Right after Thanksgiving I left James behind and high tailed it down to Tennessee to spend some time with my kin. Ok, I don't really use that word in regular life but it fits. I sailed into town 5 days earlier than promised and set up camp in my 16 year old brother's room. It was dark and had a corner containing overspilling boxers.... I was only a little nervous.
The reason for the
aforementioned sailing into town early have names-Camille and Jolene. Two of my best friends from college. When I start planning my trips to Chattanooga I always build in some time to see Camille, who
conveniently has set up shop in the town my Dad lives in. Loves it. And then Jolene was able to come down and a day just wasn't enough. So I pleaded for more time off,
finagled with Southwest to allow me to change my ticket to travel on Thanksgiving weekend and packed my 45.5 pound bag for an extended stay.
We basically hung out and observed Camille's life as a new mom, gabbed a lot and passed around baby Aaron to snuggle. We went to a great restaurant met up with another hilarious friend, Houston-it was so fun to rehash old college memories and pick
everyones brain on who they keep in contact with- on
facebook or by actual real live talking. So it was a great visit- Camille's husband even taught me how to use my new
Epi Pen- I had been putting off buying one since "the incident
de scallops" but finally broke down. Sine we're all married now we have to actually plan our reunions now so we are already prepping for 2010 in North Carolina.
After three days of 3 girls and a baby, my Dad and I headed up to Nashville to pick up James who was nice enough to arrive on the day that we were scheduled to arrive. James and I moved into the couples suite- otherwise known as my 6 year old brothers Thomas the Tank themed room. Eli is always gracious enough to camp out in the living room when I march into town. I wonder how many years that will last. I, of course, was freezing the entire time. I always think that the cold doesn't sound that cold-- I don't know why but I'm always wrong. I only brought an "Arizona" coat. Meaning thin and filimsy. Sigh. Betsy. Sigh. So I had to layer but really all our pants are thin out here and our shirts and just everything. I am just not designed for this whole "winter" idea.
One of my favorite things to do when visiting Dad is stare at his fish tank. And feed them. And harass them. And stick my hands in it- as
demonstrated by James above- he is letting little Cleaner shrimp nibble on his hands.
Dad took us to this awesome restaurant called Table Two for dinner on Friday night and they had this amazing
appetizer that you cooked your fish on a hot rock. A really hot rock. I don't like most fish and I'm
leery of anything remotely resembling a shellfish but I even gave the whitest piece of white fish an go... it was so fun.
We woke up Saturday morning to snow! Real, live snow. Not. Kidding. Really exciting for people that haven't seen real snow in like 3 years. The kind that they make at the mall and blow up in the air for kids doesn't quite count. Of course it was James' idea to jump up and down on the trampoline in the snow. And his idea to showcase his manliness by doing in shorts and no shirt. Sigh. 
I'm hiding under James chin in the one because it was early and I have no make up on but we needed to
immortalize ourselves with the snow.
The rest of the trip was spent playing
Wii (James killed everyone), prowling around the Tennessee hills, eating- lots of eating- and having the family Christmas. We hope to make it a tradition to visit the Tennessee branch of the family every December for our fix of family, Southern food and snow.
We love y'all!
**there are no pictures of my 16 year old brother who has turned into a gigantic male beast since the last time I saw him. He is at least a foot taller than me- jerk- and I blame it on his girlfriend birthday that he was missing when I pulled out my camera. I'm still angling for the Ingram's to come visit the west this summer so maybe I'll capture the ellusive alex on film then.
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