Our trip to Tennessee

Our trip to Clarksville to visit with my brother, his wife, and my two nieces went wonderfully!! We left Gainesville at about 6:45am Friday, December 19th. I had planned for us to leave an hour earlier than that but it just didn't happen. Mostly it didn't happen because I didn't get to bed until about 1:00am Thursday night/Friday morning. I had a full day of work, then I picked up Libby and we had a few errands to take care of and then Ryan had a championship softball game. The game was over around 10:00pm (the team came in 2nd place!) and then I still had to pack. So, we finally left Gainesville and what usually is an 8.5 hour trip for me ended up being a 10 hour trip because Libby had to stop every hour to go to the bathroom! :-) We finally got to Clarksville around 4:00pm Central Time. We chatted for a bit and at 5:30pm we headed out to go to the Riverwalk in Clarksville. They put up tons and tons of lights along the Cumberland River and it's always packed there at night with everyone going to see the lights. That night is was 41 degrees so it was pretty freaking cold - especially for us Floridians! :-)

Saturday morning my nieces were both performing in a play so we got the pleasure of going to watch them both perform. It was a two hour play of children performing Shakespere...so, it was almost intolerable but we made it through it. :-) My nieces have been performing for about four years so they are pretty good at it but there were also teens who just started doing this and you can definitely tell the difference between the "veterans" and the beginners. :-) After the play Libby went back home with my brother, my sister-in-law Arlene, and my younger niece Della. Meanwhile my older niece Elizabeth and I headed out for some one-on-one time time and for Elizabeth to help me pick out a Christmas present for Della. We spent about four hours out together and then met everyone for dinner.

Sunday we all went to Nashville (about 45 minutes away from Clarksville) to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. My sister-in-law decided to treat us all to the Orchestra. Both of my nieces are interested in music...Elizabeth is very focused on drama and vocals...she is in 10th grade this year and looking for universities with great drama programs. Della is very focused on playing percussion in band and she wants a career in that so she was the one who originally asked her mom about going to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. We were all psyched about going but it didn't quite turn out the way we expected - but that TOTALLY needs a blog entry all by itself! When we left the Orchestra it was 14 degrees. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????? After the Orchestra we went to the OpryMills Mall and my sister-in-law finished up some shopping and we got some dinner and then we went over to Opryland Hotel to see their lights. They put up millions of lights and it's absolutely beautiful to walk around the hotel (it's literally large enough to actually get lost in). It was great to see the lights INSIDE since it was so cold outside. After seeing the lights it was time to head back to Clarksville around 11:00pm. When we left the mall to go home it was 8 degrees outside...as in a single digit. Seriously, that is brutally cold - especially when Florida has been having 80 degree weather lately. I thought I was going to get frost bite just walking to my car.

Monday after breakfast Della and I headed out for our one-on-one time - and for Della to help me pick out a Christmas gift for Elizabeth and for my sister-in-law. It took a while but we finally found something for both Elizabeth and Arlene that I was happy with. When we got home they said that they wanted to go out for Chinese food so we all went to dinner and when we got home we watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and drank hot chocolate, ate cookies, and opened presents. It was another late night...I went to bed around 1:00am again and I was back up at 6:00am and got us ready to leave and we were on our way back to Gainesville. It was another 10 hour drive but we finally got back home and I spent the rest of the night getting unpacked and putting away everything that we brought back with us from Tennessee. It was a wonderful trip and it was great to get to see our family again...it had been a year and a half since we last saw them so the trip was very necessary. We can't wait to see them all again!!