Family, Friends, Food and Football....

Whew!! What a weekend! Started cooking for Thanksgiving last weekend and literally prepared until the minute we sat down to eat on Thursday. As many already know, Chris and Allison each had small mishaps in the kitchen which involved chopping and grating (mostly their fingers instead of the food). Luckily these were only minor injuries. I'm thinking that maybe next year I will have them help with the non-sharp object involved tasks.

We had a house full on Thursday. My family came over from Georgia for the weekend. Chris' family came over too and a few very dear friends joined us as well. We ate until we were miserable. But that was only round 1!! Round 2 was Friday night with some more of our very dear friends. I think that I ate as much Friday night as I did Thursday. Therefore, I do NOT care to even think about casseroles or turkey for a year. This translates into my Christmas menu not containing any of those items. I'm thinking maybe grilling steaks.

We took my nephew to the Christmas tree farm on Friday. He helped us pick out a tree and got to see some reindeer.  I think that he had a good time. He told me as we were leaving "I sure am glad that I came.  This was fun."  He is 7 years old but sounded like a teenager telling me about his epiphany.  The Iron Bowl was on Saturday.  My beloved Alabama won!! YAY!! RTR!! Chris swore that he was going to video me standing on the furniture and screaming at the TV, but I only yelled at the TV and jumped up and down once during the whole game. LOL!!

With the weekend behind me, I am concentrating on finishing up with my Christmas shopping.

Happy Thanksgiving

Chris and I did our Thanksgiving grocery shopping last week. I can say that it was only mildly painful. I loathe shopping at Wal-Mart but the crowd wasn't to bad and we were able to get in and out pretty quickly. My genius was once again displayed with the cunning use of my Excel spreadsheet!! I know a few weeks back both Chris and I blogged about my creation. He had a couple of suggestions for its improvement and I thought it was sheer perfection. However, we put it to use again last week and I am convinced that my spreadsheet was almost completely responsible for our quick grocery excursion!! 

So we have everything we need to have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Family and friends will be here. The Iron Bowl is this weekend. Roll Tide!! I'm looking forward to having my sweet husband home for a few days. Life is just as it should be. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

CMAs

The 45th Annual Country Music Awards were this week in Nashville. And I suppose this event was the kick-off to non-stop events until after the new year. This trip was a whirlwind for me and exhausting.  I'm sure it was even more so for Chris considering it was a "working" event for him.

Being that I am a very girlie girl, I love, love, love to put on a pretty dress, get my hair done and make-up done. And the best part is going out with my dear sweet husband. We have the best time together.  We can be in a room full of people and be completely lost in each other. Aware of their presence but totally absorbed in one another. It is the most wonderful feeling in the world.  But, I digress. 

We arrived at the venue, hung out a few minutes and then took our seats. I am a people watcher; therefore, it was very cool to stargaze. The ZBB didn't receive an award but no matter the boys performed and it was incredible as always. 

So, with my quick trip to Nashville behind me, I now look to planning, grocery shopping and cooking for Thanksgiving. 

Note: A very special "thank you" to the sweet friends who helped me shop for and choose the perfect dress.

Gatlinburg

Chris was off this weekend so we took this rare opportunity to take the girls for a family vacation. Our destination was Gatlinburg. None of us have been there in years. So, on Friday we embarked on our adventure to the mountains. 

Car trips are always the best. Several hours of quality time trapped together. Stories were told, music was listened to and snoring was done. Chris was driving so I only had to wake him up once! Seriously, we got in the car and almost immediately began talking about how happy we were that this would only be a 5 hour trip versus the 12 hour drive we took to Miami a couple of years ago. 

We arrived around midnight and went straight to bed. 

Saturday morning was beautiful. The sun was shining and the air was brisk. Perfect mountain weather. We walked to the Pancake Pantry for breakfast where we stood in line to get a table for 45 minutes. Crazy, I know. But we were on vacation and had no where to be at any particular time so why not wait. Those pancakes were tasty too!! 

Chris' cousin and her husband met us for breakfast and then we embarked on a drive through the mountains. The foliage was so colorful and the drive so peaceful. We did however stop for a while to visit the final resting place of Chris' dad. It was a bittersweet moment in our day but Chris was very much at peace and enjoyed his quiet moments there by the water's edge where we said our final goodbyes to Pop a little more than a year ago.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking in and out of shops and just hanging out. Saturday night the girls, Chris and I had tickets to the Dixie Stampede which is a dinner theatre owned by Dolly Parton.  To say it was so much fun would be an understatement.  Dinner at the Dixie Stampede is eaten with your hands "cowboy" style - no utensils while sitting in an arena watching a show all done on horseback. I am such a geek but this was one of the highlights of the trip. Chris had never been to Dixie Stampede. I think he had fun. 

Sunday morning was another beautiful one. Perfect weather. Chris and I decided that we wanted to have "Old Time" pictures made and really wanted the girls to participate but they would not. Apparently, it's not cool to be geeky and have fun! No matter. Chris and I did it by ourselves and had a blast! I think we are going to do this again but next time he's going to be a 40's gangster and I'm going to be a flapper.

We ended our trip with a bit more shopping and then on the road we went. As we got closer to Birmingham, I looked in the backseat. Ashley was sleeping and Allison was listening to her ipod. I turned back around and told Chris that trips like this were going to become non-existent before to long. The girls are almost grown and will have their own lives before we know it and excursions involving just the four of us will be no more.  For a brief moment I was saddened by this thought but quickly reflected on the wonderful weekend and had to smile.