Saturday, December 13th, was our first full day home after traveling to Las Vegas for the National Rodeo Finals. I had a few goals for this day, laundry, pictures labeled and blog caught up. I got that done and managed to find another Northern Disclosure to view.
We received a package in the mail. It was a little box. It came from Utah. There was no name on it and no note inside. Since Claude's sister, Lynette, lives in Utah and has sent us things at Christmas before, we thought it came from her. I took this picture and sent a nice thank you via text to Lynette.
Sunday, December 14th, oh, my heavens. Claude and I were feeling our 3-hour time difference. The second day is always the worst. Fitful nights sleep for both of us. As soon as I woke up, I felt a strong prompting to look at my cellphone. There was an eMail from David Bennett, 1st Counselor in the Bishopric. He was notifying the ward the the Stake Presidency canceled all church meeting. We had snow and ice on the roads during the night and it was treacherous to drive. I curled back up in our flannel sheets and Claude and I caught a bit more sleep.
One of the best blessings of being home, was having enough in the refrigerator and cupboards to sustain us without going out on the snow and ice. Claude and I watched Music & the Spoken Word, then the Andrea Bocelli concert, followed by Christmas movies. I very quiet, nice day inside. Loved it!
Monday, December 15th, my goal was to wash the bed linens for the guest bedroom and our bedroom. I did get that done. Yeah me! I moved the presents from the hiding places to under the Christmas tree.
The temperature outside got to a blistering 30 degrees. Twice as warms as Sunday's daytime high. This meant we could go out in the afternoon. I needed to try on my new glass frames. They were ordered while we were in Las Vegas. Claude drove me over and I loved them. They are red in color. Not bright red. But a deep red. I had queried Claude about what I should look for in glasses I would no wear all the time. I went prepared and shared with the nice lady that I wanted graded lens for the bifocal part, and photo grade lens for the sunglass part, and a coating on them to protect the lens a bit. That was all the questions she was going to ask me and I shared it right from the start. Claude came over and looked at what we were ordering. We paid for 2 pair of glasses. My frames will be sent for the first pair. A second pair of frames will be ordered and sent to be prepared. In about two weeks, I will be able to pick up the first pair. Then I need to learn to wear glasses all the time! Yike!! It was cute when she gave me the frames to try. I put them on and she looked at me and said, "You are used to wearing readers?" I said, "Yes". She knew right away and told me I needed to get used to putting the all the way on the bridge of my nose. So funny.
We have a new Chipotle restaurant in Georgetown. They opened for business about the time we left for Las Vegas. We opted to have our big meal of the day at our new Chipotle. How fun to have this favorite of ours in Georgetown.
Tuesday, December 16th, was an inside day. It was still cold out but the snow was beginning to melt a bit more. I love inside days. I prepared all the Relief Society birthday cards for January. I updated my blog through Monday and got the pictures all labeled and stored.
I cleared out eMails. In today's world, many don't even check their eMails. We are down to short text messages and quick posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. My eMails are like a 'tickler' file for me. I often open them and don't do anything with them until I have time to sit at my laptop and deal with them. Sometimes it is simply a letter to read. Sometimes it is something to renew. Sometimes it is and update from the church. I can often leave these things and spend time at one time going through them. It always feels good when I get through the eMails.
I enjoyed some more documentaries I had DVR'd. I do enjoy learning about things. One documentary was about Mars.
Wednesday, December 17th, it was warm enough to go outside without a coat!!
Claude and I opted for a biscuit breakfast. Having not left the house since arriving home Friday night, it was time to be out a bit. Bojangles always makes a good biscuit but sometimes they are better than other times. They make these by hand. This time, our biscuits were absolutely perfect.
We picked up prescriptions at CVS and did half of the Christmas grocery shopping. As we were checking out, I asked Claude what he thought about getting each of our missionaries a $25 gift card so they could buy themselves a treat to eat they love and don't get very often on their very tight budget. He thought it was a great idea. We learned how to process the gift card at self-checkout.
When we got home, I had to clarify about our tickets for Amy Grant and Vince Gill. I purchased these in April through TickestCenter. I received an additional eMail from them indicating the tickets would be on AXS Mobile app. I purchased tickets for Amy Grand and Vince Gill two years ago and used the AXS app for them. No problem. I had the app on my phone and could use it again. While in Las Vegas, I received and 'Urgent' email from TicketsCenter telling me to accept my tickets. This eMail said I mite have to create some type of account to get this done. I tried to login to AXS while in Vegas and it would not accept my login. We were due home in a day so I decided to not worry about it until I got home. When home, I logged in to AXS and no tickets were there. I could click a link in my eMail and get 2 QR codes which is what I usually show on my phone for a ticket. I Googled TicketsCenter and found they are a place that sells tickets and they has some not favorable reviews. I tried several other things to be sure these tickets were legitimate. Finally, I did an on-line chat with TicketsCenter. After a bit the AI generated person turned me over to a read human...supposedly. I repeated through messaging my questions. I was finally told that the QR codes were my ticket and they had been accepted. I assured them I did not want to drive from Georgetown, Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee and find I really had no tickets. They assured me my QR code was the ticket. I will never us TicketsCenter again. I would tell others not to use them as well. Their website is not set up to be used easily. Their eMail's don't give you full information. And the list goes on. Don't use TicketsCenter. Lesson learned.
In the evening, I went to the church to practice a musical number for the Christmas program for Sacrament meeting this Sunday. Camille Bennet is going to sing and I will play the organ to accompany her. The piece of music is "I Wonder as I Wander". Camille has a lovely voice. I was happy my organ stops were soft enough. I really want the members to feel the words as Camille sings them. The organ is only backup. Should be a nice number.
When I returned home, Katelyn called her Grampa. He put her on speaker phone and we chatted for a while. Katelyn is very good to call and see how we are doing. Love that about her.
Thursday, December 18th, was a day to prepare for our Nashville trip. While awake during the night, I researched for things we could do. We would drive down on Friday and not have the Amy Grant and Vice Gill concert until 3pm on Saturday. I found four possibilities and wrote down information about them.
When I finally woke up, Claude and I went over them so I could purchase tickets. He was off to get the sensors in my tires checked. I purchased tickets for our weekend adventure, updated the January Relief Society Newsletter, packed, cleared more things off the DVR, found a Christmas ornament pattern for the 2026 Christmas gifts to the Relief Society sisters, and practiced the piano for the organ accompaniment for Sunday's Christmas program at church.
In the evening, Claude made possibly the best soup ever!! We enjoyed soup while it rained and we watched television. A lovely ending to our day.
Friday, December 19th, we started our weekend adventure with a biscuit from Bojangles.
After two traffic jams, we made it to Lights Under Louisville at Louisville Mega Caverns. The beautiful things about these tickets is they are valid from 9am to 10pm the day of your choosing. It is also great because the lights are underground so you can go anytime during the day and have a great experience. It is a drive through venue. You stay in your car and drive through the caverns to see all these lights. More were added this year. It was delightful.
The mouths on these faces were moving to the music that was playing. The buildings on the left were little houses with each of Santa's reindeer having their name on the top.
The caverns are used as office space today, sometimes storage for companies and for the salt storage for Louisville for winter roads. There are also caverns that have ziplines in them.
We found our hotel in downtown Nashville. Then let Claude take a 1 hour nap before going to dinner.
The directions to get to the Nashville Zoo took us down Hwy 31E. That seemed to have some places we could find dinner. We left early enough to find dinner on our way to the Zoo. We ended up at El Tapatio. We love Mexican food and were happy to find a restaurant that served Mexican food. We got menus and they were mostly in Spanish. The ingredients to the side of a food item, let's say 'burrito', would snow it was made of tongue or tripe, etc. Ugh. I asked if they could make an enchilada or a quesadilla with only cheese, no meats. This is my favorite anyway. She asked the cook. The cook sent me out a small container with the type of cheese they used. I assured the server that was fine. Claude found a burrito dish made with chicken. The food was delicious. It was an adventure to communicate as they spoke mostly Spanish.
Saturday, December 20th, we had an 11:30am appointment. Checkout was at 11am. We set our alarm for 9:30am and were up before that.
We check out of the hotel and headed to Goo Goo Chocolates. We it and located a nice parking garage a couple of blocks away. This was conveniently located for us to get back to after our Ryman Auditorium visit. Then we hiked back past Goo Goo Chocolates to The Diner for find breakfast before enjoying a chocolate experience.
The Diner was located on the corner of a building and used the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th floors of that corner of the building. I noted their name on the corner of the outside of the building on each of those levels and thought that was interesting. We entered and told them a table for two. The girl looked at the book and said, "Take the elevator to the 5th floor." Okay. We did that and, sure enough, there was another dining area there. We had a wonderful server and I explained to him right off that we had an 11:30am class at Goo Goo Chocolates and asked if we would be able to eat and get there on time. He said, "Order now." We did. He came back very quickly with out food. I told him that was superfast service. He said with a grin, "I am connected!" Turns out he was a Louisiana man as well. New Orleans was his neck of the woods. I had avocado toast and Claude has biscuits and gravy. This was served with four small biscuits around a cup of gravy. Claude was so happy with the flavor of the gravy and the fact that he could sop his breakfast. My hubby is a sopper!
We finished and headed back to Goo Goo Chocolates.
They have a great little classroom right off the sales floor. Everything is done very well. You enter with your group and are assigned a seat. Your place has a placemat at with with pertinent information. You are asked to take the marker and write M for milk chocolate, D for dark chocolate, or W for white chocolate. Each participant is also supplied an apron (none of our class put them on).
Once everyone was in place and had written their letter or words telling what type of chocolate shell they wanted, we were shown a brief video of the history of Goo Goo. Then we were given gloves. There was a small paper container like you put peanuts in at 5 Guys at each place. At the table in front was a section with 'sweets' to put inside your Goo Goo Cluster. We were to select two of these from several choice. Next to that were containers with spoons of different 'add-ins'. We were to select three of these. We could mix and get one spoon of each or get three spoons of the same thing. I selected bacon and bourbon caramels for my 'sweets' and toffee, pecans and vanilla chips for my 'add-ins'. Claude chose caramel and vanilla nougat for his 'sweets' and nuts, marshmallow and Oreo chips for his 'add-ins'. While we were doing this, Casey, our instructor, was putting our choice for chocolate shells on our placemats. Then Casey sprayed a little Pam into our gloves if we had sticky sweets. One of our sweets had to be taken out of its cup, rolled into a ball, pressed out and then placed into the bottom of the shell. The Pam keeps that from sticking to your gloves. When everyone did that step, we were instructed to put our add-in on top of that pressed out sweet. The add-ins had to cover the bottom to the edge of the chocolate shell. When everyone finished that step, we instructed to take the second sweet, roll it into a ball and spread it out in our palm. Then we laid it over the add-in's making sure it touched the edge of the chocolate shell. Between each step, Casey went around to be sure we all did things correctly so our Goo Goo Cluster would work.
When we had each assembled our cluster, it was time to take them all out and have the chocolate coating for the top added. We went back to the window where the man had been boxing clusters. The nice girl was careful to hold up each of our trays with our cluster inside and with our name on a label to the side of the tray. Once she knew the owner of the Cluster saw their creation, she then covered the top in chocolate and held it up for us to see once again before going to the next class member.
Once everyone saw their cluster topped with chocolate, we went back to the classroom and Casey explained the process of making chocolate. The first picture he is holding up a cocoa pod. The second picture he is holding up a cocoa bean. The most chocolate is produced in Belgium.
When our Goo Goo Clusters were ready, Casey gave them back to us in the mold we had created them in. We were each given a nice box and told how to get the cluster carefully from the mold to the box. We were all successful in this. There was a shelf under our table with a box and a bag to put our treasures in.
Topping Sandi's Goo Goo Cluster.
Topping Claude's Goo Goo Cluster.
They clusters has to be wheeled away to place for them to cool and set up before we could package them. We took this opportunity to a few pictures.
Claude and I thoroughly enjoyed this class. We purchase four flavors of Goo Goo Clusters to share with our family over Christmas. Should be fun!!
We walked back to the parking garage and put our treasures into the car. We then walked to the Ryman Auditorium. The show was to start at 3pm but they were to let people in at 2pm.
We were at the front of the line to get inside at 2pm. I had my phone at the ready with the QR code showing. The man scanned the code and it didn't work. He tried again. It didn't work. He said I should open it in the AXS app. I assured him a tried that and it wouldn't work. I was very concerned we were going to get turned away. I went out of the QR code and reopened that part of the eMail. He tried once again and it worked!! Hallelujah!! We had seats for the concert.
On the drive home, this car past use. It was like the Griswald's home in Christmas Vacation.
Sunday, December 21st, was our Christmas Sacrament Meeting. Claude creates this program each year as he is the Ward Music Chairman. He calls himself the Ward Music Czar. Silly Man!!
We got to church early so Claude could post all those hymn on the two boards at the front of the chapel. I gave the missionaries their gift cards for Kroger. I placed them in a beautiful Christmas card that Claude colored. They had such huge smiles on their faces.
I was able to play the organ accompaniment for the first musical number at the beginning of the program. Camille had a sore throat so we were both happy I was playing the organ as we could lower the pitch three steps to help her. I was asked the give the opening prayer and Claude gave the closing prayer. After the meeting, I helped give out the crocheted snowflakes to the sisters in the ward for their Christmas gift from the Relief Society. It was a really uplifting meeting for me. I noted that at the end of the program. Claude was weeping. He was definitely moved.
No comments:
Post a Comment