Merry Birthday, Happy Christmas

This year I got several days off for Christmas and was able to go home to Alabama. It was a great break and nice to be home with family. One night we drove through an awesome street where everyone went all out with Christmas decorations and lights.
Here are some of the highlights: I also got to celebrate my 28th birthday on Christmas Eve. I got a massage that morning, had a dance party and listened to records with dad and ate a delicious dinner at Kobe Japanese Steak House. This was a treat to eat out because we have always cooked at home. We attended the 8p Christmas Eve service at our church and came home to toast champagne and eat cupcakes. It was an awesome day... one of my favorites of all time.
We woke up Christmas morning to large snowflakes falling. Nothing stuck but this is as close to a "White Christmas" as we get in Atlanta. We visited with neighbors, ate more delicious food, opened gifts and lounged around all day. You can't beat that.

Coming home for Homecoming

Back in October I got to go home for another Alabama football game. This time it was the Homecoming game vs. Ole Miss. Each year growing up my mom would take us to the Alabama Homecoming parade. Since I was in town we decided to keep up the tradition and headed to the quad at noon... a full 8 hours before the game was set to start. This made for an incredibly long day but it was filled with lots of fun.

This was my favorite float in the parade...the elephant is wearing a XIII blanket for the 13 National Championships Alabama has won.
After the parade I met up with SMU friends Jordan and Meg. Jordan now lives in Birmingham and even though she's an Auburn fan she makes a trip to Tuscaloosa once a year and is a good sport. We watched the Auburn/Arkansas game with some of her friends at their tent. Meg, an Arkansas fan, also comes each year with her family, many of whom attended Alabama. Her sister Caroline is currently a senior.

Meg is my little sis in Chi O but she is truly like a sister to me. Her family and mine are very much alike and we love the chance to get together each year. Here we are with our moms.

Finally after a full day of tailgating the game started at 8p. We won the game 23-10 and we got home at midnight, a full 12 hour day.

The next day before leaving town to head back to Atlanta I got to meet up with my high school friend Mary Catherine. MC, as I like to call her, had baby James almost a year ago. I got to meet him last year when they lived in Dallas but he has grown so much since then and they now live in Chicago. I was so glad we were able to catch up quickly and I'm looking forward to seeing them again in December. You can read their blog here.

Trying to catch up...

I'm trying to get caught up on my blogging so there will be several posts here all together.

Back in September Jay and I drove to Tuscaloosa to spend the weekend with my family and go to the Bama v. Penn State game. Jay is an Alabama alum (and actually lived in Tuscaloosa at the same time I did) but we hadn't been there to visit together. We had such a fun weekend tailgating and cheering Bama on to a victory. It was also our first time to see the renovated stadium that now holds 101,600 fans. Here we are outside Bryant-Denny and with famous coach Paul 'Bear' Bryant below. ROLL TIDE!

Also around the same time we got to see Brooks and Dunn's Last Rodeo tour at Lakewood Ampitheater in Atlanta. It was a perfect night with lots of great country hits.

It's Almost Time...

While my teams are on two different playing levels I'm getting pumped for the start of football season! Last year was an amazing season - Alabama winning the BCS National Championship & SMU making its first bowl appearance since 1984...and winning!

Excited for what's in store this year.
ROLL TIDE / GO MUSTANGS

Almost forgot...

I said I'd post pictures from Easter in Tuscaloosa. We had nice weekend with beautiful weather and lots of family time. My aunt and grandmother also made the trip so it was fun to have everyone together. We did some shopping on Saturday and then Sunday I went to the contemporary service at my family's church, First United Methodist Church of Tuscaloosa. Then afterwards I met up with everyone else for the traditional service. I loved seeing how far the contemporary service has grown since I worked on it in high school. They are really doing a great job. After church we enjoyed lunch at Northriver Yacht Club and then I drove back to Atlanta.