Christmas is Com- Never Mind, It's Here...

Friday, November 19 - Ashlee and the bachelorette party she was hanging with most of this weekend, met up with me at New Heights Brewing tonight in downtown Nashville.   It's very close to the AirBnB they were renting.  I bought the ladies a flight of NHBC's great beers as they are celebrating 5 years in business this weekend.  Then I was on my way...too much woo-woo for me! 

 
Saturday,  November 20 - It was a crazy night in Nashville with four different shows we would have liked to have seen:  Andrew McMahon (fresh off The Rock Boat), The Wallflowers, Andy Frasco, and the winner of our choice: Augustana (Dan Layus solo show) at The Mercy Lounge.  Ashlee broke free of the bachelorette weekend to attend along with our friend, Bethany.  Dan sounded great and we were so glad to see (and hear) him again.  

Thursday, November 25 -  We had a quiet little Thanksgiving at home for the first time in a while this year as the prices down in Destin for house rentals have really shot up.  Paige and Ella came up and we had a nice dinner ordered from Cracker Barrel with Doris at the head of the table ready to do some turkey carving!  Thanks to Ashlee for the cute pic.  

Friday, November 26 - Our old cruise pals, Will and Jenna, were in town for the holidays visiting Will's parents who live here in Wilson County.  We met up for a lot of craft beer and a ton of laughs and good times at The Cedar Tap over on the square.  It's so nice to have a place like this just a mile or so from the house.  These are two of my favorite pretty ladies in the world!! 

Saturday, November 27 - We headed over to our local Roxy Theaters (recliners!) this afternoon to check out the new flick, House of Gucci, which is getting rave reviews.  We thought it was really well done and a very interesting true story. 

Despite the fact we weren't going to Destin this year for Christmas, we found a bevy of Yuletide festivities around Nashville to keep us busy and happy. 

Friday, December 3 - We attended the Lighting of the Christmas Tree on the Lebanon Square tonight amid very mild temps and nice weather. Afterwards, we had a couple beers and dinner at The Cedar Tap.  Again, it's so nice to have this option in our town now! 

Monday, December 6 - We slowed down on our number of advent calendars this year with only this tasty cheese one from Aldi.  Maybe we will ramp back up again next year with wine, beer, etc. 

Tuesday, December 7 - We went over to Wal-Green's today and got our Covid booster vaccinations to hopefully protect us from the new delta variant of this crap.  While there, we also got flu shots.  Might as well protect against all the crud possible.  

Friday, December 10 - We had to hunker down in the bathroom tonight due to a terrible storm front with lots of tornadic activity roaring in from the west.  We got lucky with the cold Cumberland River once again splitting the heavy weather to our north and south of us.  North took in the worst with a lot of deaths in Kentucky due to tornado damage.  Whoever heard of killer tornados in December??  Yeah, global warming is a myth...

Saturday, December 11 - We cheated a little on the local cat rescue group that Ashlee volunteers with and is on the board of today when we snuck over to True Rescue in Mt. Juliet to check on the facility and a couple of their kittens they had posted online for Ashlee's sister, Paige.  It's a pretty cool place with tons of sweet adult cats just roaming around and a very nice staff.  We even went home with "Oliver" for Paige because he reminds us all of a young Zippy.  Well, those are mighty big paws to fill.  We shall see! 

We hit our first Nashville pop-up bar of the season tonight at Tinsel and Gretel's Christmas Candy Cottage at Sidebar at the Bode Hotel downtown.  This was our first visit here and it was pretty cool, albeit a bit disorganized this early on, I guess.  We had some tasty seasonal drinks, and there was a lady singing with her guitar that was pretty good also.  We had some decent finger food too.  Not a bad start! 

Tuesday, December 11 - Dudley: Santa's secret helper 

We went to see the new musical remake, West Side Story, at The Roxy Theaters (recliners!) here in Lebanon tonight.  Granted, we've never saw the original to compare it to but with Steven Spielberg at the helm of this one, we figured it would be good.  It was, in fact, not that great.  For a "classic" the story is kind of dumb actually.  It was shot well, but overall, a bit of a disappointment.  It was good to see our friend, Casey, and his nephew, Colin, at the show as well. 

Saturday, December 18 - We went to see the long-time holiday Nashville band, The Ornaments, in concert at The Wash at Eastside Bowl in Madison tonight.  Eastside Bowl is a cool new bowling alley and concert venue refurbed from an old Kmart building.  The Wash is their concert space. and while a bit small, it's pretty nice with good acoustics and decent sightlines.  Thanks to our friends Bethany, Emily, Andrew, Wendy and Charly for going with us.  We all had a nice low-key dinner in their Clark's Diner beforehand as well.  This little outing took the place of our usual Christmas party we have when we are home for the holidays.  

Sunday, December 19 - Since we missed seeing the holiday classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas, at the Full Moon Cineplex recently due to illness with the staff, we decided to check it out tonight on our Disney+ streaming service.  Very weird, kinda cute and definitely worth a watch...finally! 

Monday, December 20 - We had tickets to Snow Globe tonight, a pop-up holiday bar at the new JW Marriott Hotel downtown.  It was a late-night experience for us since we were lucky just to get in with all shows being SOLD OUT! 

With some time to kill before our 9 PM ticketed event, we checked off a couple other pop-up holiday bars as well downtown starting with The Nightmare Before Christmas-themed Parlor Bar at the nice boutique hotel called Dream.  This place must be new because it sits between The Bobby Hotel and The Noelle Hotel which we've been to both several times, but we've never been in here.  The decor was very fun and well done.  Good thing we just watched the movie, so we knew what all the decorations meant!  The drinks and food were excellent as well. 

Speaking of the always-fun Bobby Hotel, we went there next to check out their rooftop pop-up bar themed as an outdoor holiday camp with even a small skating rink.  We sat by one of the outdoor fires and admired the clear (but cold) views of downtown Nashville.  We had some tasty warm drinks to help keep out the freezing temps.  

The new JW Marriot Hotel is a beauty, and it was such an exquisite, albeit cold night, to be downtown with a full moon and very little traffic since it's a Monday.  We even got to park free on the street (such a rarity here!). 

The Snow Globe pop-up bar was worth the steep price of admission.  What a cool concept!  It was an hour and a half experience at these large screens changed to different wintry, holiday landscapes along with the sounds and smells of the season.  We had a couple more tasty Christmas cocktails before heading home with a nice night of merriment behind us.  
Ashlee also found out that the company that set this up for the Marriott called Nightscape will have its own location in The Gulch next year.  We will have to definitely check that out! 

Tuesday, December 21 - Our collection of pop-up Christmas bars to visit continued tonight at the L27 Rooftop Lounge at the Westin Hotel downtown which is now has a snowy ski chalet theme.  We did mix it up a bit with a 4 PM reservation so we could watch the sun set over the city. We had more tasty cocktails and really good French onion fondue to munch on.

After our ski chalet visit, we stopped in the new Gibson Garage store near where we parked for free on the street.  Yippee!  And what a cool place!  We grabbed a nice hatch print from the store to add to our growing collection of to-be-framed prints.  

Wednesday, December 23 - Our goal to visit as many Christmas pop-up bars in Nashville as possible this holiday season came to a close tonight, and it looks like we saved the best for last!  The Pearl Diver Miracle Christmas pop-up tiki bar in East Nashville was our sixth pop-up to visit, and it did not disappoint with a large, reserved booth for us, great decorations, tasty and fun cocktails, and delicious food. 

Yes, the Snow Globe was the best overall presentation (and it should for what it cost to get in), but the best drinks of the season were at The Pearl Diver.  This was my Yippie Ki Yay MotherF#%$er rum drink served up in a hilarious (and big) Santa Pants Cup.  All the drinks were bountiful and served in awesome glassware that you could also purchase.  We had their awesome PuPu Platter to eat with a wide selection of island treats on it including some spicy Jamaican jerk chicken wings! 

Thursday, December 24 - We headed down for Christmas in Chattanooga today and when we got there we first met with our friend, Mollie, at the Terminal Brewhouse for a few libations, a gift exchange between the girls, and some tasty appetizers.   

Friday, December 25 - We had a nice Christmas overnight in Chattanooga but were ready to get back to our house and our cats and two foster babies.  We got back home in time to get in a rousing game of Christmasopoly which I had gotten Ashlee for Christmas.  It was a lot of fun, especially since I got to drink craft beer while playing it and I won!!  

Ashlee definitely is the better gift giver and knows me very well.  She got me some great stuff (and even let the cats take credit for some of the great gifts).  She's very hard to shop for, but I did my best and tried to think "outside the (gift) box" as well.  So, this Cameo Christmas greeting by our favorite funk legend Big Sam direct from New Orleans was pretty unique I thought...take it away, Big Sam!!!