Christmas In Nashville

So, Christmas is over. Aren’t you glad I’m here to tell you important stuff like that? Yeah, I thought so.

As I may have mentioned before, this year I did not travel anywhere for the holidays. Nope. I stayed right here in Nashville and celebrated MY way. It was definitely a welcome change of pace from my normally frantic, exhausting whirlwind trip to Erie which ends up leaving me tired and fussy after my Christmas “vacation”. No waiting around in airports for hours on end. No driving from house to house to house (in the snow). No living out of a suitcase or imposing on someone else. No vague feelings of not belonging anymore to a time and a place. No guilty expressions of “sorry I can’t stay longer”.

Instead, I enjoyed the most relaxing Christmas holiday I can remember in a long time. It’s true that I missed seeing family and friends who I normally see at this time of year…but there’s like 362 other days in the year to see them. Days that don’t require an appearance at 4 separate family gatherings in a mere 48 hours. Days that aren’t dripping with the bittersweet nostalgia of long-gone traditions. Days that aren’t emotionally and physically overwhelming. Like lazy summer days, for instance. Or lovely fall days. Or bright spring days. Yeah, those days.

Daniel also did not travel this year for Christmas. A first for him as well. We sent Christmas cards and packages filled with Christmas cheer to our various families and friends and called it good. We enjoyed our tree (our tree that is STILL standing – woo hoo!) We enjoyed going out to our mailbox everyday to collect the Christmas booty our postman left for us from family and friends we wouldn’t be seeing. We made praline pecans and peppermint bark and watched A LOT of Christmas specials on TV. And there was no stressful anticipation of imminent holiday travel.

On Christmas Eve we drove around town together scoping out the Christmas light displays in various neighborhoods. Christmas morning was a leisurely celebration featuring bacon and eggs and toast for breakfast and the opening of the few simple gifts we got each other. We watched the Yule Log on TV. That’s right. Have any of you ever seen this thing? I didn’t know they did this, but on one of the channels they have a giant log burning and they play Christmas music all morning. Huh. This, of course, led to a discussion (and internet research) of Yule logs and where they come from. And naturally the discussion turned to food when we discovered there is an edible Yule log called a Buche de Noel. It’s complicated, so you can bet Daniel will be attempting it next year. Y'all are welcome to come visit and partake in Yule revelry!

I had made Christmas Dinner Reservations for us at a restaurant called Prime 108 in the fabulously historical Union Station hotel downtown. The restaurant is luxuriously small and intimate. It was decorated so purdy with a big roaring fire at one end and Christmas music playing in the background. The menu was titled The Twelve Tastes of Christmas and it was SO delicious. All you interested foodies can CLICK HERE for the full menu. Can I get a YUM?

Also, it was just nice to share a fancy shmancy dinner together, have others wait on us AND not have to clean anything up afterwards. Awesome. The next three days of Christmas vacation included an abundance of lounging. Lounging on the couch watching movies. Lounging in bed reading books. Lounging in the chair playing computer games. Yes, much lounging. It was glorious.

And now it's over. But, damn, it was good. Can't wait for next year! I know, I need help...