The Magic of a Nashville Christmas

I have always felt the holiday magic during Christmas. I was one that loved going out during a snowstorm or on Christmas Eve to go shopping. I could just feel the magic in the air. But as time went on, my son grew up, life got crazy and I didn't feel that same magic that I used to. Until this year.

This year I could feel it building in me the weeks before Christmas. I recognized it. The magic was back. I went shopping quite a few times in the weeks before Christmas. Grocery stores, department stores and of course, Lowes! The closer it got to Christmas the more I dreaded going in the stores. I just knew people were going to be pushy and crabby and I wouldn't be able to find what I wanted. Each time I was proven wrong. I left a very crowded grocery store two days before Christmas and had to call my brother (Al) and s-i-l (CeCe). I had so much Christmas love in my that I thought I was going to burst. People were smiling. Actually smiling! And saying Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas. I did almost see what I thought was going to be an argument. It almost was except the argument was two people trying to let the other person go in front of them in line. They both ended up laughing when two of the self checkouts opened and they both got to go. They laughed and told each other Merry Christmas as they went to the checkout. Al and CeCe just laughed. They know how emotional I can get over happy things so they just listened to me.

Many nights I came home to treats our neighbors had left for us. Or they would stop by and wish us Merry Christmas. We were invited to multiple neighbor's houses for little get togethers to play games and spend time together. And eat of course. I truly love our neighborhood!

The magic just kept showing itself. Each night as I drove home I was able to enjoy the lights in our neighborhood marveling at the beauty of them. Each morning I would get up while it was still dark. I could look out our master bathroom window and see our neighbors Christmas lights on their house. And above their house, the moon shined brightly. It made me smile every single morning. We had great views out our front door and our back door. The lights are so peaceful to me. There was a really bad storm right before Christmas and many people had their lights destroyed. A tornado passed fairly close to us (again) so the damage was bad but mainly just to people's decorations. It made me sad thinking of all the hard work they had done. I assumed they would just try again next year. I was wrong. The next morning Jim was out looking for some our our patio furniture cushions that had blown away. Neighbors were out helping other neighbors find the inflatable snowmen or patio furniture. Humankind at it's best. And oh, one of our neighbors had found our cushions and had them sitting on their front porch for us. As for the lights, everyone had them back up and shining bright within 2 days.

It's very important to us that we try to give back. We have a box of treats set out for our local delivery people also. We have water and nuts and snacks set out so as we get deliveries, they can help themselves. Or even if they're not delivering to our house and need a little snack, they are welcome! We want them to know we really appreciate all they do.

We donate to charities, help around the neighborhood and try to spread goodwill wherever and whenever we can. We do this throughout the year but if someone is in need at Christmas, we are especially thoughtful of how to help.

As we got closer to Christmas, Jim and I talked about starting some new traditions since we don't normally see our family on Christmas day. We bounced ideas around but realized it had to be something special for us. And different of course. Because, well ..... we are different.

We finally had a plan. Tamales for brunch followed by a visit to Opryland, where we would tour Jim's mom around via facetime for a bit and then spend the day there. We have a women in the neighborhood that makes authentic tamales and we had heard they were amazing! Jim placed our order. They would be delivered on Christmas morning. We were going to see if this new tradition was a keeper!

The tamales arrived around 11:00 am. They were AMAZING! Just as good as the ones we had recently had in Mexico. We were stuffed. We decided to rest a bit before we headed to Opryland so we watched some of "Home Alone 2" while just laying on the couch rubbing our full bellies!

Opryland, here we come! We had gone to Opryland for Christmas two years ago. We had rented a room for 2 nights but realized that renting a room when we lived 15 minutes away was unnecessary. The decorations and the restaurants were available to anyone! The weather was a warm 75 degrees so we didn't have to worry about carrying coats around while we were inside.

We called Jim's mom as soon as we entered a did a 30 minute tour with her. Jim still has memories of the first time he went their with his mom and dad. His mom's (Claire) memory is still sharp as a tack at 94 so she remembered all kinds of things about it. We took her to all the water features and even got a selfie with her on the phone!

We spent time inside walking around and then we headed outside! The outdoor area is my favorite. Magic everywhere! Ice skating rink, stage with a band playing, huge slide for kids, Christmas store, tree lot and LOTS of lights. We assumed because of the warm weather that the ice skating rink would be closed. Wrong again! We sat for 2 hours watching people ice skate, laughing, talking to people, listening to the band and taking photos for people's families so they could all be in the photo. of families for them. I even got a photo of Jim with an elf!

Once it started getting dark, we headed inside to get dinner. Now that it was dark, the lights inside were much prettier. We tried one restaurant but they had no availability for walk ins. We went to the next one (Ravello) and they only had a 45 minute wait. Just enough time to walk around a bit, get a drink and enjoy the lights a little longer. Perfect!

It was a magical day for sure! We laughed so much and again, in true Minigan form, created a new Minigan tradition.