Photos of our Christmas

Our tree in Clemson. I never watered it so it was pretty brittle when we left. I won't be surprised if its disintegrated on the floor when we get back!
Christmas Eve breakfast at Shoneys. Yes, you read that right. SHONEYS. I felt like I was cheating on my body. We were in a hurry before the guys had to head to meetings. Please note the looks on their faces. They wanted to do an "awkward angry" photo to capture their feelings about Shoneys. How tender.
Our tree and gifts in our hotel room. This white tree was the only one left at Wal Mart for $8. Katie, please note the p-nut butter m&m's in the Santa bowl.
The team had a Christmas Eve gingerbread house decorating competition. This is the one the offensive line made. Impressive, if I do say so myself! They used lettuce from Christmas dinner as the grass. They didn't make it in the top 3 and I'm afraid Thomas is going to lose sleep over it tonight.

***Thomas would like me to add the following: A. the walkway leading up to the front door is made out of ground p-nuts that were leftover from the dessert bar. B. "lamp posts" at the front of the tray are made with tea lights from the tables. C. the flashing lights on top of the roof.
Post-Christmas Eve dinner in front of one of the 239482937578 trees in this hotel.
Some of the lights at our hotel. Jesse, the gardens are real! A picture just doesn't do it justice. I can't imagine what the power bill is!
A tree made out of poinsettias. I took this picture for my mother, the master gardener.

Sugar's Ribs and Double Bed x 2

If you read my blog back when I started the thing, you may recall we stopped at Sugar's Ribs in Chattanooga on the way TO AND FROM Colorado. We love the place. Thank goodness its four hours from our house because we'd eat there once a month if it were any closer. Thomas has been telling his teammates about it and a few of them stopped with us today on the way to Nashville. Everyone was overjoyed with the food and the waitress kept asking us if we were on the way to watch the game....yes ma'm, we are.....

Can't you tell Thomas is in his element here?? We really enjoy watching other people enjoy food that we enjoy, while enjoying it with them. Yes, I was an English major. No, that probably isn't correct grammar. Oh well.

There were also these interesting goats at Sugar's...don't ask me why, but they let us go feed them cornbread. Of course Thomas chose to throw the cornbread AT the goats and they all had to get up from their comfortable seated positions and run away. And there is the city of Chattanooga in the background.

When we arrived at our hotel in Nashville we checked in and found out our room had not one but TWO DOUBLE BEDS. Yes, they gave the married man and his wife two double beds. Thank you Clemson Football, we really appreciate that. We've slept in a double bed twice while married, and slept fine, but for five nights??? I don't think so. I made Thomas go back to the front desk (which was no small favor, this place is HUGE and there are like 5 lobbies) and he got us a room with a bigger bed. And now I am utterly content to use the simple things in life we don't have for free back home like the Internet, satellite TV, a shower that doesn't leak into the basement, and a really lovely gym.

Pictures to follow of our Christmas celebration here in Nashville!

Hilarious story #23489734958345987

A couple of weeks ago, I got the truck stuck. Really, really stuck. In a ditch. Across the street from our house. And I couldn't get it out. And Thomas was in class and couldn't answer the phone.Oh, don't mind the big dent in the side of the truck in the photo, its been there for years. Anyway, long story short, the truck was stuck in the ditch and since I couldn't get Thomas on the phone, I had to call in to work and admit my predicament. Humiliating. Then I ran into my house because I didn't want the neighbors to see me and laugh. Or even more humiliating, ask to HELP! I waited until Thomas got out of class and assured him that it would be easy for he and our friend Ben to push the truck out of the ditch. When they arrived, they gave it one look and thanked me for thinking they were so strong, but they'd never be able to push it out. Therefore we had to call our friend Will to come in his large vehicle to come pull the truck out with one of those big fire hoses. And I am the laughing stock of our household. Which means only Thomas laughs at me every time he passes that ditch.

O Christmas Tree

I know, I know, I haven't blogged in awhile. Things have been crazy. We did go get our Christmas tree the day after the loss to South Carolina. Thomas needed some rejuvenation so we headed to the Merry Christmas Tree Farm and cut down our very own. My family used to pile (all 6 of us!) into the cab of the truck and go cut one down at the local tree farm every year, but Thomas had never been. They had too many allergies in their house. :) Thomas was pretty excited about getting to be a "real man" and cut the tree down himself. We had to find a small one because we have very little room in our house, but this one was perfect.

The best part of our time at the Merry Christmas Tree Farm was that we knew one of the people working there. He insisted on showing us around the 40+ acres, and much to Thomas' chagrin, we actually walked the entire property. Okay so not the ENTIRE property, but we were sweating by the end of the walk and Thomas kept reminding me how many calories he burned in the game the day before. All in all, it was a wonderful trip and a great way to get our minds off of the loss.

Seeing as our tree from Food Lion last year fell over THREE times, we were determined this tree be firmly screwed into its tree stand. After about 30 minutes of bickering about whether it was ready to be decorated or not, we were satisfied. Decorations? Check. Lights? Check? Star atop the tree? Check. Four days later, our tree was no longer upright. However, the poor little thing didn't fall down, it just slumped forward, and seemed to be saying: "help! Give me a push back in the right direction." But being the NON perfectionists that we are, the tree is slumped forward to this day. I've had good intentions of propping it up with a book or brick or some solid object, but just haven't done it. Last night, we decided that the tree has been slumped for so long, we're just going to leave it the way it is. Perhaps I'll post a picture of the pathetic thing later this week.


This was my favorite part of the Merry Christmas Tree Farm: