Chattanooga Day 1

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!

A Day in The Alpine Village

One of the churches in our area hosts the cutest little Christmas event called The Alpine Village.  It is free and open to the public but you have to make reservations for your family several weeks in advance due to its popularity.  I made ours as soon as the church announced they were opening up the reservation times and we headed over to The Village one Sunday after church.  When you walk in, you register your child and they then get a "necklace" with a card that lists all the events available.  The events will be checked off by the volunteer staff as the child rotates through that station.  The child also gets a gift bag to hold all the goodies they are about to receive.  This year, the church was divided into four areas:  the puppet theatre where we got to watch a silly puppet show, a live nativity, the "North Pole" where we went to visit Santa, and the "village" itself.  We visited the puppet show first and then Ava wasted no more time escorting us to the elevator where an elf whisked us up to the North Pole.

As we waited in line to visit with Santa, we took some pictures with the pretty Christmas decorations.  There were beautiful trees everywhere but Ava particularly loved this one because it sported her favorite pattern--zebra print.

Finally, it was time to see Santa.  Ava visited with quite a few Santas this season and she came up with a system to figure out when she was actually talking to the "real" Santa and when it was just one of his helpers.  She would ask each Santa which type of cookie was his absolute favorite.  If the Santa answered "chocolate chip", he was the real deal.  If he said any other flavor of cookie, he was just filling in while Santa was busy at the North Pole.  We are not quite sure how she devised this system, but it sure was cute.  I swear, that girl's wheels are always turning.  By the way, this Santa at the Alpine Village passed the test and was determined to be the REAL Santa. :)  She made sure to tell him the same three things she told each Santa that she wanted for Christmas:  a cash register, a shopping cart with a seat for her baby, and the bar and balance beam set for her American Girl doll, McKenna.  Kevin and I were glad that she never changed her mind.

When Ava tore herself away from the REAL Santa, we rode the elevator back down to go to the village.  The church transforms their gym into a gorgeous old time village setting complete with snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and structures that actually look like little stores.  It is really neat.  There were about ten different stores to visit where the children could make an ornament, decorate a Christmas cookie, mix up a batch of reindeer food, or get a fun treat.  The first building we went to was the chapel.  Inside, Ava was able to choose an ornament to place wherever she would like on a tree.  Once the event ended, the church would place the tree in their actual chapel to decorate for their Christmas service.  Such a fun idea.

I took pictures of a couple of the other buildings.  In the Candy Cane Shop, Ava made a candy cane ornament.

In the Book Shop, Ava was able to choose a new book from their selection.

She had fun decorating a yummy sugar cookie,

making a Christmas card,

getting a Santa tattoo,

and hanging out with the Wise Men.

But Ava's absolute favorite part of the day was playing in the snow. The church had a snow machine hanging from the ceiling that was constantly dropping snow on one section of the gym.  Ava had a blast in it!  I was surprised that she didn't ask us if we could get one to have at home.

The Alpine Village is such a great holiday tradition for our family.  I am thankful to the church for all the money, time, and effort they put into it to make it such a special experience for the children.  

A Three Generation Tradition

A few weeks ago, I noticed that tickets were on sale for the Ballet Memphis production of The Nutcracker.  I remember taking a school field trip to see it when I was a little girl and decided that Ava might enjoy it.  Since I knew Kevin wouldn't be super keen on this idea (in his defense, he would have happily gone along with his girls but he would really rather be home watching football), I thought this would be a fun girls day for me, Ava, and her Neena.  Neena happily agreed so I purchased our tickets.  Before the ballet, I thought it would be fun to spend a couple of hours at The Peabody Hotel enjoying the Christmas decorations and lounging in the lobby listening to the Christmas carols being played on the piano.  As soon as we walked in the hotel, we saw the gingerbread village.

***I knew I wouldn't be able to take my camera into The Orpheum, so I had to take all these pics on my cell phone which I don't particularly like to use but you make do with what you have.

As we were walking into the lobby area, we just happened to run right into Santa!  It was so exciting!  He was off-duty at the time but he graciously stopped and spent several minutes talking to us and posing for pictures.  He even had some extra candy canes in his pocket for us!  It was totally unexpected to see him but a very, very cool surprise.

We took some time to walk around the hotel and enjoy the decorations.  It was absolutely beautiful!

Ava visited the ducks

and made a wish in the wishing fountain.

We all got delicious desserts from The Peabody Deli & Desserts and found a quiet corner to enjoy them.

Once we finished our fancy desserts, it was time to walk over to The Orpheum. 

Ava loved the ornate decor.

We found our seats and got ready for the ballet to begin.

I had no idea what Ava would think of the ballet but she seemed to really enjoy it.  I thought with the length of it and the fact that there is no speaking she may be bored, but it really held her attention. After it was over, we went to the lobby and bought Ava her very own fancy nutcracker to decorate her room for Christmas. 

She was very excited to bring it home and show it to her Daddy.

The three of us had such a fun, special girls day.  It is definitely a tradition that we would all like to continue!