Opryland Christmas

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is our annual trip to Opryland!  This year we were under some time constraints due to work, our trip to Texas etc. so we reduced our trip from a long weekend to one night.  We will definitely be going for a longer trip again next year but it was nice to sneak away for a night and enjoy all the Christmas fun!

We left after I got off work that Monday and drove straight to Nashville for dinner.  Sadly, one of our favorite places turned out to be a terrible meal but we were still excited to move on to checking out the Christmas décor!

I love this Nativity outside of the hotel.  It's so beautiful and I love standing there and listening to the Christmas story.

It was a cold but beautiful night outside checking out the lights!

Huge & gorgeous tree inside the hotel.  There are trees everywhere and decorations throughout all the atriums and along the riverboat ride inside.  We love walking around and looking at it all!

Christmas fun with this guy is always my favorite :)

The next morning we grabbed breakfast & headed to ICE!  This year's theme was Rudolph and it did not disappoint.

It always amazes me what they can carve out of ice and I love walking through and reading the stories and seeing the ICE décor to match each part.

Every year, this Nativity scene is at the end and each ICE figurine lights up during their corresponding part of the Christmas story and it is so beautiful. 

After ICE, we did a little shopping and headed home.  It was a quick trip down and back but we were able to do our two favorite activities and spend some much needed time away together.  If you get a chance, I highly recommend a Christmas visit to the Gaylord Opryland.  It is so gorgeous and you can spend hours just walking around the hotel!

We are already planning & looking forward to our trip next year!

2016 Texas Trip: Dallas World Aquarium, the Galleria & Grapevine

Today is my last recap of our Texas trip!  Our flight wasn't leaving until late Monday night so we had left this day open just to explore.

We decided to check out the Dallas World Aquarium!

It was a really cool place!  I think the aquariums in Cincinnati or Atlanta are probably my favorite as far as the fish exhibits but I loved how you felt like you were a part of the rainforest walking through this one.  It had a good layout and wasn't too crowded since we were there on a Monday!

Sharks are so creepy & fascinating at the same time.

They had a jaguar exhibit and I really wanted to see him but he was in the outdoor section when we were there so we just saw him on camera.  Still really cool though!

After we got out of the aquarium, we still had most of the day so we decided to drive to nearby Grapevine to check out the Gaylord Texan.  We always go to the Gaylord Opryland each Christmas to visit ICE and see the Christmas lights so we figured we'd see what the Texas version was like!

Lake Grapevine!

We LOVED this little train village and both said we wished Nashville had one!

The Gaylord Texan was really pretty but we were surprised how much smaller it was than the hotel in Nashville.  It was pretty cool but if you had experienced the Gaylord Opryland Christmas before this one didn't really compare.  They are working on an expansion though that is supposed to make it way bigger so we both said we'd love to go back after that is complete!

After we left, we were hungry and thanks to Yelp found our new favorite restaurant, The Cotton Patch Cafe.  Seriously, amazing.  It was in downtown Grapevine and I pretty much fell in love as soon as we turned and saw the main street before we even parked the car.  

After lunch, Jared knew he was taking me to explore.  Love that guy :)

This town is known as the Christmas Capital of Texas and they are not kidding.   It was seriously like every Hallmark Christmas movie dream I've ever had come to life.  I almost cried and I'm not even joking.  I love discovering new towns and I felt like this one was just meant to be.  

Windmills are special in our family so I was excited to see one all lit up!

The town preparing for the Christmas tree lighting that night.  Seriously, y'all where was the Hallmark film crew?!

We walked through some of the little shops and they were so cute!  There are a lot of wineries along the street and they have train cars you can buy rides on!

I then spent the rest of the day trying to convince Jared we needed to live here.  I haven't given up yet either!! I think we've settled on him taking me back next year if we have time to actually see all the decorations lit up :)  I was so bummed our flight wasn't even later so we could see them at night!

Mistletoe booth!  I'm telling y'all this town thought of everything.

After we left Grapevine, we headed back to the Galleria to grab a few things before our flight!

Y'all that sweet husband of mine could tell how upset I was not to get to go to that Christmas tree lighting so he drove me all the way back to Grapevine to drive past the street so I could at least see what it looked like at night before our flight.  So sweet.

We were finally home around 1am and this was waiting for me since it was officially my birthday!!  My dad & stepmom are the sweetest :)

Well, that's it for Texas!! We had the best time and made so many memories!! We're already planning to go back and can't wait :)

If you missed my other recaps:

Houston

San Antonio

Magnolia Market

AT&T Stadium Tour

Dallas Cowboys Game Day

2016 Texas Trip: Dallas Cowboys Game Day

If you haven't read about the rest of our trip check out Houston here, San Antonio here, Magnolia Market in Waco here and our AT&T Stadium Tour here!

Sunday, it was finally game day!!   We headed out of the hotel early in our Dallas gear to get a good parking spot & get in line to get into the pre-game area!

Waiting outside!

Excited for my first game here & Jared's second!

They had this great area set up outside with food/drinks and a stage with constant entertainment until the doors opened.

Side note: finding a NFL approved bag to take into the stadiums was a pain so if you're going to a game be sure and plan this part of your outfit out way in advance!  Thankfully, I remembered to look it up before we left and grabbed this small wristlet!

Getting settled into our section!

Warm-ups!

Can you tell we're Witten fans?!

I tweeted our picture at the game and a few minutes later we showed up on the big screen!!

So cool seeing the kick line live!

The salute to the soldiers was so nice!

Game time!

Victory!!!! Dallas had never beaten the Baltimore Ravens before so we were pumped to be there to see history made!

After the game, we walked through the celebrations outside, headed to our hotel to change and finished the night off with a hibachi dinner!

 kelsey.mann.peacock@gmail.com!