If you want to feel like you’re in the middle of a Hallmark movie, you should visit the ice skating rink in Sugar Hill, Ga. It’s such a fun, romantic setting. There’s a mix of all ages out there smiling, holding hands and laughing. This rink is right next to city hall. It’s well lit with music, food trucks, a small flea market for small businesses. There’s no way anyone can walk through this area and not feel the Christmas spirit or at least feel happy.

This little town amazes me, everytime I drive through it. I grew up in Sugar Hill and when I tell you me and my friends would have lost our crap if we had this kind of entertainment back in the day. All we had were dirt roads and bridges to entertain us. Riding our four wheeler to a friends house was the talk of the town. Now they have a movie theatre, shopping, restaurants, this ice rink, everything!

Through the month of December, Cameron (my son) called from his dad’s to see if I could bring Jenna to the ice rink. My mistake was taking her one day after work, pictured here. It wasn’t crowded and she had the best time. I didn’t even need to get out there with her. Luckily, they had this rail for the newbies and she held on to this for dear life, until she gained her confidence.

John + I would grab a table and sit so we can talk to Jenna when she skates her way over to us. We also make new friends, with others, when they stop for a rest or fall into the side of the rail to stop themselves from hitting the ice.

Bubba skated around her several times but made sure to check in to let her know he was still there. Most of his friends at the rink did the same with Jenna. She loved all the attention, especially from the older girls. It took her about thirty minutes with the hand rail, then she’d be ready to toss it to the side.

I knew it would be a matter of time until Cameron showed Jenna how to do his signature pose.

Now she does this everytime I pull the camera out. There’s no reasoning with her now, she’s six. That’s two whole hands, lol. Her reply is, “bubba does it.”

Her little cute self thought she could skate past me and not pose for pictures. The top left here is her making several trips around our table saying she’d be back for a pic, knowing she wasn’t going to stop. Then when I threaten her, she makes these faces, until she laughs. This girl is such a character.

Cameron thought he could escape me too. I caught him here with some of his friends.

Ta-Da! I got them both! This was two hours into the evening. If you think it’s easy taking pictures of your own kids, it’s not. But when you get those memories and find yourself constantly going back to look at the images, it’s all worth the pain and tears to achieve the goal. lol.

And does it even show you tried to get a good picture, if you don’t have one like this in your camera roll?

Here she is after she ditched the hand rail and skated on her own. She did really well. She only fell a few times. Definitely not as much as we thought she would. She didn’t go very fast but she held her own out there. And for her first time ice skating, she wasn’t scared at all that bubba grabbed her and pushed her really fast in front of him. She loved it. This girl is a thrill seeker. She must get that from her daddy because it’s not in my DNA.

Several times throughout the night, bubba would skate up behind her, pick her up and skate in circles. She loved it and would laugh so hard. Each time he put her down, she begged to do it again. By the time we left, she was even practicing doing her own circles…very slow…but still trying to master the spin.

We went as a family several times over the holiday season. I wish they had more heaters outside and would ditch the metal chairs because THEY WERE FREEZING TO SIT ON….but we will still be back next year. I’ll just dress in layers and bring my own seating pad from walmart. If you decide to go, you need to carpool. Also, check to see if there’s a special event that night because the parking…it’s horrible…but worth the trouble if you can brave driving around until you get a spot.