The Petry Family: Christmas

So its been awhile since Mommy added a new post.....AGAIN! I tried to explain to her the importance of keeping the blog up to date, especially with all the milestones I am reaching and the exciting events going on in our lives. Well where should I begin.........there was Christmas and it was wonderful. We spent time with all of our family and enjoyed having over a week off from the "normal routine" of getting up, going to work/daycare, coming home to housework, bath and bedtime routines. You would have thought that perhaps, Mommy would have updated the blog at that time but I suppose she took the term "vacation" to the extreme. Nevertheless, we had an amazing holiday and the new year has started off great.

Here's a brief summary of where we've been, what we've been doing and who we've been hanging out with since the last time we checked in.

In early December we headed to Charlotte, NC with PaPa, Nana and Aunt Linda and went to the ACC Championship....the trip was a lot of fun, despite our poor showing at the game. We got to go to the NASCAR Hall of Fame while we were in Charlotte and "drove" in a race simulation. I "drove" in the car with Nana and we came in fourth. I guess it was a good thing that I napped during the first part of our visit there so I was rested and alert when it came time to race!

Resting up before the big game

Then we headed to the Bank of America stadium for the ACC Championship.....Virginia Tech was playing Clemson, they proved to be a thorn in our side. The Hokies did not have a good game by any means, but that didn't stop me from cheering my heart out (we were down by 4 touchdowns when Mommy took this picture of me).

Mighty Little Hokie cheering his heart out

A few weeks later we hit the road for another trip.....Nashville, TN. Our cousin Sarah was graduating from Belmont University. We'd never been to Nashville before, but we can't wait to go back - we wanted to do so many things that we could have stayed for a week and not checked everything off our list. We squeezed in as much as we could though for the weekend we were there though including visiting Belmont University, Opryland, checking out downtown Nashville (complete with shopping for cowboy boots), going to the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium and having lunch at the Loveless Cafe.

At Belmont University for Sarah's graduation

The music is amazing (not surprising of course but there is something to be said for hearing how amazing these artists are for yourself) We had a blast and Mommy, Daddy, Uncle David and Sarah went out to celebrate for the evening and got to hear bands cover everything from Charlie Daniels to Heart to Maroon 5......not too mention one of the shout-outs Sarah got from a band included them playing a song she requested that they had never even rehearsed before and they nailed it!

Our favorite grad - still sporting her cap and collecting shout-outs

In the balcony at the Ryman Auditorium enjoying the Opry

Saturday, after we had lunch at the Loveless Cafe, I'll admit I slept through most of our visit, but we had a big night planned ahead.....we went downtown and did some shopping and sight-seeing. Then we went to the Ryman Auditorium for the Grand Ole Opry. There we heard the perform of a group called The Civil Wars and the words amazing and incredible really do not do them justice for the performance they gave. They got a standing ovation (which is not a common occurrence at the Opry).

We're already trying to plan another visit to Nashville soon, Sarah is working there following graduation, so we'll have a great excuse to visit again.

Once we got back from Nashville, we went into a high-paced planning mode for the holidays. Daddy's family was coming to visit a few days before Christmas, Memaw, Aunt Linda and Uncle Brooks were coming to visit Christmas Eve through the day after Christmas and then we were headed to visit PaPa and Nana in North Carolina. I was excited that Uncle Josh, Aunt Jennifer and cousin Emma would be there too!

Holiday requirement - cookies!

I was really excited to spend some time with my cousins - we had a great time together. Well there is a lot more that I should fill you in on, but its way past my bedtime.....so I better run for now. Stay tuned!!!!