American Adventures // the most wonderful time of the year

Ok first of all I'd like to heartily apologise that the bulk of these photos featuring me are selfies... I'm sure you can forgive me, ok? :) You'll have to, haha.

These are just photos of the last wee while. Enjoy!

The fall in Tennessee is gorgeous. Unfortunately it is now turning into winter (this was taken a couple of weeks ago) and it's super cold outside and most of the leaves are gone. So this is the last really pretty fall photo I have. This is the Campbell's driveway.

The path through the woods on the way from the Johnsons's to the Campbells. The Campbells are the grandparents; then the Allisons, Johnsons and Barretts are some of the children's families. All those families live really close to each other. It's so fun! There are children and grandchildren and even great grandchildren everywhere. 

I love paths/trails through woods! Especially when there are squirrels playing in the woods... squirrels are so gorgeous. We don't have them in NZ! The ones around here are tiny and grey. And very cute. 

Speaking of animals, we found this fluffy caterpillar. I've never seen a caterpillar quite like this before!

Friday afternoons is the time when the Ruby girls clean the house. Yay! Left is Aliisa, the lovely girl who left on Dec 5th and who we are all missing so much. Right is Hannah, my fellow Kiwi. 

Going walkabout... it's quite cold outside, I don't know if you can tell by what we're wearing. :P

Bowen Barrett and Breezy Allison had a combined birthday celebration one evening. Breezy has a ball every year and this year Bowen was graduating and having his birthday around the same time...... so they combined it to have a BBB - Bowen and Breezy's Ball. We all dressed up and had a meal together, made speeches to the birthday pair then danced the night away. It was such fun!

Decorating the Christmas tree was pretty awesome. It's a massive one in the corner of the , church/fellowship hall (which is almost all the downstairs of the Campbell's home - the rest of the downstairs is the Above Rubies office). Hannah and I put Christmas music on and fiddled with the lights for aaaggesss... we thought the lights were strange American ones and that  we couldn't figure out how to make them go because we were hopeless New Zealanders. Turns out they were broken and wouldn't go at all. Haha. Well we managed to find some that worked in the end and the tree is gorgeous if I say so myself so that worked out alright.

December the 9th Hannah and I got to go along to something absolutely AMAZING. Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett, two of the Campbell's daughters (the ones who do Trim Healthy Mama, if you've heard of it) sing together. They were hosting something they called 'A Welby Street Christmas' which was about six singers collaborating in a fantastic Christmas concert. Serene and Pearl themselves sang two beautiful songs - Te Harinui and Bread of Life. Bread of Life was written by Pearl's husband, Charlie. It's about Jesus being born in Bethlehem (which means 'House of Bread') and being the Bread of Life. Such a gorgeous song and one of my new favourite Christmas carols!

There was no snow outside but there was a snow machine blasting fake flakes into the sky.. really helped set the scene! :) Such a magical night.

L-R - me, Hannah, Mrs Campbell, Mr Campbell, and half of Isaiah Allison :P

The theater... and two gals who are about to really enjoy the show. Sorry the photos taken with my phone indoors are really bad quality. :/

Pearl is on the left, Serene is in the middle and on the right is Jeneve Mitchell, one of the guest artists. She is incredible... she yodels like the best I've ever heard... plays no less than 12 instruments incredibly and sings... and she is a grand total of 16 years old. She was a finalist on American Idol apparently.

We went to the Opryland hotel!! This is the most MASSIVE hotel like ever, and it has a jolly rainforest right in the middle of it! There were tons of Christmas lights everywhere. It was incredible. There were lots of curious people like us wandering around drinking in everything. The photo is of me with the lovely Mrs Campbell. You can't tell it's in Nashville, Music City, can you? :P

So many beautiful spots at the hotel! Such a wonderful time exploring round.

The lights... and everything... were out of this world

Right outside the hotel they had a giant manger scene. How wonderful that outside the hotel with all the massive light and incredible things everywhere they put up the scene conveying the true message of Christmas! Christ coming to us. The birth of our Immanuel.

Hope you all are having a fantastic time enjoying the lead up to Christmas! :)
Blessings,