tender tennessee Christmas

Lydia and I hosted Christmas for some of our family this year at our house. It was a marathon of Tennessee tourism, but everyone enjoyed the time together. It started Friday night at dinner with Pop and Polly and Lydia's parents. Then, on Saturday, I gave Pop and Polly a tour of LifeWay. I think they've met just about every person whose picture is hanging on a wall in that building at some time in their church career.

Lydia picked up Mom and Dad and we all toured the new Schermerhorn Symphony center. If you have a chance to see this amazing structure, we highly recommend it. There are free tours several days a week. It's amazing how they engineered the space to lock out all of the downtown noise around it. Although we've sung in the space, we're really looking forward to hearing the space too!

That night, Mom, Dad, Pop, Polly and us went to the Grand Old Opry at the Ryman Auditorium. Pop has been a fan of the Opry since the 20's when he listened in Colorado on his crystal radio set. When we bought the tickets, we were stuck over in Section 8, but Saturday night was an Opry Live night on GAC, so the usher came to our row and politely asked us if we could sit in an empty row right in the middle of the floor. Uh, yeah. The show was great, filled with country Christmas music. If you run back the show on TV, you can just see Mom and Dad in one of the audience pans, so we can prove they were there!

Sunday, we went to church and Lydia and I kept the one year-olds while everyone else went to the service. That afternoon, Mom and Lydia cooked ahead for Christmas dinner. We went over to our friend Elaine's house for cookies and eggnog and then went to the Christmas Eve service that night.

Monday was a nice relaxed Christmas day, with a late breakfast and then a conference call between Nashville, Los Angeles and Oregon to do our family gift card exchange. Then, Lydia's parents came over and we all sat down to a great meal of turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, country ham, and all the fixins. Afterwards, we went and toured the Opryland Hotel to see the decorations and the lights.

Tuesday morning, Lydia, Mom and I hit a couple of after-Christmas sales and then came home to nap! Pop and Polly were originally going to leave on Tuesday, but extended their visit another day and joined us at the Frist Center for a tour of the travelling galleries there. Afterwards, Lydia showed Polly and Mom where she works and I showed Dad and Pop where I like to shop.

Wednesday morning, Pop and Polly left for Ohio, Mom and Dad got a LifeWay tour and then left for Texas, then Lydia and I blogged about it.