The reason for our trip.....

 9:21 pm - Saturday - December 20th - Rancho Cucamonga, CA - 55° F, humidity 83%, wind 2 mph out of the northeast....dark now and the low of the night will be 50° F 6 am on December 21st.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in downtown Nashville visiting the American Picker's store.....

....housed in the old Marathon Automobile factory.....one of my bucket list items.

By the way, I'm writing tomorrow morning's (Sunday) post Saturday night as we will be on the road early Sunday morning to return to TWW.  I'm still waiting for some pictures from my daughter-in-law, Rochelle, so it may not get posted until mid morning tomorrow while we are on the road.  Ultimately I didn't get all the pictures until late Sunday afternoon, so I'm now posting around 7:36 pm on Sunday.

The gathering for our annual Christmas get together at Chris' home was slated for 2 pm so we had the entire morning, and part of the afternoon to ourselves.  While I composed my daily blog post TLE walked over to 'The Nook' to buy us a couple of Americanos to start the day properly.  We spent the morning reading, and watching one of the NCAA College Football playoff games between Texas A&M and the University of Miami.  The game was ultimately won by Miami, thereby eliminating Texas A&M from the playoffs.

We got ready to drive up to Chris' home (about 3 miles from the hotel) around 1:50 pm, and arrived there a little after 2 pm.  Over the course of the afternoon we learned that my first grandson, Christopher, and his significant other, Zoey, are expecting their first child in early July, which would be our 3rd great grandchild....wait, what?  We were not expecting that news at all.  Over the course of the afternoon family members continued arriving until we had over 40 of our family, and extended family in attendance.  It is crazy to think that except for TLE and I finding each other over 50 years ago, and giving birth to Chris, and Ed and Linda (Rochelle's parents) finding each other and giving birth to Rochelle none of those 40+ people would be in that picture....NONE.  They might be in some other alternate universe picture, but not that one.   As is almost always the case when we get together verbal chaos ensues, and with over 40 people there are probably 6-10 conversations in progress at all times, maybe more.  With all that said, I'll let these pictures tell the rest of the story.....

Chris, Cynthia, Rochelle and Christopher (the soon to be new father)

Levi (Kate's son) and Caleb (Sharon's son, and our 10th grandchild)

Nick and Kate

TLE and Charlise (Kate's oldest daughter)

TLE, Charlise, and Kate

.....TLE and I lasted until almost 6 pm before saying our until next times, and heading back to the hotel for the night.

Thanks for stopping by!