Rivals

Watching the 3rd Quarter of the Iron bowl (right now Bama is down 27 to 36).  Happy to see Ole Miss defeat Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl earlier today and glad the Egg will be in Oxford for the year.  T, The Dew and his sister Cassi were all at the game.  Cassi was also there for the win over Alabama so I think she's the good luck charm. (OMG, as I'm typing Alabama just scored.  It's now Auburn 36, Bama 34).

T had a lovely week with Pony Boy's family for Thanksgiving.  On Saturday she competed in the Miss Amory pageant (and won!) and Sunday they headed to Johnny Frat Boy's house for the week.  I haven't had a chance to really talk to her but I think they met up with some of his high school friends, she met almost all of his family, had lunch with his mom, and went shining and shot off some guns.  T said she's dating Elmer Fudd.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving which also involved a little bit of snow from Wednesday.  My cousin Alison and her husband Zach came over as well as two friends from work.  I always have a hard time with timing the meal but this year everything turned out just right.

I had to go into the office for a bit on Friday and took KJ with me.  We also helped with the holiday decorations and I took her for sushi for lunch.  On our way home we stopped and did a little black Friday shopping.  We made it home in time for KJ to go to the high school football game.  Damascus is undefeated and is going to the Maryland state football championship this week (Thursday).  Not sure if KJ can make it to the game as volleyball practice starts Tuesday.

Super duper proud of her . . . she made the 15/16 travel volleyball team.  Over 70 girls tried out and since the team is also comprised of sophomores and juniors (depending on their birth date) and they only took 12 girls, we were really unsure how it was all going to play out.  She has also said repeatedly that she is going to play lacrosse.  Which just makes my heart happy.

OMG.  Alabama just scored again.  The score is now Bama 42, Auburn 36).

This morning KJ and I met our bestest friends for breakfast and had such a nice time.  I think we sat in Panera for over 3 hours.  AG was invited to cheer in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day parade so we met them just outside of Harrisburg while they were on their way back to Cincinnati.  And we did a little shopping on our way home, too.

Cosmo got some stuff done today while we were gone.  I think he was happy to have some peace and quiet in the house for a change!  He got the outdoor Christmas decorations out of the garage and also re-covered our kitchen chairs and bar stools.  It was time to change the black and white check and I found a gray and white link pattern I love, love, love!  Tomorrow I'll finish putting Thanksgiving away and start on Christmas.

Egg Bowl

As long as we've lived here I've always wanted to go to the Iron Bowl.  The year we have Egg Bowl plans, a friend calls and offers us two tickets to the Iron Bowl!  We thought about it hard for about 5 minutes and decided the Iron Bowl was going to be a blow-out and we should head out to Oxford as planned.  Glad we did!  Heard the traffic on 459 was awful and our suspicions were correct:  Alabama spanked Auburn and Chizik got fired (please refer to my September 2012 post for my prediction regarding Chizik's dismissal:  http://cos4.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-little-foosball.html). 

As a "Yankee" born and bred, nothing and I mean NOTHING prepares you for Saturday in the South.   I've been to countless Jets games, Giants games, Bengals games, Falcons games, Saints games, you name it.  NOTHING compares to a Saturday night game in the South.  It doesn't matter if it's the grand-daddy of all SEC football -- Alabama -- or if it's UAB, Troy University, Samford, UNA, whatever.  Saturday in the South IS football.  I kid you not, I get chills up and down my arms when the band comes out.  And when the national anthem plays in the stadium, the little hairs on my neck prickle.  Being in the stadium on Saturday is truly electryfing. 

This was our family's first official Egg Bowl's experience -- we had a lovely drive to Oxford on Saturday morning, visited with T a little, pre-gamed a little bit, busted out the corn-hole game and made a round of the Grove.  Cosmo made his famous raspberry Corona-ritas (a recipe I found on Pinterest and he now loves to make for the games). 

The weather was absolutely GORGEOUS and once the sun went down, we were all snuggly in our Ole Miss sweatshirts and hats.  KJ really gets into the games and looked super cute in her Ole Miss jersey.  She loves to do the "Are You Ready" (provided by James Franco this week!) and she also made Cosmo and I "lock the Vaught" with her.  http://vimeo.com/53180740 She also likes to do the "Landshark" hand motion.  A bunch of students made a video/rap called "Feed Moncrief" and they played it several times during the games.  Somehow KJ already knew all the words.  She said it had been going around You-Tube.  http://hottytoddy.com/feed-moncrief/

The game was very exciting and I'm glad Bo finally cut his hair.  Right out of the gate, less than 2 minutes into the game, his first long pass was a beautiful 42-yard missile to Moncrief.  They stuck with what works and used the play over and over and over.  Bo threw for 294 yards and five touchdowns -- including three to Moncrief.  After going into the tunnel tied up at the half, the Rebels had a huge second half to beat Mississippi State 41-24 for the first Egg Bowl win under Coach Hugh Freeze, the first Egg Bowl win since 2008 and became bowl eligibile for the first time since 2009. The energy on campus is so exciting this year.  The kids LOVE Coach Freeze and have whole-heartedly supported the team from the very first game.  The student section totally ROCKS each and every game. 

Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen's personality has added some spice to the Egg Bowl in recent years with the Bulldogs dominating the series and not being afraid to gloat about it (one of the highlights of the game was a short video clip shown during the final minutes of the game -- Coach Mullen's locker room speech where he promises "we will NEVER lose to this team" while holding the coveted Egg Bowl Trophy).  The heightened emotions on Saturday were evident even at the coin toss, when the captains from both teams had to be separated by officials. And the action started early with Ole Miss needing less than two minutes to score a touchdown.  The Rebels scored two plays later on a 25-yard pass to Mosley. A packed Vaught-Hemingway Stadium went wild, but the celebration was short lived. Mississippi State returned the ensuing kickoff 100 yards to tie the game at 7-7. It was the first of many early mistakes for the Rebels. Bo was Bo and had flashes of brillance combined with catastrophic plays.  Although he threw two touchdowns in the first half, he also threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. Mississippi State pushed ahead 14-7 late in the first quarter on a 42-yard touchdown pass.  Ole Miss responded with a 43-yard field goal by Bryson Rose and then pushed ahead 17-14 when Wallace found Moncrief on a 77-yard touchdown pass. But the Rebels exploded in the second half for 24 straight points while Mississippi State's offense managed just 115 yards after halftime. Wallace had no turnovers in the second half. 

After the game all the Rebel fans rushed onto the field (jumping over the wall is more like it).  Security finally wised up and just opened up the gates for everyone to calmly walk on.  So of course KJ had to lay down on the 50 yard line. 

Happy Thanksgiving !!!

It's been nice having all my chicks back in the nest and it was so great having a couple of days off! Cosmo & T made it home from Naples safely w/ stops in Gainesville & Tallahassee for some college visits. FSU has always been her dream school and she takes every opportunity she can to visit whenever she's on her way to / from a lax tournament. She's applied and I'm sure she'll have no problem getting accepted, however that out-of-state tuition will just about kill us.

Thanksgiving was kind of weird with just the three of us but I know KJ had a great time in FL w/ my parents! Thursday / Thanksgiving was a very laid back kind of day. We all slept in and T gave the dog a bath and Cosmo did some yard work. I started cooking the turkey but we kind of over-did it on the appetizers and then none of us were really in the mood for turkey. We ended up eating (kind of) late but it was all good.

Cosmo spent most of Friday at the store and Friday AM T took a dance class with a friend. So glad she's been going back to the studio! I know she's really missed it! She had to be at the high school Friday afternoon for the game while Cosmo picked KJ up from the airport. Big girl flew home all by herself from Tampa! Had a good time at the game (T's last ever home game at Hoover Stadium) and so glad the Bucs are going to the championship game this week in Ttown! T is looking forward to dancing on the field at Bryant Denney! Whoop! Whoop!

KJ had a good time with my parents during Thanksgiving break and came home nice and tan. Her hair even has some blond highlights! They went to the beach or the pool every day. One day the drove down to Captiva and had lunch at Bubbles (our favorite!). One night they played mini-golf and one night it rained so the went for ice cream. One of the days my parents surprised her with parasailing. She had a GREAT time and lucked out because their was a 16 year old girl on their boat who didn't have a friend to go up with so they asked KJ if she would "mind" going up again. Uh, yes please!

T went to the Iron Bowl in Auburn with friends this past weekend and spent the night with a freshman friend in the Village. She had a good time and said the campus is really pretty but it's so sad about the trees. She said they are pretty dead looking.

Saturday I took down Thanksgiving and started putting up Christmas. I also took this opportunity to re-organize and re-pack some things. We watched the Iron Bowl outside on the deck and enjoyed the gorgeous weather! That night we rented the movie "Super 8." It was good and a little scarier than I had anticipated.

Sunday Cosmo put up the hallway "travel" tree and the big tree in the family room while KJ & I were out doing some shopping. Lights are on both trees, no ornaments yet. Mantle is done (went with a red only theme this year and the jury is still out . . . Cosmo likes it; T does not. She thinks it needs a pop of color), the foyer is complete, I just need to set my dining room table now. And the kitchen needs a little more work. I usually put things out and then for a day or two I walk around the house and kind of re-arrange or "tweak."

A friend stopped by in the afternoon and we had a nice little visit on a cruddy, rainy day. She mentioned that Trixie looks like a Gremlin but KJ had no idea what she was talking about so tonight, after dinner, we are watching Gremlin's as a family. It's a little gorier than I remembered. I just about lost it when the mom puts the bad Gremlin in the microwave and cooks him up.