Busy, busy!

Seriously, every time I sit down to blog I realize it has been a month since the last time I posted. Can time just slow down a little??

Christmas Village comes to Birmingham each year at the beginning of November. I used to go with my momma when I was a little girl. I had not been in about 15 years, though. Britt was kind enough to take me this year! We walked the whole 2 levels of the "village" and came out with a whopping 3 items! I have been eyeing a sideways cross bracelet and I got one!

Britt found the author of God and Football, a book he read and enjoyed. He has a new book called Love Thy Rival. The author is an Auburn grad so that makes the book even better. Britt bought himself a copy and we purchased another for a Christmas gift.

I also got a really cute Santa pin that I can wear to school during the holidays.  It is hand made and painted and it only cost a dollar!

Last week Britt and I went to see Gregg Allman at the Alabama Theater. We had just seen the Allman Brothers back in August, but if you know us you know we love concerts! We can never get enough of good music. The tickets were cheap. The venue was beautiful. And we got to pick our seats {about 10 rows back}. Britt had class until 7, so we grabbed a burger from Five Guys and headed downtown. The concert was great--I am just so impressed that Gregg can still rock out on stage at such an "old" age.

Last weekend Debbie, Al, and Kelsey came to Birmingham to visit. The last time they came to visit was about a month after we got married. We see them in Atlanta quite a bit, but we thought it would be nice to have them over for the weekend. They drove over on Friday afternoon. {Debbie was getting over a bug and poor Kels was still not feeling well.} We have been wanting to try out Five so we thought it would be the perfect place to take them for dinner. We got there and they told us it would be about a 45 minute wait--no problem...we ordered a drink from the bar...then another...and we realized it had been over 45 minutes so we checked with the hostess...long story short, no tables were moving so the hostess had no idea how long it would be before we could sit down to eat. We ended up at Slice, which we love. It wasn't the "fun" atmosphere we had hoped to take them to, but the pizza was great.

Saturday morning we had pastries from MIX before we went out and about on the town.

The boys went to Home Depot to figure out how to fix our grill and how to get us more light out back. We girls just went shopping in Homewood. I bought a really pretty/fun nativity scene from Harmony Landing and a "retro"Christmas ornament from Seibels.

I also got two REALLY cute tops for our trip to NYC over Christmas break. I am pretty obsessed with them!

We took Debbie and Al to lunch at Garage Cafe. We love their sandwiches and the old bar feeling.

After lunch Debbie and I went back to Homewood to finish shopping! We came back home just in time to watch the end of the Texas A&M {vs. Alabama} game...boy, was that a game!! I got a chance to make two new recipes, too! I made a yummy dip and a blue cheese potato salad recipe from the Southern Living SEC Tailgaiting cookbook. We watched about 2 minutes of the Auburn v. Georgia game. We are BAD this year, and it's just not even worth watching anymore!

Sunday morning we had Big Blue Bagel for breakfast {one of our go-to breakfast spots}, then the other Smiths hit the road back to Atlanta. We had so much fun visiting with them!

I was thankful to have a day off on Monday for Veterans Day. Britt and I got to eat lunch together--that's a rarity.  We tried out Lime and it did not disappoint. After lunch we ran a few errands. I got some cute new Christmas pajama bottoms from Old Navy!

I also got all of our Christmas stuff out of Dad's basement!!! Last year Britt was adamant that we would NOT decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. This year he just surrendered without a fight. I will share the pretty decorations after we get our tree put up {I will wait until after Thanksgiving for that since we get a real tree}.

Work was crazy busy since we only had a four day week. We had our Kindergarten Thanksgiving play and Grandpals Day all in a four days time. We had to make sure we were prepared for our play and that all of the Grandpal gifts were made. I tell you, it was a hectic but fun week! The kids performed the play perfectly on Thursday, and they loved showing their Grandpals around the school on Friday. Britt and my momma were sweet enough to come and be a Grandpal for 3 of my students who did not have relatives who were able to attend. The kids get to enjoy a nice, long week of vacation next week for Thanksgiving. I have professional development two days before I get a break:( Three days off is better than none, though! And next time you check back I will be able to tell you all about my half marathon!! 

-Jessica