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!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday lovelies!!

Can you believe it's only 9 days til Christmas?!!  So crazy!!  We have a few little gifts to pick up and some grocery shopping to do but we're pretty much ready to go.  The next 9 days for us are going to be packed full so we're just going to dive in and enjoy all the Christmas festivities :)

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is enjoying all the decorations around our house.  Make sure to check out our Christmas Home Tour!

I'm already excited to shop the day after Christmas for more decorations for next year :)  You can find the best bargains on items to pack away and use next year.

One of my favorites right now are my favorite Christmas sheets!  I have this set on our guest bed and the snowglobes in our bedroom!  We aren't flannel sheet people (too hot!) and these were the only regular sheets I could find with a Christmas theme & we love them!!

An absolute FAVORITE this week was helping my grandparents put up their tree!  We had such a special night spending time together and putting their tree together.  Time with them is absolutely precious and I'm so thankful for these two amazing souls.  My grandparents and I are indescribably close.  We talk every day and hang out all the time!  I was with them all the time growing up, we've traveled together more times than I can count, and I lived with them for 3 years after college when I moved back to town until Jared and I were married.  I am so blessed to have them both and it was so fun to spend a night getting in the Christmas spirit together!

Another major favorite this week was celebrating my Dad & Darlene's birthdays!!  We are so spoiled, loved and taken care of by these two and it was nice to spoil them for a night.  They are always there for us with the best advice, a good laugh and immeasurable support.  SO, SO thankful. 

Other Favorites:

- If you can't tell, one of my absolute favorites right now is family!  I am truly blessed with the most amazing family and I do not take that for granted. 

- I'm loving the view of all the pretty presents under our tree!  The piles will start dwindling after our first celebration on Sunday so I'm loving the way our tree looks right now.

- Hallmark.  Hallmark Christmas movies make me so happy & they are knocking it out of the park with the new ones this year!

- I'm finally feeling better!!  After being sick for 10 days, I'm finally feeling on the mend. 

- We went to see Office Christmas Party last night and it was crude but pretty funny!

Hope everyone has the most amazing weekend!! We've got Christmas lights, movies, shopping, church, football & our first Christmas celebration on the agenda!



Christmas Home Tour

I love our house year round but when it's decorated for Christmas is my favorite!!  The trees, lights and décor just add so much warmth and happiness.  We try to collect new décor pieces and decorations each year to add to our collection so each year Christmas in our house gets bigger!  I always go out the day after Christmas to snag great deals on things for next year so I can't wait to see what I come home with this year!

Our fireplace.  The advent calendar, joy sign and basket were new additions this year and I love them!! We need to add gas logs back into our fireplace but just haven't gotten it done yet so in the meantime these decorations fill it up nicely!! Once it's empty again, we'll hopefully finally get the logs put in!

Our main tree in the living room.  This year, we just used our ornaments we have purchased since we've been together on this tree.

Nighttime view.

Love sitting on our couch and seeing this view!  Tip: we purchased a photo album and put pictures of each ornament we purchase in it and write beside it where we bought it, what it represents, etc.  You think you'll always remember that stuff but you won't!

I added a few decorations to our shelves this year and hope to find more things to use next year!

I found these snowflake pillows the day after Christmas last year & love them!!  Also, please ignore the crookedness of our gallery wall.  I need to put the sticky things on the back of the frames so they won't move. 

Our second tree in our other living room.  We bought this tree after Christmas last year and used it to display all of our childhood ornaments that our families have given us so far.  One day, if we have kids I'll add another tree for all of their ornaments.  Basically my future dream house has like 15 trees in it.  #dontjudgeme

My grandparents gave me their piano a few weeks ago and I love it!  Jared had a great idea to do a mini Christmas village on the top of it and I think it looks great so far!  We're going to try and add a few more pieces for next year but I really like how it adds something to this area of the sitting room.

Dining room table!

Kitchen decorations!

There's even a little touch of Christmas in the bathroom :)

Firefighter tree in our office!

Guest room décor.

Master Bedroom.  I love that light up tree & you can see in the background, we added large plaid pillows to our bed to add more décor to this room.  There are Christmas sheets on the bed in here too.  I LOVE Christmas sheets but we can't handle flannel so I was tickled to find Martha Stewart cotton Christmas sheets last year!

That's our Christmas home tour!! I just love everything and can't wait to see how much better it looks next year too :)  I cannot believe there are 10 days until Christmas!!!!  I'll be soaking up this view for the next 10 days because we're definitely tree comes down right after Christmas people.

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