Read more about the article Winter Lantern Festival – Atlanta, GA
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Winter Lantern Festival – Atlanta, GA

We usually try to see Christmas lights every holiday season. Favorites include Atlanta Botanical Gardens and Fantasy in Lights at Callaway Gardens. This year, we tried out a new event – the Winter Lantern Festival.

Lantern festivals originated in China thousands of years ago. Over the past decades, the spectacular display of hand-crafted silk designs now illuminated by LED lights has spread to the United States. Atlanta welcomed the Global Winter Wonderland in 2013. Now you can catch the annual Atlanta BeltLine Parade and the newer Sandy Springs Lantern Parade.

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Read more about the article Georgia Renaissance Festival – Fairburn, GA

Georgia Renaissance Festival – Fairburn, GA

I finally did it! I attended a Renaissance Festival this summer with Thing 1 – and I had much more fun than I expected.

The Middle Ages aren’t my favorite historical period. And frankly, walking around all day and eating turkey legs never appealed to me.

However, I soon changed my tune when I saw all the work and detail at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. I can’t compare it to festivals in other states, but this one occurs every weekend from mid-April through early June.

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Live Nativity – Sardis UMC – Atlanta, GA

Last weekend, Sardis United Methodist Church held its live nativity on both Saturday and Sunday nights. It had been a few years since we’d been, so we made it a priority this year. Located on Powers Ferry Road near the intersection of Roswell Road, many don’t see this tiny church tucked in a residential neighborhood near Chastain Park.

Sardis UMC is one of the oldest church congregations in Atlanta.

The church itself was built in 1927, but the congregation has been around since the early 1800’s. Historians seem to think that Sardis UMC is the oldest church in Atlanta with a congregation forming as early as 1812. Unfortunately, an 1842 fire at the DeKalb County courthouse destroyed all records to substantiate that claim. Note that the location was part of DeKalb, before Fulton County was formed in 1853! (more…)