A Clemson Homecoming Weekend
It’s no secret at this point that Clemson is my happy place and my blood runneth orange. I am so happy to say we spent the weekend there for homecoming, enjoying time with friends and a nail biter of a football game.
I truly love this time of year, when there are clear, blue skies, the leaves are changing, and autumn gives us that crisp, perfect football weather. Clemson played at noon on Saturday, which meant we had a very early start for tailgating, but we were up for the challenge. The guys got our tents and tables set up at 6:00 a.m. Saturday (yes, you read that right), and the rest of us straggled in a little after 8:00 with all kinds of breakfast and brunch deliciousness to get the day off to a great start. We had ourselves a Bloody Mary bar, a grits bar, savory breakfast casserole, biscuits and gravy, sausage balls, a cinnamon roll cake, and a few other nibbles to wake us up for game day (I have to add that my friend Michelle went to great lengths to ask about all my dietary restrictions to be sure there was food for me as well…and that is a good friend). It was definitely a spread worthy of an early wake-up call.
You have to have flowers for homecoming. This was our table arrangement.
This is not my prettiest Bloody Mary bar set up ever, but it did its job and opened a few tired eyes.
We like to offer a few different kinds of mixers, hot sauces, bacon, pepperoni straws. and an assortment of pickled everything to garnish.
Because I am powerless to resist any seasonal gimmick, I made a pumpkin cinnamon roll cake. I even tried the Tik Tok hack where you pour heavy cream over the rolls when you bake them and it did make them better. It was a big hit with the tailgate crowd!
Our group creates a personalized koozie each season and this is the design for this year. Never lost a tailgate!
Our good friend Jonas is a Syracuse alumn. He and his son Max joined us for what turned out to be a great game.
Yes, I own a bedazzled denim jacket with a tiger on the back that says “fierce.” Doesn’t everyone?
Smile and say, GO Tigers!
And here we are in the stadium, just before kickoff. Both teams were undefeated so I knew one of us was going to leave disappointed.
No more pictures past this point because my nerves got so frayed!
The game came down to the final seconds (and I really thought Syracuse might win the game on our homecoming and break my heart), but luckily, Clemson got the win, 27-21. I think it may have ruined the fun of the day for our visiting friends, but we took them back to the tailgate and fired up the grill for some hot dogs and bratwursts, turned up the beach music, put out more appetizers, and consoled them as best we could with round two of a tailgate parking lot party.
One of my favorite things about Clemson is the hospitality we show our visitors and I think they felt that on Saturday. The atmosphere was absolutely electric all day, the weather was picture perfect, and homecoming was full of the traditions and nostalgia that tug at this Tiger’s heartstrings every single time. No matter what the occasion or how the score turns out, it’s always nice to be back “home.”
