Hey Ya’ll! Welcome to Newlyweds:North Kick Off Week! As all Southern girls know, this week is the start of the best season of all: College Football Season! In the South, we do football a bit differently than our friends to the North and out West. It may sound shocking to some of you, but our Game Day attire of choice consists of sundresses, statement necklaces and cowboy boots. We set tablescapes for tailgates and won’t drink out of anything but our monogrammed koozies and Turvis Tumblers. I adore college football!

I should make it clear at the start of the week that I cheer for the Clemson Tigers, but I did not attend Clemson University. I was lucky enough to spend 4 glorious years at Elon University in North Carolina. While my Elon Phoenix were proud to send our first football player into the NFL last season, we don’t quite have the tailgate experience to trump my husband’s Tigers. So, every year Justin and I get together with a wild, exuberant, competitive, dedicated group of friends to spend our Fall playing cornhole, drinking cocktails, wearing orange and cheering on the Clemson Tigers at each and every home game of the season. Sadly, this year, for the first time since his sophomore year of college, Justin will have to miss a home game or two. We plan to make the journey from Maine to South Carolina for 3 of this years home games so each game that we make it to will be extra special for us.

In case college football isn’t your thing, I’ll let you in on a secret: this first game is pretty big deal for the Clemson Tigers. We play the University of Georgia Bulldaaaawgs and this little match up has been selected as the site of ESPN’s Game Day for Kick Off Weekend. Despite the fact that kick off is not until 8pm, my husband, my parents and I will all arrive (half asleep, I’m sure) on campus by 9am. Justin wants to see the Game Day set and soak in as many possible seconds in his Happy Place that he can. Thats right, Mathletes, we will be at Clemson for a whopping 13 hours of tailgate festivities and football superstar plays.

This week I’ll be blogging about cocktail recipes, my signature tailgate crock pot creation, the perfect game day outfits and tailgate must haves. I’d love to have ya’ll join me on Wednesday as I host a Kick Off Week link up party! And, if things get going and we get to swapping recipes, cocktails and tailgate secrets, we might just keep the party going throughout football season! Pro-football lovers are invited too!

Cheers to game day!

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