor seating there, so we took it to a nearby park to eat and enjoy the nice weather. And y’all, this pizza was truly something so different and unique, and we were both instantly obsessed with it and wanted more. If we’re ever back in the area, we’ll definitely go back. But it’ll be hard to choose between trying something new, or getting the exact same thing again!

And then it was time to join up with our GC Kids group at Winter Blitz! We were able to hang out with them as they ate lunch (their lunch was delayed, which is how that happened), and then watch each of our kiddos perform their fun arts selections. We had a puppetry group, a short sermon, three vocal soloists, and one dancer. Plus about 10 that submitted art pieces. And all of them did so amazing!

 

 

Emerson was superior awards in both her vocal solo, and for her painting. And she was only one in the whole event who scored a perfect score on her artwork! You can bet we’re going to hang this up in our house now!!

After the closing ceremonies and awards, everyone started getting ready to load up. We had Emmie ride home with us though, instead of on the van back to the church. We found one Little Free Library super close to the area we were in, and it was painted beautifully! I did grab two books from there, and we left a few behind.

We decided to eat out in PC before heading home, and after trying to go to a bbq spot that was closed for a private event, we ended up at Po’Folks nearby. We used to have one of these in Tally forever and a day ago, and I remember loving to eat there as a kid. And it was really good tonight, and both girls loved it and ate everything on their plates. I love fried green tomatoes, and I got a kids’ sized county fried steak meal, and everything was really tasty, and priced very well. (And no, basically nothing I ate today was low-carb, but it felt like a mini vacay, and I just wanted to enjoy the day and enjoy delicious food! Back to low-carb again tomorrow though for sure.)

It was my turn to drive us home tonight, and although the girls were kind of in and out of trying to sleep, Jeff stayed awake with me. We listened to Nick Jonas’ new album, twice, and kept talking all the way home so we would both stay awake. It was 9:30pm by the time we got back (I certainly didn’t mean for us to get home so late; the time change messed me up today, twice actually!), and so both girls were exhausted and ready for bed as soon as we got home. We didn’t think Pennie would settle down to sleep with them, since she had been cooped up all day, but I think she was just glad to have us all home. Look at Pennie holding on to Emmie tonight! I just can’t with these two…

All of our GC Kiddos did amazing today, but obviously I’m the most proud of this beautiful little girlie! She persevered even through technical issues with her backing soundtrack, and then she had to start over about a minute in once they got things ironed out. She was so happy and proud of herself for doing well, and for earning another medal for singing. And she was so happy to earn her first medal in the art category! At dinner tonight, she was doodling on the kids menu, and I was already brainstorming ideas for her to paint for next year, based on the little things she was drawing. She thought I was crazy, but I was coming up with good stuff!

Loved our little mini road trip today, and all the time with family and friends and our little church group.

(Old posts from Winter Blitz 2023 and Winter Blitz 2025; we missed 2024 because Emmie had the flu and our Pretzel died that same weekend 🙁 )