Christmas in TN and more 101 in 1001

Our adventure began Tuesday when we drove to KC to pick up Karen and Justin. We were met with the best of travel conditions...a complete standstill.


We made in to Tennessee around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday. You're probably thinking we went straight to bed. You're wrong. Instead, Nana decided that she would cook us breakfast so that we wouldn't have to wake up for it. Nothing like eggs, bacon and biscuits at 3 in the morning...


It was also at this time that Karen and I learned to make gravy (#19 on my list). I learned it's pretty much a guessing game (oh good, that's my favorite kind of recipe...one that's not a recipe at all). I plan to make some on my own soon.


We talked Dad into letting us open presents from our immediate family on Christmas Eve. Our reasons were fourfold...but I think only one of them was actually legit. (Keep in mind the rest of these pictures were taken with my new camera. I still have some work to do to master actually having to manually focus instead of the camera doing it for me....)



We also had Nana and Poppa open our gifts to them. I put together a photobook with pictures of the six cousins with our grandparents. It was a hit.


Below is Mom opening Karen's gift, a recipe book with all of Meemaw's recipes. This was also my gift from Karen, completing number 13 of my 101 list!


We also decided to do stocking for each other this year. No big items, but everyone would bring a couple of little gifts for each person. It turned out to be pretty fun!

One of Cody's gifts...ear warmers.


This Christmas was an especially good one in that all six cousins (and two husbands) all made it to Nana and Poppa's. This hasn't happened since, I believe, my senior year of high school. It was great to see everyone, to eat and catch up and to open the gifts we got for each other. Below is Cody blushing...luckily Nana is known for wrapping in deceiving ways.


She's also known for her detail in wrapping...I love it!


This family knows how to snack. If only I wasn't sick most of the time I was there. I am sure I would have been able to enjoy the snack area a lot more than I did.


Nana's infamous party mix...