The RockCats!

I have to admit that I was really dreading the trip to Nashville this weekend.  My dad came up with the genius idea to take our staff to see the Rockettes (or the "RockCats" as Lily and Nora call them).  Not only have I seen the RockCats in NYC at Radio City and again last year in Nashville with our family, I also have a three and a half month old baby to take with us this year.  Yeah right...sounds like a bad idea to me!  To make it even worse, two of our employees weren't able to join us at the last minute due to unforeseen medical reasons.  So my mom and I were giving dad a hard time because he always seems to make things as complicated as possible.  My uncle recently told me that the best Christmas party you could ever give your staff is no gathering at all...just a Christmas bonus.  Well, we had to ask for dad's forgiveness this time because....everyone had a blast!  He planned things out wonderfully!  We left Louisville at 7:30 and drove straight to the Green Hills Mall in Nashville to let the girls (staff ladies) do some shopping.  Then we headed to Opryland for a yummy lunch and to see the RockCats (or in my case to sit in the hallway with a three and a half month old baby).  After the show everyone was free to do their own thing.  Laura (one of our sweet assistants) and her daughter Lauren decided to spend the entire weekend down there to celebrate their birthdays together.  Sweet little Lily went with us too.  She LOVES the "RockCats", and kept asking the whole day "when do we get to see the RockCats"?

This sweet little almost-6-year-old got to meet Santa while we were at the mall.  She told him that she had been a good little girl, and that she wanted a new doll and some new cowboy boots because she grew out of her old ones.  It was so darn cute!  After dropping her off to her parents that night (they were in Nashville this past weekend too), my mom realized that she didn't buy Lily anything while we were at the mall Friday.  Lily didn't ask for anything the whole day....the only thing she asked was if D Price (as she calls my dad) and Tass would help her buy Christmas gifts for her sister and her cousins...nothing for herself.  How sweet!

Jenna, our cousin who is a freshman at Lipscomb in Nashville, joined us for lunch and the Rockettes.  It was so great to see her!  

Mom and I talked dad into letting us stay the night and do some shopping in Franklin.  It is one of the most quaint little towns...we love going there!  MQ slept great Friday night in her first hotel, and was a trooper on Saturday.  I loved looking at all the decorations on the beautiful houses.

And D Price was in charge of keeping MQ entertained while Tass and I went into stores like Scarlett's.  I love this store...it looks like nothing special...but boy does it have some treasures :)  Mere and I discovered it last year and will now have to make a stop in there every time we're in Franklin.  It's not on the main "Main Street"...we kind of accidentally discovered it, and I'm glad we did :)

This IS on Main Street and it's the cutest little cupcake shop ever!  I was looking forward to stopping in there and hoping to see my sweet friend Nicole who started this little shop with her hubby Michael, in honor of their niece Natalie.  You can read about the story behind this little cupcake shop here.  Nicole played a HUGE part in my walk with the Lord.  She helped start a campus ministry at UK called the Rock that my friends and I attended every Wednesday night.  I ended up spending a whole summer with her in Destin at the Greek Summit, a retreat-like program that equips sorority girls and frat boys with the skills to minister to their Greek friends.  I miss you Nicole!!!

In one of the stores I fell in love with this little treasure.  Isn't it so neat...and wouldn't it look great over a mantle one day (when I have a mantle that is big enough?!!).  I texted Eric a picture of it to ask his permission to buy it...it was only $4500!  Yeah right...he didn't even text me back!  Maybe one day, right?

I left Franklin with only a few small Christmas gifts.  It's always so fun to visit there, and stroll the little Main Street with a hot pumpkin spice latte from the cute little Starbucks on the corner.  I'll be visiting there again soon :)