Monday, December 05, 2005

Fun Times with Friends

This weekend featured a long-anticipated visit from some of our dearest friends, Kaleb and Denise. Their three-year (so hard to believe!) anniversary was in November, and Denise decided that her gift to Kaleb would be a visit to see his best friends in Tennessee. What a great gift!

Kaleb and Denise are our first couple-friends--from back before Steve and I were even together. Kaleb, Steve and I were inseparable our senior year of high school, and then as he and Denise got more serious, the four of us often went out together (I always liked it because it felt sort of like a double date even though Steve and I weren't dating yet :) Denise is a very special, one-of-a-kind girl to put up with Kaleb!

Friday night we ventured downtown for the Nashville Gas Christmas Parade--which was not worth standing in the cold for, as far as I'm concerned. I thought there were supposed to be cool floats--but if there were, they were at the tail end and we didn't brave the cold long enough. All we saw were fourteen dozen shriners (what exactly do the shriners do anyway? I think it's something to do with children's hospitals...but it occurred to me as we watched that perhaps they'd have more money for the children if they didn't buy so many tiny cars and goofy hats...), a bazillion clowns, and several bands who never played while they were in front of us. So once we were all barely able to walk because we couldn't feel our toes, we headed to the warmth of our car and then home. Alas, it was fun being with friends, even if the parade was a disappointment.

We spent Saturday braving the crowds at Opry Mills mall--wow, wow, wow. Remind me next year to get all of my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving. I really don't care to brave those kinds of mall crowds ever again. Thankfully since I'm still jobless I can shop during the day in the middle of the week and hope it won't be so bad then. Anyway, we took Kaleb and Denise to the Opryland Hotel, which was beautifully decorated for Christmas, and then, exhausted, we headed home and had steaks. (We finally used up the last slab-o-beef a few weeks ago, but Steve bought a new one on Friday in honor of their visit.)

We had originally planned to go line dancing at Wildhorse Saloon, but were glad we decided not to since we were all so pooped from shopping all day. So we had a fun evening in, playing cards and drinking homemade pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris :) Unfortunately the poor-quality picture of Kaleb and Denise at the Opryland Hotel was the only one I got all weekend. I had intended to get one of the four of us before church on Sunday morning--but my poor husband got sick and stayed in bed :( But just for fun, here's a picture of the four of us (and Dawson) from Steve's brother's wedding in August.

3 comments:

Kayla said...

I am so glad some of your friends have been down to visit now. It makes it easier to talk about where you live because they have an idea of what you mean. I have to say, as I was reading about how cold you were, I saw the picture of a stappy dress, tanktop, etc and thought "No wonder they were cold wearing that" then finally got to the part about it being from the wedding in August. Happy shopping!

Anonymous said...

Oh, how jealous am I! I can't wait til all of us get to hang out again..whenever that may be.I love you guys so much and am so glad that our families have such strong connections...ps, did you know bob is getting married??

Jules said...

Yay! How fun! I saw Dawson in church with Darold and Kathy on Sunday and thought it must be the weekend they were visiting you guys.