A Very Different Christmas...

 Since we had our family Christmas on the 18th, my DH and I decided to take a little vacation. We've always wanted to go "somewhere" for Christmas - preferably where it was snowing, but we would have had to drive for days to find snow. 
 My suggestion was to go back to Nashville, TN, and spend Christmas Eve with the Rockettes. We had seen their show about 4 years ago, but we never get tired of seeing them perform.

  We left on the 22nd and went through Memphis, TN, and stayed right across the street from The Peabody Hotel. We managed to see the ducks walk the red carpet, but my camera didn't work too good to get a decent picture of that. 
 I did get some pics of their gingerbread houses which were amazing! 

My grandson, Cayden, said these gingerbread houses looked a lot better than the ones they made. LOL 

 We walked down the street and ate at B.B. King's. Oh my gosh - the best food I had the whole trip! 

  On the 23rd we drove on towards Nashville stopping to eat at Loretta Lynn's Kitchen. We'd also been there before, but it's a nice place and everyone is so friendly. Then we drove up to her ranch. I do love that drive! 

We spent 3 nights in Nashville, and stayed at the Radisson across from the Gaylord Opryland. We have stayed at the Gaylord before, and decided to use the savings to do more sightseeing this time! 

 The first night we had tickets to cruise up the Cumberland River on the General Jackson. The show was awesome! It's always fun to meet people from everywhere. The people at our table were from Georgia and Indiana. 

 The next day we went to tour the Ryman Auditorium, and took the backstage tour. It was so neat getting to visit the dressing rooms where the legends had been. We weren't allowed to take pictures backstage.

 Here we are! Performing at the Ryman! :)

 

 That night we went to the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular! The name fits the show! Just awesome, but of course, no one is allowed to take pictures. I can certainly understand why because some people were rude and took some pics anyway at the end. Their live portrayal of the birth of Jesus is indescribable! There were camels and lambs, and it was just beautiful! 

 On Christmas Day, after we went to church across the highway, we were invited to have lunch with an old friend that lives nearby. We had such a nice visit, and it was also nice not to be eating at a restaurant on Christmas Day - mainly because there wasn't much to choose from.

 That night we went to visit the Gaylord and ride the gondola. There were sooooo many people there we didn't stay long. What was with that? Why weren't these people home on Christmas Day? LOL

 So I'll leave you with a few pics from there if you're still with me. If you took the time to look at all of my pics, I do appreciate you. This was a special trip for us, and we enjoyed it so much. The lights at the Gaylord were gorgeous! I wish you could all have seen this live!

 

I guess you saw old Shrek in there. I wish the grands could have seen him. It was really weird.

  We did a few more things, but these are the highlights. We crammed a whole lot into 3 days for sure! 

 I hope everyone has a Very Happy and Blessed New Year! We have had many blessings this past year, and we are so very thankful!

Shirley