Olympic Day

Last month, Ava participated in Olympic Day at her gym.  Basically, the students that participated had a few weeks to learn beam, bar, floor, and vault routines.  They performed their routines in front of a "judge" who "critiqued" them and gave feedback on a comment card.  Ava had a cheering section that included my mom and dad and Kevin's mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, and nieces.  My grandparents had planned on coming but unfortunately their dog died that morning. :(  Kevin acted as paparazzi for the day.  

The girls got warmed up and ready to perform.

Starting her floor routine 

On to bars

Waiting for her turn on beam

Ava had an amazing beam performance!

After all the rotations were complete, the girls received shirts and medals.  

Ava's comment card is hanging on our refrigerator.

She had so much fun and is absolutely loving gymnastics!  She has made a lot of progress and right after Olympic Day she moved up to Level 1.  Kevin and I enjoy going to watch her practice each week and are so proud of the level of focus and dedication she shows while she is there.  

Christmas Day

Kevin and I thought that this may be the year that Ava actually woke up first Christmas morning and came bounding into our bedroom at the crack of dawn.  Well, it turns out the Hays-Daniel sleep gene is indeed strong in our child as well as her parents.  My parents and grandparents always come over very early Christmas morning so they won't miss Ava seeing her "Santa" presents.  When they got to our house at 7:30 that morning, it was our dogs barking that woke Ava up.  It was time to get Christmas started!  I love how the tree looks first thing in the morning.

Santa came and brought those three things that Ava had been telling him she wanted for the past month:  a shopping cart with a seat for her baby, a cash register, and the beam and bar set for her McKenna doll.

He also left two big bags of goodies for her!

Ava went to check and see if Santa had enjoyed the cookies we made for him.  Sure enough, he had--and this year she was able to read the thank you note he left her all by herself.   

When Ava began to open her presents from Kevin and me, she was excited to find one dealing with her latest obsession--Full House!  It's pretty neat that her favorite TV show was also one of my favorites growing up.  I enjoy sitting down with her to watch an episode and realizing I remember it from 20+ years ago.  Also, I enjoy Uncle Jesse a lot more now.  ;)

The dogs got lots of fun goodies.

Janka really liked the new toy that Ava picked out for her.  We really wanted to make her first Christmas special.

Then it was time for Ava to hand out the presents that she picked out for everyone.  I took her to the Dollar Store and we spent almost 2 hours there while she worked very hard to find the perfect present for the people on her Christmas list.  She took her shopping very seriously and it was fun watching the thought she put into the process.  She got her Neena a ceramic toy store.

 She picked out a football night light for her Papa.  It is now proudly displayed by his sink in their bathroom. ;)

 Kevin got a little back massager because the three of us love to take turns rubbing each others shoulders.

 Ava got her Nonie a scented candle.

 And I saved the best for last...Ava thought the perfect present for her PooPoops would be this Super Swatter fly swatter.  I love what it says, "FLIES DON'T STAND A CHANCE! 25% BIGGER! HIGHER HIT RATE!  NOW WITH MAXIMUM SNAP!"  We were all cracking up (discretely, of course).  Classic!  PooPoops LOVED his gift and told Ava he would get lots of use out of it.

We all enjoyed breakfast

except for Ava who was too excited about setting up her new bedroom set for her McKenna doll from my parents to be distracted by food.

We went to Kevin's parents for Christmas lunch like we do each year.  The tree over there looked beautiful too.

We had a relaxing afternoon eating, opening gifts, and visiting with each other.  Ava was excited to hear about what Santa brought to her cousins.

I feel this is actually a more accurate portrayal of their personalities.

Kevin got in some good bonding time with his brother.

Before long, it was time to go pick up my grandparents and then our good friend, Meme, to go to Christmas dinner at my aunt and uncle's house.  Yes, we eat three big meals every year on Christmas day.  It's all about pacing yourself.  And wearing loose-fitting pants.  After dinner, it was time for one of my favorite Christmas traditions--Dirty Santa.  Here are some pictures of the fun:

Meme actually got a really nice tumbler and tea gift set from Starbucks.  She was pretty stoked that nobody stole it.

 Nonie wasn't so fortunate.  I don't even know what all this mess was--something about Power Rangers which I know she knows nothing about.  She put on a happy face though and then hoped someone else had a need for tiny teens wearing outfits resembling the Skittles rainbow.  

Poor Brittany gets screwed over every year during this game.  Kevin did however read that of all the As Seen on TV products, the Lint Lizard performed the best during experimental testing.  So, you know, that's some consolation.

Kevin was pretty excited about these glasses until someone stole them from him (ahem...Uncle Bill) so he did what any good husband what do and he stole something that he knew I would like so that I could have two cool gifts.  Sigh....true love.

We opened our real gifts and had fun hanging out together.  I love this picture of Ava and her Aunt Meme.

I hate that I didn't get more pictures of the kids this year but it turned out all the ones I took were blurry because they wouldn't stop moving from all the Christmas excitement.  Next was one of my other favorite traditions--filling up tins with all the treats that we each brought.  So much yummy stuff to choose from each year and this year was no exception.

All of this is a lot of fun, but each year we make sure to end the evening in the most important and meaningful way.  We gather the kids and sing happy birthday to Jesus.  After all, He is the reason for the season!  This year, the kiddos each had their own huge cupcake with a candle to blow out.

 It was a wonderful day and I thank God each year that we are able to spend it together!

Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve was a nice, relaxing day.  For the past two years, I was still working for the bank and had to work until 2 the day before Christmas so it was really nice to just spend a leisurely day at home.  We spent the afternoon getting all of our Christmas "chores" completed.  Ava went outside and sprinkled her reindeer food all over the yard.

Then my little baker helped me make chocolate chip cookies to put out for Santa.  She looks so cute in her little apron!

We always spend Christmas Eve with my parents and the rest of my dad's side of the family.  Our Christmas Eve traditions include dinner, lots of carol singing, and the reading of the Christmas story from the Bible by one of the granddaughters.  

Ava loves spending time with her "big girl cousins".  She thinks she is as old as they are!

Five granddaughters and one great granddaughter--aren't my cousins gorgeous?!

Ava got lots of fun goodies!

After dinner, we set out on one of our favorite Christmas traditions--looking at lights.  One of the best houses is right in our neighborhood so we usually end up driving by it several times throughout the holiday season.

When we got home, it was time to put out the milk, cookies, and carrots and enjoy our last Christmas Eve tradition.  Ava gets to open one present each year which is her Christmas pajamas.  This year was a little different because we handed her two boxes.  She looked a little confused until I told her to read the gift tags.  One present said "To Ava" and the other one said "To McKenna".  That's right--Ava's American Girl doll McKenna got a Christmas Eve present too!  

They got matching pajamas!

We checked the NORAD tracker one last time before bed and when Ava saw that Santa was in Washington, DC, she almost left skid marks on the floor racing to her bed.  She was worried she wouldn't get to sleep before Santa got here.  After a fun, busy day it didn't take long before she was sound asleep and Santa was able to make his appearance.

Chattanooga Day 2

We all slept well from such a thoughtful tuck-in from Bliss and Polkadot and woke up ready to start the day.  We did some more exploring around the hotel which had a bunch of cute of little shops and things to see, including train memorabilia.  Ava liked exploring the train cars that sat around the hotel.  This is the entrance to the Silver Diner, a dining car.

We had breakfast at The Gardens, one of the restaurants at our hotel, and then went out into the lobby to see Santa.  I was not allowed to take pictures of Santa with my own camera but I did get a picture of his little helper, Prince.  He was all decked out in his Christmas finest.  Ava got to hold Prince in her picture with Santa so, of course, we had to buy a copy.

Santa also invited Ava to the Elf Workshop at the hotel where she could make a bunch of fun Christmas crafts and hang out with the elves.  There were some fun decorations that led us to the workshop.

We got to the workshop and Ava set out to fill up the bag she decorated with fun goodies.

After a couple of hours of hard work, the elves had helped her make Christmas jewelry, ornaments, picture frames, and all kinds of stuff.  She had a bag full!

Santa also thought we should check out one of the best aquariums in the country while we were there so he also left us tickets for the Tennessee Aquarium!  Such a generous and thoughtful Santa! ;)

We visited the River Journey part of the aquarium first.  It's hard to take good pictures in an aquarium but I gave it a shot. (ha ha)

 Piranha!

 Overlooking the Tennessee River

There are several restaurants around the aquarium campus so we took a break to have lunch at 

TGI Friday's.  Another exciting thing happened during our lunch at Fridays--I officially booked our Disney World trip!  Talk about multitasking!

After lunch, we walked back to the aquarium to visit the Ocean Journey.  Love to watch the penguins!

 The aquarium has a really great stingray "petting" exhibit along with a beautiful butterfly exhibit.

 Just chillin' in a shark cage!

 And also chillin' in the center of the crab exhibit!

 They have tons of different kinds of jellyfish.

 I thought this shark looked mean even for a shark.

 And finally just chillin' some more in the middle of one of the aquariums.

We all really enjoyed the aquarium but Ava did say she likes the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago better.  I think they are both definitely worth a visit.  After the aquarium, we headed back to our train car so Ava could change into her pajamas for the Polar Express train ride with Santa!  Here we are at the station waiting for the train to pull in.

We saw the train's headlight coming from a distance and then it pulled into the station with steam everywhere and the whistle blowing!  It was very exciting and everyone cheered.

These nice men took our tickets.

We got on the train to begin our journey to the North Pole to pick up Santa.  One of the elves read The Night Before Christmas while we enjoyed gingerbread cookies and YooHoo.

The kids were also invited to come up to the front of the car and sing Christmas carols with the elves.  Ava loves to sing so she immediately hopped up out of her seat and went and sang her heart out.  

We passed lots of pretty lights and then went through the magical tunnel to the North Pole.  We came out of the tunnel in Elvington, which is the village where the elves live.  We started to slow down and were told to watch for Santa and his reindeer.  Suddenly, there he was standing outside and he hopped onboard!  He and Ava had a nice chat and he gave her a bell from his sleigh!

Before we left, the elves gave Ava special stamps and she got to hold a jar of "Christmas cheer"!  Apparently, Christmas cheer is an eerie, glowing green.

Once we returned to the station, we waved good-bye to Santa and the elves.  When we got back to the hotel, Ava and I (being the dessert lovers that we are) made a trip over to Cafe Espresso for some yummy sweets and the best Cafe Mocha I've ever had.  When I commented on it to the barista, she told me their secret is to use Ghiradelli cocoa powder instead of syrup and real whipped cream.  It was so good, I drank several during the weekend which I try not to do because of the calorie content.  But we were on vacation and it's not like I can get them here in Memphis, so I lived a little. :)  Seriously, if you ever stay at this hotel, you must try the Cafe Mocha!  We took our treats back to the room.  Ava chose a chocolate eclair and I had the Chocolate Eruption.  Delicious!

This was such a fun, memorable trip that I definitely recommend.  I do suggest that if possible you ask Santa to pick the same exact package deal for your family.  It was definitely worth it and so much nicer to have the extra day in Chattanooga, the tickets to the attractions, and stay in the train car!