Merry Christmas

It's nine o'clock on Christmas night and I'm sitting in bed exhausted, but content. Today was a day for family. We spent the morning opening gifts before traveling to my husband's family's for dinner and then over to my family's for a birthday. I absolutely LOVE Christmas, it's definitely my favorite holiday, but I always have a little sense of disappointment when it's all over. There's so much time and effort put into planning and preparation and then just like that, it's over. It was also sad to not have my oldest sister and her family here with us. I've been checking their photo site often for pictures and updates, but it's just not the same. I was really glad to see a couple of videos of the kids, it brings them a little closer to home. We all miss them terribly and hope Christmas was as happy in Africa as it was here. On the bright side we have something superfun to look forward too....the BEACH!!! Only about seven more months until we're sunning ourselves on the Outer Banks sand and only 364 more days until next Christmas!!

Country Christmas

Some members of my family and I just returned from a little trip to Nashville TN. We had a great time!!! The weather was drizzly but warm enough to go without a coat. Although we were just there for the weekend,we tried to pack in as much fun as we possibly could. One of my favorite places we visited was the Opryland Hotel! It was sooo incredibly beautiful. They had it completely decorated for the holidays and the lights were awesome. Nashville is such a cool city to visit even if you're not a "country" music fan. There's so much music history in that town you'd need a year to see it all. Here's a picture of some of the lights at the hotel.