Tennessee Trails and Byways

      During the week between Christmas and New Year's I spent some time country cruisin' through Middle Tennessee.  Most of the photos below were taken along The Old Tennessee Trail, one of sixteen driving tours that have been developed across the state in an effort to increase tourism and promote the economic development of rural communities (www.TNTRAILSANDBYWAYS.com).  The Old Tennessee Trail winds through Williamson and Maury counties.  Maury County bills itself as the "Antebellum Homes Capital of Tennessee" and it did not disappoint.  Of course the fact that I was out driving on a beautiful blue-sky winter day was an added bonus.  My only regret is that I didn't start touring earlier in the afternoon. By the time I reached Leiper's Fork the light was fading and I was anxious to be home. I have plans to head out again soon and see what else I can discover about Middle Tennessee.

Above photo was taken along the Natchez Trace

Behind Closed Doors



Whiskey & Coffee Cabinet
My favorite.

I spent New Year's Day cleaning out and organizing my upper kitchen cabinets. The inspiration to tackle this project came to me while I was watching an episode of "Hoarders" - not that my cabinets were that bad but watching "Hoarders" always makes me want to throw stuff away.  After almost ten years of living in our house, the upper reaches of our kitchen cabinets had become populated with all kinds of stuff.  You know how it is, you have empty space and you accumulate things to fill it.  I only wish I'd thought to take some "before" or "during" photos of the process because it's amazing how much paraphernalia* I pulled out. In some ways, it was like a time capsule of our lives since we moved here.  I found pacifiers, empty glass Gerber jars, baby bottles, photographs, preschool art projects, sippy cups, broken toys, oodles of batteries and an emergency stash of money that I'd forgotten about.  I also pulled out a large assortment of coffee cups, flower vases, casserole dishes and salt & pepper shakers that we never use. Many things are being donated to Goodwill and many others have been thrown away - nothing was stashed someplace else.  If it didn't fit back in the cabinet it couldn't stay in the house. I made a clean break with those things that weren't going to live in here anymore . I'm not sure what I'll organize next and I don't have grand household organizational plan.  For today, I'm content that my cabinets are organized.

Coffee Cups & Glasses

Mostly Dishes

First Aid, Emergency Supplies, Flower Vases

Travel Mugs, Water Bottles, Breakfast

* I Googled the spelling of "paraphernalia".  This still doesn't look right.

It's the Hap-Happiest Season of All

Coach & Son

     Christmas is over and the new year has begun which means that Team Vallejo can now focus all of our time and energy on basketball!  It really has become the hap-happiest season of all at our house. I love, love, love basketball season and basketball Saturdays are more fun than a barrel of monkeys.  Joel is coaching and Owen and Sarah are playing and I'm cheering from the stands and trying (very hard) to conduct myself in a sportsmanlike manner (which isn't always easy).  Owen has settled on basketball as his sport of choice and he's developing into a decent player.  The benefit for me when I watch him play (especially this year) is seeing his tenacity and determination (character traits that make being his parent a bit challenging and frustrating at times) channeled into guarding and rebounding and stealing and blocking.  He's fortunate to be on a team with a group of talented and hard-working kids too, many of whom have been playing together since first grade.  Joel and several of the dads are team coaching again this year and earlier in the season they decided to invest in new personalized "BEARS" jerseys for the SBA Red Bears.  They're awesome.

New Jerseys.  With Names.

So very cool.

GO BEARS!

Winning is Fun!
Winning with your friends
is even funner!

      The 2nd Grade Bears just finished up their fall season in a local church league and will begin their "competative season" this Saturday with the West Nashville Sports League.  Although these girls can be giggly and wiggly and often talk too much during practice, as a team they play really well.  They also want to win every single game - because winning is fun. Of course the point of this second grade league is teaching the kids the fundamentals of the game, but if you can learn how to play and win while you're doing it then that's just the best of both worlds.  Sarah Grace isn't always the most focused player and at times she looks more like she's doing ballet than playing basketball (she spends a lot of time on her toes) but she's low to the ground and she dribbles well. She's also scrappy and not afraid to fight for the ball.  These girls are so fun to watch, they really are. So, if you need me on any given Saturday between now and mid-March, you'll find me on the sidelines cheering on BEARS big and small and loving every stinkin' minute of it.

About the Elf

 

Clarence and Candy Elf
Smugly taking all the Christmas credit - again.

     I had planned to chronicle our elf story in greater detail than what is written here but sometimes it's best to get to the point. Also, it's the holidays and I'm sure that you, like me, have a lot of Christmas stuff to do (like caroling, and cookie baking, and cocktail making). So, here goes - these elves are the bane of my December existance. The bane. Why oh why did I ever begin this tradition? They set me up for failure every single year. This year for instance, Clarence and Candy blew right through their expected Thanksgiving weekend arrival date and didn't show up until December 11th which means that they had to bring a BIG gift - you know, because of the guilt. And moving them around the house every night? I need an app for that. Here's my advice about this whole holiday elf tradition . . . if you want to make the magic of the holidays go on and on, get yourself an elf or two. Trust me, the Christmas season will seem neverending.

Keeping it Real - The Christmas Lists

 

TOMS

   This year my children spent Thanksgiving weekend working on their lists for Santa. We (Joel and I) laid the ground work early by telling them to write down a few things they really want but stressed keeping their lists on the shorter side.  The reason behind this suggestion is rooted in the fact that they already have so much and Santa Claus may need to focus his gift-giving efforts on the less fortunate this year.  In all honesty, that talk wasn't really aimed at the kids - it was aimed at their mother.  I am the guilty party in the overindulgences of Christmases past.  Me.  All me.  It's one of the areas where my only-childness really shines through. As for their lists, they both did a great job of keeping them short.  They were even open to editing and reducing their requests when we went over them.  For example,  Sarah asked for a pair of sparkly TOMS this year.  I am not a big fan of TOMS because I think the resemble schlumpy house shoes. When I realized that TOMS cost $42 (plus tax and shipping) I couldn't justify paying that much money for these shoes, even if they do promise to give a like pair of shoes to someone in need with my purchase (give me two pairs for $42 dollars and then I'll buy your shoes).  Fortunately for me,  the thing that my daughter liked most about the TOMS was their silver sparkliness so she was more than happy to substitute the (very cheap) sparkly silver shoes we found at Target and take the TOMS off her list.  She's calling her new shoes BOBS.



BOBS
They're nothing like TOMS 
at a fraction of the price.

 

The Christmas Card Edition

Earlier today I asked the children to

put on something match-y and Christmas-y 

so that I could take a photograph 

for the Team Vallejo Christmas card.

They were thrilled to help me out.

Doesn't she look excited?

And this is the child who loves to have

her picture taken.

I really don't want to speculate

what he's thinking, but it probably begins

"My mother is so . . ."

Nothing says "Merry Christmas"

like two disgruntled children

glaring at a Christmas tree.

Ho Ho Hum.

They pulled themselves together and

smiled appropriately for this photo 

(which isn't terrible) but there's

no joy in their faces - not really.

I look at their faces and see

"will you please hurry up because we

have important television to watch downstairs."

After dinner, we gave it one more shot.

They were in a ridiculously silly mood - 

mainly because they were excited about

decorating the Christmas tree.

We had a great time and I finally

got a few shots for this year's

Christmas Card which means that now I can

cross "order Christmas cards" 

off my list of things to do this month.

"joy, merriment, and mirth"

coming soon to a mailbox near you

Life's A Happy Song

     Team Vallejo saw "The Muppets" at the theatre over the long Thanksgiving weekend.  This was not my original plan (for all of us to see it).  My original plan was to send Joel and the kids to the movies so I could do some on-line Christmas shopping but Joel insisted (insisted) that all of us were going because it's "The Muppets" and the "The Muppets" are all about family and fun and good memories.  We fandangoed tickets for the Friday matinee but when we arrived the theatre had no power. Since we were early for the movie we decided to hang out in the car and after a few minutes Owen exclaimed from the backseat, "I SEE LIGHTS!  THE POWER'S BACK ON!! WE CAN SEE THE MUPPETS!!!"  Yeah, he was super excited about the movie.  We walked back in and bought popcorn and drinks and found our seats just in time for the "Coming Attractions" to begin.  We listened to all of the coming attractions (note I say "listened" and not "watched") and then the sound cut off and a young man came in and announced that the power outage had damaged the projector and we weren't going to be able to see "The Muppets" after all. He went on to to explain something about getting a refund but I didn't hear that part because the lady sitting behind us completely lost her mind.  Lost it. Completely.  Over not being able to see "The Muppets." She was clearly not happy and let everyone in the theatre know it. So, we left the theatre, got rainchecks for the Saturday afternoon matinee and took ourselves and our  $27.50 worth of popcorn and drinks and went home. 

      On Saturday afternoon we headed back to the theatre.  We bought more drinks and popcorn and found our seats and just before the previews began, Scott Hamilton (the 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist in Men's Figure Skating) walked into the theatre and sat down right in front of us. It was very cool. So, me and Scott Hamilton and a whole bunch of other people settled in to watch "The Muppets."  I don't think I'm overstating it when I say that the movie was pure Muppet magic from beginning to end.  It had it all - the funny songs, the corny inside jokes, the obvious plot line with the token sinister bad guy ("maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh") vs. the naive small-town optomist all leading up to a last minute save-the-day performance followed by a rousing encore to end the show movie.  As the final notes of "Mahna Mahna" faded into the darkness, people in the theatre started clapping. It's been a long time since I saw a movie where people clapped at the end.  I may also have been crying. 


 
 As I said earlier, it was Joel who insisted that our family see "The Muppets" together and he was right (why yes, I did put that in writing).  The world feels like a dark and cynical place these days full of sinister people and maniacal laughter. Spending the afternoon with my kids laughing at the antics of Kermit and Miss Piggy was worth the two trips to the theatre and the ridiculous amount of money we spent at the concession stand so we could make a happy memory.  And how nice that the Muppets are back with their catchy songs and corny jokes.  I think the world needs them now more than ever.


"Life's a happy song when there's someone by your side to sing along!"