SEC Championship

My mom and I at Game Day
Peter and my mom bowing down to the "Bear"...greatest coach of ALL TIME

Yes, that is the Heisman Trophy...we touched it!!!

The SEC Championship match-up couldn't have been any better...Alabama vs. Florida. Talk about a house being divided. I am a devout Alabama fan and Matt, being from Florida, is a Gator fan. We knew this make for an interesting weekend. The talk in Florida was that the Crimson Tide shouldn't even show up for the game. We were a double-digit underdog, which ended up being true, but come on people, give the #1 ranked team a chance...after all, we beat Ole Miss and Florida didn't.
Matt and I flew up to Alabama on Friday night where my mom picked us up from the airport. We got to her house, talked, and called it an early night because we had to wake up so early the next morning. On Saturday morning, we woke up at 5am so we could leave the house by 6am. Another early Saturday morning for me. We got on the road, drove until Auburn, and then stopped at a McDonalds in Auburn...yes, we were all dressed (except Matt who sported orange and blue) in our BAMA gear. HaHa!!! We arrived in Atlanta around 10am and tried to figure out where to park. We found a parking lot by the stadium, paid $30 to park (they guaranteed police surveliance which we needed in Atlanta). After we all got our warm clothes on, we went into Fanfare. This had all kinds of games to play and interviews of famous football players from the SEC past and all kinds of other stuff. We walked around and then went outside to see GameDay with my favorite, Kirk Herbstreet. It was fun to see all the signs people made, some funny, and some were downright nasty.

We really wanted to see the pics for the day. Lee Corso put on the Elephant head and of course we all went nuts. It didn't help us in the end though. After GameDay, we went back into FanFare so we could watch the Alabama pep rally and see some interviews. We met Jay Barker (awesome Alabama quarterback from the past) and his wife Sara Evans (country singer), saw Tyrone Prothro (the catch), Chris Leak (Florida quarterback from the past), and other Alabama legends. It was then time to head into the stadium.
The Georgia Dome is absolutely beautiful! We found our seats and waited for kick off. While waiting, we noticed some commotion going on behind us towards where Matt and Pete were sitting. Come to find out, a man had died waiting for kick off. He had a heart attack and they couldn't get his heart to start back. Talk about putting a damper on the game. I am very proud of the way Alabama played. Our defense held Tim Tebow from getting a rushing touchdown which is very rare and we gave them a run for their money. In the 4th quarter, the boys just gave up. I hated how it ended, but had a blast. I am such a bad sport and it showed when we were walking back to the car. We will just say that I yelled at a guy and got him to shut up!! We all met back up at the car and headed home. Peter obviously had some anger in him because we were almost hit by a taxi and he rolled down his window and yelled at the guy. I think the bac driver was a little scared. On our way home, Peter got some bad news. Pastor John Powers, a very close friend of our pastor, died that afternoon. The mood in the car was very quiet! On Sunday, Matt and I woke up to go see my dad and sign some will and testament papers. No, dad is not dying, just wants to have things in order. After that, we went back to my mom's house, packed and had to get on the road to go to the airport. I was nervous that we were going to miss our flight because we got a late start, but because my mom sped up to make sure we got there, we were right on time! Thanks mom!
Another great weekend in Alabama. Thanks mom again for the plane tickets and the football tickets!! Best Christmas gift ever!!!