A Day in the Life: Thanksgiving in Nashvegas

That's right folks, Nashville is yet another city that has substituted it's proper ending with -vegas. Not sure why, but people do call it that around here.

By some stroke of fate, there was good reason for my extended family to be in Nashville, excuse me, Nashvegas, this Thanksgiving. My cousin Courtney (2 weeks and 2 days older than I) is the head women's basketball coach for Princeton. Which is a HUGE accomplishment. Not only because she is very young (remember, same age as me) but because she has completely turned around the program at Princeton in a short 3 years, culminating in an Ivy League undefeated title and trip to the NCAA tournament last year. She is so the "it" person in women's college basketball. Anyways, her team played in the Vanderbilt Thanksgiving tournament which meant that my aunt, uncle, cousin Jen and her family also all came to Nashvegas for Thanksgiving. Which also meant....I got to cook Thanksgiving dinner!!! The menu planning alone took almost 3 weeks.

Jen and troop (husband Matt, two sons, Arden 4 3/4, Miles 1) arrived very late on Wednesday night and stayed until Sunday morning. It was lively and fun and yes a bit chaotic, but that is how our family prefers to run. Miles turned one on Friday so he was a super fun playmate for Ellie. My aunt Annie, Uncle Jimmie and Sue Brooks (long time family friend) also came over for dinner. We stretched the feast out all day, from 1 pm to 11:30. Courtney made it just after dinner and if it wasn't for knowing the kids were going to be up in the morning, I think we would have sat around the table all night. It isn't often that you get man to man time with Courtney, she is very busy as you can imagine.

Friday was the first game of the tourney and Princeton was slated to play USC, who had previously beaten 2 top 25 ranked teams earlier this month. It was a great game, Princeton trailing by 2-8 points for the majority until down by one with two free throws and 5 seconds on the clock. As I always say, free throws can make or break a game and they won! It was way too stressful for my liking. Unfortunately they lost in the championship game, but played their hearts out and the game wasn't over until the final buzzer. Vandy women's are ranked in the top 25 and let me tell you, they were afraid of Princeton. If that number 15 wasn't such a bully...

We seriously had such a great time with the visitors and were so happy everyone was here. It really made Nashville seem like home for even a few short days.

Oh, and Ellie D's face is busted right now. Between falling flat on her face rendering her a huge bruise on her forehead and her runny nose and drooling (yes, she is teething MORE!) causing a bright red chaffed skin goatee, her face is busted. Hopefully she'll be back in shape soon! She also gets a gold star for the weekend. She couldn't have been any better and made mommy look good!

Uncle Jimmie, Aunt Annie, Sue Brooks and Jen hang out watching the Patriots game.

Jen with her two boys, Arden and Miles

Yes Sara, when the toys are out my house is messy too.

Miles is a sweetheart. Poor kid was suffering from some ear infections but is feeling better today after getting tubes placed!

Ellie D playing with Jen and her blocks. It was funny to actually see her get possessive of some of her toys. She shared pretty well though.

Not quite in focus but sitting down for dinner! I forgot to take a pic of the turkey before Uncle Jimmie carved it. No complaints about a dry turkey though!

Ellie wasn't interested in waiting for the rest of us to sit down before she started. She ate like a champ!

Daddy and his little girl

Ellie and Arden playing with Miles' new toy.

Where you going with that Miles?

Ellie playing with some peanut shells on the floor at the game. Hey, it kept her still for about 5 minutes and at that point, it seemed like forever. She was tireless in the gym even though it was waaaay past her bedtime. Love her Tiger colors!