The Most Wonderful Time of Year!

I love the Christmas season!  Who doesn't??  It can get busy and hectic and stressful and expensive but I've vowed to slow down and make time to enjoy the simple things that only come around this time of year.  I'm buying less STUFF and spending less time stressing over finding the perfect gifts all while wasting precious time standing in long lines and sitting in ridiculous traffic when I could be soaking in the simple pleasures that I often miss because I'm too scattered to truly appreciate them.  I'm committing myself to less social engagements and spending more time with my own little family.   I'm putting less unnecessary pressure on myself to have picture perfect Christmas cards delivered by a certain date on the calendar or to impress everyone with Pinterest-worthy teacher gifts for my child to take to school.  Gone are the days of spending late nights alone chipping away at my holiday to-do list and instead I now get a full night of restful sleep which allows me to feel good as I enjoy this special time.  Kyndall is already out of school for Christmas break and rather than dragging her kicking and screaming as I frantically try to do my Christmas shopping I am instead using my days for some much needed girl time.  A movie, a trip to Fun Zone and some frozen yogurt are on the agenda for this week.  In general I am just eliminating as much unnecessary stress as possible so that I can enjoy every aspect of this most special time of year.

With that being said, our family decided a few weeks ago to take a little getaway trip to Nashville this past weekend.  In the past I never would have dreamed of leaving town "just because" when Christmas was less than two weeks away.  I would've spent those days doing all the things I mentioned above.  Instead, we had a wonderful weekend doing all of THIS.....

Friday night we had dinner in Hendersonville with my friend Roxanne who is probably better known as "Hope".  She was the one I practically begged all of Facebook to pray for this past March when I met her at Vanderbilt.  I was admitted for a few weeks because of a severe rejection episode and she was there for her transplant.  She was VERY sick and on the verge of death when I met her.  I enlisted the help of my prayer warriors by way of Facebook to pray for my new friend "Hope" and after a few days our prayers were answered.  She received her miracle and 9 months later I'm happy to say that she's doing great!  I'm so thankful to have met her and her sweet family.

We stayed at a fancier hotel than usual and Kyndall seemed to notice.  She kept saying "can we just stay at this ho-tail forever?"  

Up early Saturday morning, ready to get out and about in Nashville

Breakfast at our hotel

There's always one like this....always.  Might as well include it too!

Our first stop was the Bass Pro Shop at Opry Mills.  It seems we somehow always end up in this awful place every single time we come to Nashville.  However, our purpose for this visit was to see Santa.  We got there around 11:00 and rather waiting TWO HOURS we decided to take a "Bass Pass" (kind of like a Disney "Fast Pass") to come back at 2:30.  INSANE.

Looking at the fish in the aquarium like we've done 7,392 times before

In the words of my friend Dejoni...."If I go to hell I'm sure it will be a lot like this."  

These two were in their element amongst the camo and carcasses and weapons but I was ready for some REAL shopping.  

Taking a break in the mall to get our game plan figured out

879th obligatory carousel ride

Super fun and FREE photo booth that was set up in the middle of the mall

 We got some shopping done, ate lunch and took our time strolling the mall until it was finally time to return to Santa

By the time we returned at 2:30 they were all out of Bass Passes for the entire day!  That's completely crazy.  So glad we got a head start that morning.  The Bass Pro Santa is definitely the most popular Santa....probably because he's FREE!

Let me just say this.  In our family we "do" Santa.  We love Jesus but we do Santa.  My child has absolutely no confusion over the true meaning of Christmas and we in no way put more emphasis on a fictional character than the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I am not worried in the least that she will someday have doubts about Biblical truths simply because we allowed her to experience the magic of Christmas when she was a young child.  I feel that it is a personal choice for each family and in our family we have chosen to let her relish in childhood pleasures such as this.  It's the same reason we allow her to believe in the tooth fairy or the Easter Bunny or to believe that Elsa and Anna are real Princesses. One day all too soon she will be faced with the harsh realities of this world and will no longer find joy in the small things.  So for as long as she believes, we will continue to let her do so while also teaching her of the love of Jesus.  Just look at these pictures.  I cannot possibly rob her of the sheer excitement she finds in the joys of childhood.  Keep on believin', sweet girl....for as long as you will!!

My favorite!!

Daddy really wants to get her this pink pellet gun for Christmas but wanted to see her try it out first.  To my surprise (not his), she was a natural!

Playing with more toys on the way out.  Bass Pro knows how to drum up business, that's for sure!

We saw this and thought of Uncle Michael and his love for fishing!

We headed next door to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.  Like everything else we did that morning, we've been to this hotel many times and we've even stayed here before.  But we've never been at Christmas and I heard it was a must see!  So, we paid $24 to park our car for one hour and walk around the famous hotel.  Worth it!

Dolly Parton's tree

She loves throwing pennies into the water

The tree is HUUUUGE

Watching the fountain light show

Kyndall loves the revolving doors in the hotel lobby and thought it was funny that I didn't make it out quite as fast as she and Matthew did

Everyone said we HAD to check out the Dancing Lights at Jellystone Park while we were there.  It's only about two miles from Opryland so after we left the hotel that's where we went.  We got there right after they opened but we still waited about 30 minutes to get through the gate.  By the time we left, however, the wait to get in was several HOURS.

Our entertainment while we waited....A little Adele for your listening pleasure.  Poor girl got her Mama's singing voice.  Better stick with dance or piano!

I would HIGHLY recommend Jellystone to anyone with kids.  Kyndall was fascinated by the fact that the music was perfectly in sync with the lights.  She kept saying "how do the lights know what song is on our radio?"  I told her it was magic.  :)

It took about an hour to drive through all of the lights and at the end we got out and walked around where we found our very favorite treat, kettle corn!

We also found s'mores!

And we found some "reindeer" to ride

It was a lot of fun and when asked what she liked most about our day in Nashville she said without hesitation, "the dancing lights!"  

When we left the traffic was UNBELIEVABLE.  Between Jellystone, Opry Mills Mall and Opryland Hotel, this area of town is just a nightmare this time of year.  Traffic was stopped both ways for as far as we could see.  So glad we got in and out before it got really bad.

We topped off our day with pizza at Mellow Mushroom, which is one of MY favorites!  I haven't eaten here since I was living in Nashville about two weeks after my transplant.  This time was much more enjoyable for many reasons, but especially because of this sweet thing who just kept saying "this was the best day EVER!" (Except for Disney, she says)

We slept in the next morning before eating brunch and then driving back to Jackson by mid afternoon.  Kyndall had her kids Christmas program at church that night so we needed to get back home in order to make it to that.  I'm so glad we snuck away for two nights just to enjoy some good family time!

The pre-schoolers wore their Christmas PJs 

This is our growing Christmas card collection!  Keep 'em coming!

Waiting for her last practice to begin

The kids did SO well during the practice!  For the most part, everyone stayed in their places and remained very well behaved.

I'm really not sure what happened in the 30 minutes between practice and the performance but ohhhh my goodness it was a completely different group of kids up on that stage!

They were adorable and hilarious but there was all kinds of mass chaos going on in the middle of that stage

Animal ears were used as weapons, tantrums were thrown, mics were grabbed, clothes were taken off, I even saw some acrobatics going on.  It was  wild!  You can probably see the anxiety on the face of my little perfectionist on the back row.  I really thought at one point she was going to burst into tears at the sight of it all!  Ha!

Here's a small sampling of what went down....

You can find Kyndall right behind the little dancer! :)

As you can see, they were precious and adorable and they all gave us a good laugh but I was VERY proud of my big girl who stood perfectly in place just as she was supposed to and sang her songs just like she had practiced.  I guess when you have such a variety in ages you just never know what you're going to get!  Bless those teachers for they surely have the patience of saints!

When it was over everyone was invited to the fellowship hall where the childrens pastors told the Christmas story to the kids in a unique and funny way.  Then everyone enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate!

Kyndall and Haiden

These are the saints that I speak of--Mrs. LaShon and Mrs. Sherry are so good with the kids and we love them for it!!

I'm not sure how I feel about her need to pose in pictures lately.....

It was a GREAT weekend with lots of wonderful memories made!  I'm so glad I've finally realized the secret to enjoying the holidays, which for ME is slowing down and simplifying.  It doesn't have to be perfect to be special.