Little Bit of Country... Christmas

Last weekend, my friend Laura and I went to Nashville to see her friend in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

I know what you're thinking. Nashville? Kelsi? What?
I thought the same thing. Nashville has never been on my list of places to see before I die. I'm not a country fan. In fact, I would argue that, while there are the legends and greats, and once in a while a good song comes out of the genre, I think the world would do just fine without it.
But I digress...
We went to Nashville because it was very convenient. Really, all we had to pay for were our tickets and shopping. Laura's friend Melodie let us stay with her in the hotel and gave us free tickets to the show, so really everything else was a bonus.
Nashville was surprisingly awesome. It was 'warm' there. And by warm, I mean not freezing as it had been in Utah in recent weeks. It was green there. Some trees even still had leaves, there were grass-covered rolling hills all around, and really not any snow, which was mighty appealing to me.
There was so much to do!!! I thought we'd have trouble filling the 3 days we were there, but we actually ran out of time to see all the things we wanted to see. And there is so much history!!! It was amazing!!!
To document my trip, I have some pictures. Lots of pictures. Enjoy!

Our first stop on the trip was the Nashville Temple. It was the smallest temple I've ever been in, but I guess it suits the needs of the community it serves. It was pretty, though.

Then Melodie got us into the great Exhibition ICE! for free with her Show pass. I don't know if you've ever heard of ICE! but if you ever get the chance to go, GO! It was pretty dang cool! This year it was all about A Charlie Brown Christmas (one of my favorite Christmas Traditions).

Basically, you are walking around in a gigantic freezer looking at amazing Ice Sculptures that follow the story. It was freezing! More so than Utah. But awesome!

I adore Schroeder.

They had a giant ice slide too. It was cool, and cold!

This is the scene where Linus is explaining what Christmas is all about. So sweet!

And I took my turn in Snoopy's Dog house.

And at the very end, because we were in the Heart of the Bible Belt, and its Christmas, and its awesome, there was a giant Ice Nativity Scene.

Afterwards, we ate at a local Dive, Bar-B-Cuties. They have a great veggie plate.

Before the show, we did some shopping at the Opry Mills Mall. It is this HUMONGOUS Outlet Mall next to the Grand Ole Opry and the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. It has over 200 stores, I believe, and is well over a mile trip around.
I didn't take any pictures of it because I was way too busy shopping!!!
After shopping we walked across the parking lot to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. It was far more impressive than any of the Vegas Hotels. AMAZING! There were four separate atriums inside that housed beautiful gardens with creeks flowing through, and restaurants interspersed. These atriums were at least 6 stories. And they were all decorated for the Holidays.

This is a picture overlooking the gardens from a walkway 3 stories up. It doesn't do it justice!


Outside the Hotel they had amazing lights and a large Nativity Scene. It was amazing.

After touring the hotel (and only skimming the surface) we headed over to the Grand Ole Opry for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Starring the Rockettes!

The Grand Ole Opry! Its crazy to think of all the people that have performed here (although most of the legends performed at the Old Grand Ole Opry, now the Ryman Auditorium), but still amazing!

We were a little camera happy, but this was an awesome experience to take in!

No pictures during the show. Tsk Tsk...
The performances were great. I think my favorite was the March of the Toy Soldiers... or maybe the Nutcracker... or maybe Christmas in New York... or maybe... I can't decide!
Great show. Well done!
And then afterwards!!!
Melodie gave us a backstage tour. Here we are in front of the Nativity set.

And here we are with one of the Rockettes!

My thigh is bigger than her body, but that's okay. She was super pleasant. You can see the auditorium behind us. It was huge! And the seating was pews.
Here is the stage from the back of the auditorium.

Saturday was all about the tourist scene. We were actually very lucky in how things worked out. We started out at the Belmont Mansion, a former plantation home. They were having an Open House so we didnt' have to pay the usual fee to get in. It was gorgeous and it reminded me of the kind of plantation that you see in the movies... Except most of the yards are now a college campus.

But gorgeous.

Our next stop was the Bell Meade Plantation. It was kind of difficult to find. When we got to Bell Meade Road and saw this building with the sign that said "Bell Meade" we thought we'd made it...

We walked in the entrance expecting to see a reception desk or something asking us to pay, but there wasn't anything or anyone there. It looked like they were cleaning up a presentation of sorts. We walked down a hall to a dining room and walked in on what felt like a Family Christmas Party. Then we noticed how underdressed we were... and how everyone was looking at us kinda funny... and then it dawned on us that we were in a Country Club! We high-tailed it out of there, asked Santa and Mrs. Claus who were parked next to us where the Plantation by the same name was, snapped a picture and left.

This is Bell Meade Plantation!

Also huge and gorgeous. They originally had 5400 acres, but now have about 30. We took a tour of the house, then wandered the yards for a bit. It was pretty fascinating.

This is a Mausoleum where 20 members of the family were originally buried. They aren't there anymore, but it is still pretty interesting.
And a little bit creepy.

While we were wandering lost looking for Bell Meade, we stopped in a parking lot to reconfigure the GPS and a very friendly neighbor assisted us, then invited us to come back for a reenactment of the Battle of Nashville. I didn't know that people really did those.

They fired off canons, were shouting out commands... it was cool.

The cannons were crazy loud, and pointed right at a road. I can't imagine what someone driving by would think if they weren't used to that. I know I would have freaked a little.

For Lunch/Dinner we went to the Loveless Cafe. Its a pretty famous restaurant in Nashville, and had pictures of all of the famous people that ate there. We sat where some American Idol contestants sat. Whoa. It was real Southern Cookin'. I ate some Fried Chicken and while it was great, I regretted it later. Not a good way to re-introduce meat to your system. I think I'll wait a bit longer before trying that again...
The wait to be seated was still quite long, even though we got there at 2, so we had some time to kill wandering the area.

The Cafe was started by the Loveless family who ran a small Motel off the highway. Ma Loveless would cook for the travelers out of their home. Her cookin' was so good that word spread and people started visiting just to eat there. The Loveless clan decided to turn their home into one big dining room in order to serve the masses. And the masses came. The motel rooms were turned into little shops and boutiques.
Quaint.

We decided to spend Saturday night in Nashville Proper, wandering around the city and getting a taste of the nightlife.
This is the Batman Building, or the AT&T Building. Pretty cool architecture.

This is me on Broadway Street. The street is lined with Bars and Clubs where people come to perform, hoping to be discovered. As we walked up and down the street (and up and down, and up and down) we heard a whole lot of Johnny Cash covers.

This is a cool bridge, a cool statue that looks like a roller coaster, and a river. And this is a real river. Not like a Utah River.

This is the Country Music Hall of Fame. We didn't go in, but I at least acknowledged that I was in Country Music's home town.

We walked the Music City Walk of Fame. There weren't a ton of people I recognized, but that's to be expected. Here is one that I did recognize.

Its funny though... Elvis Presley was inducted on the same day as Kid Rock. I didn't know they were of the same caliber.

Sunday was a pretty chill day.
After church at a Backwoods chapel (so many stories....), we loaded the car then drove around to other sites.
This is the State Capitol. It overlooks the Bicentennial State Capitol Mall Park (like how it rolls off the tongue?) which are really impressive grounds that pay homage to the history of Tennessee.

Pretty right? Ridiculous how pretty things are there.

This was the only thing we could find that said Nashville. We were looking for some kind of a 'Welcome to Nashville' Sign, but never found one, so we settled for this.

The last visit in Nashville was the Centennial Park, with the Parthenon.
Because Nashville is the Athens of the West.

It was built completely to scale of the Real Parthenon. It even has a to scale replica statue of Athena inside it (but it was closed).
It was huge. (Can you see me?)

Really, really, huge!

The last stop before the airport was the small town of Franklin. Its a cute little town that was doing a Dickens Festival. Main Street was closed down to traffic and there were a bunch of shops and boutiques open along the road. There were people dressed up in period garb and bell ringers and street performers. There was also the various stages of Ebenezer Scrooge walking around the town (pre-ghost, during ghost, and post ghost). It was a great way to end the day.
On the way back to the car we passed this little Nativity in front of a church, and took a minute to remember the real Reason for the Season.

All in all, Nashville was amazing. Definitely somewhere I would like to visit again. And definitely somewhere that I would encourage others to go during the Christmas Season. It was so festive. So much fun!

Thanks, Laura, for inviting me! I had a blast!

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here...

I finally had time to decorate for Christmas... its sad that I was too busy to decorate considering that this is the extent of my decorations (our apartment isn't big enough for much more...).

But here is our dear Christmas Tree. Its not far off from Charlie Brown's.


And here's the rest of it...


Like I said, our apartment doesn't afford much more.
I was so excited too, because White Christmas was on tv, my favorite Christmas Movie (well, one of them...).
Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving!

This year we had Thanksgiving with my family. Brandis and Dave and the boys flew in for it. The morning began with a super successful shopping excursion for Brandis and me, and the Turkey Bowl for others.
Then, of course, there was the Rock and Roll concert put on by Jaxon and Jeff. Look at all the work they put into it:
Flyers like this one were posted all over the house.

There was a sign to direct you to the ticket booth, where you could buy your ticket with real money or fake money... your choice.

They had a seating chart that corresponded with your ticket.


And here is the band. They all did a marvelous job!
The crowd was very impressed!


After the performance there was a raffle. They made their own tickets.


And their own prizes.

I didn't take any pictures during dinner, because (lets face it) I was busy eating. The food was delicious! I love Thanksgiving Feasts!

Of course, after dinner the men settled down to 'watch football.'

Joseph started writing his list.

And then it was time for dessert!!! My Uncle Brian made the Pumpkin Pies specially for me because I love Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it is the beginning of my favorite HOLIDAY season ( I emphasize holiday, because I do not love Winter. I'm sure I would still love Christmas in Hawaii).
Also, I love the Black Friday shopping... and I must say, we are good at it! We got everything we went for.
Happy Holidays everyone!!!

3rd Halloween Party!

Laura and Ryan's Halloween Party

On Halloween a group of us went to my friends' house.

Here we are, pre-party

We are (from Left to Right):
The Emperor of Evil, Some Punk, The Fat Mechanic, and Tow Mater.

Kelsi and Joseph

Jason and Whitni

I didn't actually take any pictures at the party, or of Bug who
also joined us as the Bee (much cuter than I was).
I'm hoping that the Lillywhites will update their blog with the pictures.

2nd Halloween Party!

The Ward Party: Witchapalooza

Our ward Halloween party was on Thursday. I went as a bee again, and my dear sweet (and ultra masculine) husband went as my flower. So cute!

There was a chili cook-off, which I didn't partake of because of the meat, and lots of desserts. Then our Primary President and her daughters put on a little production based of the movie Hocus Pocus. It was pretty fun.

Afterwards, we stopped by my parents house for minute to show off our costumes. I let Rad try on part of mine.

He didn't like it. Not at all.

Girls Trip, For reals!

Remember how I said that we weren't very good at taking pictures to document our Girls Trip to St. George. Well here is the Proof. Its the girls trip pictures!

Here we are at out first stop along the way. The Fillmore Chevron! As you can tell, we are all very excited for Brandis to be taking our picture.

Look at my gut! Nice posture, Kelsi!

Here we attempted to take a group picture in front of a statue of a deer. You wouldn't think it, but this is actually a pretty popular activity. EVERYONE was stopping to take pictures with the large fake wildlife.

You can't tell, but Brandis is actually in the picture. Right behind me. Well done!

So, we took one of just her and the deer.

When we finally got to our hotel room (remember how I said that my mom originally tried to check in at the wrong hotel? Yeah, that was funny), we put Bug in her place.

But she somehow got out. Dang.

Then, at the movie (FAME!) she hogged all the candy. Look how mad Mindy is that she isn't sharing! You do not want to see Mindy get mad. Run for cover!

After many failed attempts to get our picture in the theatre (meaning none of us wanted to ask a stranger to take it) we stopped at the giant poster outside to do it. Unfortunately at this point we'd lost Bug, so she isn't in it.
And those are all the pictures that we took on our trip. See, I told you we weren't very good at documenting things... But we tried.

Thriller!

Last night, me and some good friends went on our annual Girls Night Out to see ODT's production of Thriller!
It is such a fabulous production, and such a blast to get out and see these awesome girls.

Here we are in the theatre before the show started. I'm the bee, Laura was Madame Hooch, Elissa was a zebra, Torri... and afro gypsy? and Kara was undercover. The creepy zombie ballerina princess was one of the performers that was walking around scaring all the patrons. I loved it!