One Exciting Weekend!!

Merry Christmas!!  Man, are we getting in the spirit around here.  

Grace had a field trip AND her Christmas party at school on Thursday.  I made the executive parental decision that she didn't have to go to school on Friday.  What could they do anyway??  :)

The girls and I decided to have our own adventure.  We set out for a day trip to Nashville on Friday morning, really not knowing what we were going to do when we got there except for seeing the Christmas decorations at the Opryland Hotel that night.  I prayed that Jesus would set our itinerary for the day and direct our steps.  Man, was it a blessed day.  For starters, the sun hasn't come out in Hartselle for two weeks.  It has been foggy and rainy every single dreary day. As soon as we crossed the state line into Tennessee, the sun emerged, the rain dried up and the temperature rose to an amazing 75 degrees.  UNBELIEVABLE!!!  

We started at a nature center with huge grassy areas to run around in the sun, stuffed animals to see inside and trails to hike.  We had a FANTASTIC time.  We moved from there to a second park where we played outside on the playground.  What a treat in December! This is where we got the call that sweet baby Caleb had been born!  A huge blessing!!! Around the corner from the park, we had dinner at my dear sweet fantastic friend Meredith's house.   Meredith cooked dinner for us (spaghetti & macaroni & cheese!  How can you go wrong with not one, but 2 pasta dishes????)  After great conversation (not much catch-up, Mer!  :) )  we headed over to the hotel.  Meredith & Jeff had warned us about spending time stuck in traffic... my expectations were not high.  (After a wrong turn and brief tour of Nashville) we pulled RIGHT into the hotel and parked in a close parking spot (not bused from the local mall or anything!!)  A helpful hotel employee gave us a map of the hotel after circling the hot spots we would want to be sure to see and tips about where to have the parking ticket validated (otherwise it was $18).  We saw a fountain water show (Wow wow wee!! it was good) and a "Rockabilly Christmas" show with singing and dancing (which we've already imitated multiple times since).  We saw lots of poinsettias, Christmas lights, people and a life size Nativity scene.  It was AWESOME!!!  I am SO thankful that we arrived just in time to see the shows - that made all the difference in our experience.  As we were leaving, I ran into the same helpful employee who asked about our visit.  I told him that I hadn't found anybody to validate the parking (b/c technically we were supposed to eat in the fancy restaurants first) and he took it and saved us the $18!!! Praise the Lord!!  I am thankful for my sweet obedient precious girls.  As I told them, it's not every mama who can take three small children into that crazy crowd by herself and feel confident that they'll do well.  My girls are fantastic (and well experienced by now!) in those situations.  I'm so INCREDIBLY THANKFUL!!!!!  Thank you, Jesus, for our fantastic Christmas adventure!!  I'm pretty sure that it's one we'll remember!!

To make our great weekend even better, we had these precious friends come to visit!!!  Sweet Ben, Jennifer & Sydney are in route from California to Pensacola and we're SO thankful that they would make us part of their cross-country trip!!  These are DEAR friends that are very special to our family.  We're thankful that they'll be close again.  What a special addition to our Christmas!!    Aren't they cute??  That Sydney is a doll baby!!!!   Can you tell that my children ADORE Ben & Jennifer??  :)

To top off our exciting weekend, my handsome husband has returned from a 4 day trip.  Now I'm looking forward to putting my kids to bed, turning on my fake fire and watching a good Christmas movie on TNT.  Can't beat that with a stick!!  :)