Aaahhhhh… 10 whole entire days off of work. Absolutely. Fantastic.

We both read a bunch, watched a season of Castle, shopped a bit, hiked a bit, partied a fair amount, had dinner with friends on Christmas Eve & another night, went to two Knoxville Ice Bears hockey games (had box seats one of the nights and saw two fights), cleaned a lot, cooked a lot, Mark beat Modern Warfare 3 in one day (video game), we got pedicures, worked out every day, threw out our old red couch… Oh, and we fixed our dryer (after it got a bit flooded from the rain) and took the vacuum in for repairs. And other things, of course, but that’s what I remember right now.

The Friday before Christmas we went to Nashville to explore. We spent the morning walking around Centennial Park looking at the life-size replica of the Parthenon (have pics, will post soon). Then we drove over to Grand Ole Opry and spent the afternoon walking around, looking at the Christmas lights & decorations, and window shopping. We walked the entire Opryland, it was exhausting! But also really fun! We got a drink and appetizer in our favorite room at Opryland, then headed to downtown Nashville for dinner. We went to the Big River Brewing Company and sampled their brews, got amazing bruschetta, played a game of pool, and had dinner. We headed back to Knoxville after that incredibly long and awesome day.

On New Year’s Eve we woke up very, super early and drove an hour and a half to our favorite trailhead at Cherokee National Forest. We hiked all morning on Bullen Hollow Trail. It was so quiet and beautiful, and also an incredibly challenging hike, we really love going out there. We worked up big appetites and stopped at the best, and our favorite, little diner down here, Little Chicago. Pizza puffs, Italian beefs, Gyro sandwiches, Chicago hot dogs… OoooOOOoohhh, yum.

Going back to work this morning was hectic and a bit nuts. When we left this morning I was in this state of panic and anxiety for no reason besides waking up at 4:45 in the morning and entirely blocking out our morning routine. Haha, oh well. We made it in on time, 7:30 on the dot.

We had our first snow of the season last night. It was really pretty. Snow stuck to the ground for a few hours. It was 20 degrees this morning, coldest it’s been yet.