New Year's Eve & Weekend

So, usually New Year's Eve is just not one of my favorite holidays. I feel like you have to put all your eggs in one basket for one night of fun, and I usually realize after the fact that my basket had a hole in it. Not to mention that there was a stretch of a few years there that we were pregnant during that time and trying desperately to keep the baby, so celebrating was the last thing on my mind. 

But this year, since New Year's Day fell on a Friday, Rob and several of his friends from high school decided to get together and plan a long weekend. We all live in different states, so they decided Nashville was the easiest to fly in & out of and was centrally located for those of us driving. So city was decided, then came where to stay.I assumed we'd get hotel rooms, but then one of the guys found a great deal on a weekend rental house. It was right downtown in the middle of everything. Basically the homeowners move out for the weekend and we live in their house. I wasn't initially too keen on it, but then I saw the house, met the owner and basically feel in love.

It was an old house that started as a 2 bed/1 bath house. The owners updated it and expanded it to a huge 4 bed/3 bath beautiful home. It was my dream house. It was old, had character, looked old, but everything was new (and in good working order). I honestly pretended it was my house all weekend, like I was the host and they were my guests and made everyone refer to it as "my" house. (I'm sure that never got old or annoying.) I happened to run into the owner and her daughter before we checked in. She showed me around the house. I fell in love (in a friendship way) with her. She was so cute, so friendly. Like I seriously want to be pen pals with her. I certainly didn't plan on meeting her, or thinking she was so awesome, so as soon as I did, I immediately regretted I didn't weigh 40 lbs less and wasn't wearing lululemon. And I might have left Jake's photo & bio behind when we checked out, trying to play matchmaker, so they could be my in-laws. But I digress. My long winded point is the house was amazing and the owner is my new, not in real life, best friend. 

I took a ton of photos, but I won't bore you. (And the camera phone photos don't do it justice.) 

Everyone got into town Thursday (12/31). We hung out, I showed them around my house. Then we went out for dinner.

L to R: Chris, Allie, Denise, Robbie Page, Zach, Kimberly, Robbie Bush & me
The Robbie's, Allie & Zach all went to high school together
(The boys went to McCallie [all boys school] and Allie went to GPS [all girls school]
Thankfully, they all married spouses that get along:)

After dinner, the plan was to go to the New Year's Eve Bash on Broadway in downtown Nashville. Hence, why I look like a snowman in the photo above. I'm wearing a thick sweater & wool coat. 

#itissohardtobewarmandcute

The Nashville NYE bash was downtown with the streets blocked off. It was free and they had live concerts and such. We were there for about an hour, and that is when I did something I've never done before.

I was the first to ask if anyone else thought we should head home.

I am NEVER the first to want to leave. I always want to stay way past the prime. But I just wasn't feeling it. It was cold. It was crowded. Alabama was playing in the playoff game and there were no TVs (not to sound like the annoying girl that HAS to watch a football game). I didn't like the music. You couldn't hardly hear it anyway. We were all just huddled together talking to each other anyway. Why not do that in our nice, warm, home with clean bathrooms? At first, only half were on board. But after about 30 more minutes, we were all ready and if someone wasn't, they didn't speak up loud enough. So home we headed. We were home by 11:00. 

Best.Warmest.Cleanest Decision

We certainly didn't go to bed once we got home! (We are not THAT old) We turned on some music and played games like Heads Up and Cards Against Humanity. We laughed. We celebrated new year's. We had a great time. And all from the comfort of our beautiful home. I can honestly say, it was one of my favorite new year's ever. 

Playing Heads Up

Guys vs. Girls

Ugh. I sound like such a lame dork. But I don't care. It really was fun.

Friday, the girls went shopping while the boys watched the football bowl games. That night, we all went out to dinner. One of my good friends and sorority sisters, Brooke, lives in Nashville now, so her & her husband joined us. We have had so many funny adventures together and so many good memories. I just love getting to catch up with her.

On Saturday, we all headed home. (To our real homes) It was nice, because we still have some time before getting back into the grind on Monday.

What were the munchkins doing while we were gone? They stayed with Mimi & Granddad. There was a lot of lego building, doll playing, movie watching going on. Plus, Jake used his new iPad to constantly facetime us. 

The kiddos NYE night