Ava's sweet elf, Ferrell, showed up one morning with a letter for her. Santa had written her a very nice note inviting her to come spend the weekend before Christmas with him and his elves. The note said that he had emailed back and forth with Kevin and myself and that we had agreed to take her on this special trip to Chattanooga. Ava absolutely loves any opportunity to pull out her suitcase and hit the road, so she was very excited. We all packed Thursday night and started off early Friday morning. We arrived at our hotel, the historic Chattanooga Choo Choo, midday and went to check-in in the gorgeous lobby area. Everything looked so beautiful all decorated for Christmas. We were instructed on the many amenities available at the hotel and directed to our room. Santa had made some really fun plans for us for the weekend and had even reserved a Victorian train car room for us! Ava was so excited about the opportunity to sleep in a real train car.
This was our car.
There are 48 train car rooms at the hotel. In my opinion, that is the only way to stay if you are going to stay at this hotel. The line of cars
The inside of our car. It was actually roomier than I expected.
We unloaded our bags, relaxed in the room for about an hour, and then set out for dinner. I used my phone to look up restaurants in the area and directed Kevin to a street where a lot of restaurants were listed. I assumed it was like a Germantown Pkwy or Poplar Ave by the amount of restaurants it showed along the street. Well, when we got there it turned out to be a huge mall area with a bunch of restaurants around it. Being the weekend before Christmas, the area was crazy busy and it took us forever to navigate the parking lot. We were about to run out of gas so we pulled into the closest restaurant which turned out to be an Olive Garden. We enjoyed our dinner then bundled up and headed into Georgia to go to Rock City atop of Lookout Mountain. Santa left us tickets to go to the Rock City Enchanted Garden of Lights. It is like a way, way more impressive Starry Nights that you walk through--in places you are even walking through tunnels cut into the mountain! It was absolutely beautiful anyway but was made more so because of the views overlooking the city.
The rocks and foliage were gorgeous
Ava and the nativity scene
There were great photo opps everywhere which is just right up mine and Ava's alley! Perfect for a paparazzi mommy, a little girl who loves to pose, and a sweet husband/father who lovingly tolerates it all!
These Nutcrackers led the way for us along the trail.
Beautiful lights overlooking the city
This huge star was on the side of the mountain and could be seen from miles away as we drove up. We were able to walk up so close to it!
This rock resembles a snowman so it was decorated as Frosty.
The Fairyland Caverns were located inside the mountain. It reminded me of the It's a Small World ride at Disney World with its cute, detailed, old-fashioned scenery. It was all lit with black lights so I couldn't get any decent pictures.
Along with all the lights, there was live music, shopping, cookie decorating, and Santa! Ava sat in Santa's lap and chatted with him for minute and then we walked over to the cutest Starbucks I have ever seen! It was this little stone building that was all decorated and I could not get over how neat it was compared to the cookie cutter Starbucks I'm used to. I took a picture but it does not do it justice.
It was getting late and we knew we would have a big day the next day so we got some hot chocolate and headed back down the mountain. We had only been back in our room long enough to get our pajamas on when we heard a knock at the door. Ava went to open it and found two of Santa's elves standing right outside. The look on her face was priceless! They introduced themselves as Bliss and Polkadot and asked if they could come in and read her a story. She invited them in and the three of them went and got comfy on the bed. Bliss read The Night Before Christmas while Polkadot acted it out with much dramatic flair. It was really cute. When Bliss finished reading, they all chatted for awhile about how excited they were for Christmas and then the elves asked Ava if they could tuck her in for the night. Those two were quite the comedy team and had us laughing at their silly antics. (Ferrell snuck into the background of this picture!)
They made a parachute out of the bed linens and did the craziest tucking in ritual we'd ever seen!
Once Ava was nice and comfy, they told her that Mrs. Claus had sent her a treat for being on the nice list. She had to close her eyes and hold out her hands to get it.
Gee, thanks, Mrs. Claus for giving our child Pez right before bedtime! ;)
Bliss and Polkadot told Ava that she was under strict orders from Mrs. Claus to not eat any Santa Pez unless she had our permission first. So, we took the Santa Pez and put him away for the next day.
Ava had a great time hanging out with the sweet elves but it was time to get to sleep so we could be rested for the busy day ahead!
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