I Blog.

The reason I blog is pretty simple: many of our friends and all of our family do not live in Tennessee— I'm looking at you West Coast and Germany. My hope is that through this blog I can chronicle events in our lives and keep everyone up to date. Of course, when there are lots of events sometimes I don't have time to blog about them. I just get busy living. Fortunately, because this is a hobby and not a job I'm sure you understand.

That said, since I last posted a few things have occurred. Rather than complete the draft posts I started {which I have, and generally always do} I'll just do a quick run through: 

• I turned 25. Because it was a Tuesday, I celebrated with my friends in Nashville which was loads of fun. It was basically a day long celebration which made me appreciate, more than I realized at the time, how blessed I am to have such wonderful friends in Nashville, my home away from home.  
• I completed my first semester of graduate school. Thats right, as of 1:30 yesterday all of my finals are in. I am now officially 25% finished. I feel like the first semester was all about transition and adjustment. 
•  I came home despite a snow storm that tried to keep me away! I do not have to go back to Nashville until January 6 and, frankly, I don't plan to.  I get the next few weeks off to enjoy my time with Peter and the pups. It's awesome. 
•  I completed my Christmas shopping. I would like nothing more than to share the awesome gifts I picked out for my family; however, posting them on the blog would do nothing but spoil the surprise. But know this, they are good! There is always such satisfaction in finding a perfect gift and this year, I think we've found a number of winners. 

Dashing Through

A Very Nashville Christmas

Saturday a group of us ventured to Opryland to check out A Very Country Christmas. We were all surprised by the crowd and Opryland in general. Our initial shock came when we had to pay $18 plus tax to park. After overcoming the shock of parking, we enjoyed the lights outside of the hotel. The trees were covered in thousand of white lights making for a very classic Christmas look.  

Photo from themeetingmagazines.com 

Once we ventured inside, we decided that the place was basically a casino (without the gambling) trying to be Disney World meets Rainforest Cafe.  We wandered through the labyrinth of floors and atriums taking in the sites and sounds- which included not one, but two, weddings and receptions. 

 

We were looking forward to the Brightest Star Fountain Show which is set to Christmas music; sadly, due to the weddings the show was cancelled. Still, we enjoyed the interior decorations while we meandered through.  

  

Perhaps it goes without saying that there was no shortage of opportunities to spend money at Opryland. We made our way into the Very Country Christmas Official Store where I spotted a potential gift for Peter, unfortunately it cost $100, you know, give or take, so I opted out of the purchase.  

 

I'm glad I went to Opryland if only to say that I've been there- I don't suppose I could live in Nashville and not visit Opryland at least one time. It made for a lovely Saturday afternoon writing break and helped put us all in the holiday spirit.