Christmas in Shreveport (1 of 2)

December 23 - 25th

What a fitting way for Coach Beamer to end his coaching career by coaching his last bowl game where he coached his first. It was neat to see how it had all come full circle. 23 years ago, Jed also made his first trip to a VT bowl game at Shreveport and it was great to walk down memory lane with him.

We arrived in Shreveport, the afternoon of December 23rd. The first day of most bowl weeks just a bunch of unpacking and getting the lay of the land. This year was no different.

The first night a few of us walked around and found a great little restaurant for dinner, the Blind Tiger.
On Christmas Eve, many of the wives enjoyed an outing to the Krewe of Gemini float warehouse, a cooking demo and a great local lunch.

We had the opportunity to even meet the Queen of the Gemini Krewe and try on some of the traditional costumes.

Since most things were closed on Christmas Eve, we spent time with some awesome friends that made the trip to Shreveport at the casino in the hotel.

Christmas in a hotel is starting to feel normal these days. So this year, we started the morning with a church service with the team and all the support staff. Knowing this was the end of an era, it was a very, very memorable and emotional services. This has been our family away from our family for the last 16 years. It was a sobering feeling knowing this was our last Christmas all together.

After the services, we headed over to where we had Video Christmas set up. We spent the rest of the morning laughing, White Elephant gifting and hanging out. It was a great time for all of us. It is a favorite Christmas tradition of mine.

We spent the rest of Christmas with Nicki and Mathis. We found a few casino's to walk through before we happened upon a great little dive near our hotel called Fully Staked. These guys were great! They definitely made the most out of having to work on Christmas.

Next Up: GAME DAY!!