Christmastime

The past few weeks have been really busy for us as it usually is this time of year. It seems like things start being busy at Thanksgiving and don't stop until New Year's! For my birthday this year, Kelli, Steve, Clarence and I went to Santa Fe to have dinner, and then we were going to go see the Christmas lights at Opryland. I say we were going to, because when we got there and realized they were charging $18 to park, we turned around and left.

Clarence and I at Santa Fe

For my birthday, my parents gave Clarence and I tickets to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra. I had seen them before, but this was Clarence's first time. When we left for the concert, it was snowing pretty hard. We didn't realize that by the time the concert was over that it was going to be such a mess! It took us an hour to travel what normally would have taken only 15 minutes. Trucks like Clarence's don't like roads covered in snow and ice! By the time we got to my parents' house, where our boys were, we decided that we would just spend the night instead of trying to make it across town all the way back home.

Clarence's truck in the snow

the best picture I got of the show from my phone since I left my camera in the truck

Later that same week, Alex had his Christmas party and concert at school. He was excited his brother and I were there, but he didn't want to sing in the concert. He finally warmed up enough and sang the last two songs.

Before the concert... I was trying to encourage him to sing

After the concert was over... all smiles!


Last weekend we and the boys assembled and decorated their first gingerbread train. They enjoyed assembling it, but left most of the decorating up to me. :)

Isaac helped with the peppermints

And finally...
Last night my mother and I went to see the Garth Brooks Rescue Party concert. It was awesome! I am so glad my mother and I were able to get tickets and that we could spend that time together. 9 sold out shows to benefit flood relief is amazing, and says a lot for our great state of Tennessee, not to mention those who came from out of state just to see Garth!

Garth did two shows a night. We went to the 6:00 show, and there was another one that was supposed to start at 9:00. But, I doubt that it did, because at 9:00 we were stuck on 5th avenue in the crowd of people trying to get in and out of the arena. It was ridiculous, like nothing we had ever seen before. I heard on the news people were comparing it to Marti Gras. All I can say is, if that's what Marti Gras is like, you can count me out! It was crazy! But, like everyone else there probably thought, Garth is worth it! :)

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and I hope everyone has a great Christmas spending time with family and friends. Here in Nashville, we're hoping for the first white Christmas in several years!