Christmas in Columbia

This year we Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my fathers side of the family.  My father and his wife purchased a home earlier in the year in Columbia and while they are still living in Pennsylvania, they hosted Christmas at their new house.  Christmas Day we had fourteen family members together including my Dad, Karen, Aunt Karen, Uncle George, Aunt Ann, Uncle Floyd, Jen, Jon, Aunt Mandy, Uncle Matt, Uncle Chace, Travis, Ava Marie and of course myself and Britt in tow.

Christmas Eve was spent firing shot guns which all of the boys really enjoyed.  We went to Christmas Eve Church service 15 minutes down the road from my Dad's house in Williamsport at a 200 year old Methodist Church.  The service was wonderful and the church was beautiful.  Afterwards they rang the church bell underneath the dark starry sky.  For dinner we enjoyed lobsters that we prepared by Aunt Karen and Uncle Matt.

We woke up Christmas morning and had a big breakfast and waited for Uncle Chace to arrive.  While Ava knows who Santa is, enjoys singing Christmas songs, and is excited to open presents, she still does not understand Christmas morning.  She did not bother the presents under the tree and instead spent the morning singing, dancing and excited to be around her family.

Once Uncle Chace arrived, we had our Christmas and Ava wanted to play with each gift that she opened.  My favorite moment of the day is when Ava opened her stocking and found bath squirt toys.  She immediately headed to the bathroom and I walked in a minute later to find that she had them all in the tub and she was trying to turn on the water to take a bath.  I convinced her to come back in the living room but then an hour later she opened up a Disney Princess Tea Set.  At her Nana's house she brings her tea set to the bathroom and takes a bath with them so she associates a tea set with playing in the bathtub.  So again she hauls her entire tea set into the bathtub and this time will not leave the bathroom so Aunt Karen drew her a bath so that she could play with her new squirt toys and tea set.

We had a great day opening presents, eating, and spending time with our family.  As I get older I am excited to be able to see the magic of Christmas through my children's eyes and love the time that we get to be with our loved ones.  I cannot ask for anything more in life and I am so blessed for what I have.

Christmas in Kingsport

We headed up to Kingsport on Friday which will be my last road trip until Britt James is born.  The four hour drive was not the most comfortable trip for me but I was happy to arrive at my Mom's house which was beautifully decorated for Christmas.

The night started off with Ava helping Uncle Chace wrap presents.  Ava had so much fun doing this and a roll of tape was used on one present.

The next morning we had Christmas and after a big breakfast, Ava played with Aunt Mandy, Uncle Chace and Uncle Matt, while the kitchen was cleaned.  How sweet is this picture of three adults coloring with a two year old!

We then enjoyed opening gifts and as expected, Ava had to play with each one of her gifts after opening them.

Travis tried out our new Ergobaby Infant Carrier and decided that he could carry Britt around and play basketball at the same time.

Ava loving on Baby Britt

Ava does not understand crazy picture.

After some naps we headed to Gray to see the new home that Aunt Mandy and Uncle Matt are building.  It is a beautiful home and we cannot wait for all of the new memories that will be made in this home.

Before leaving on Sunday, Mimi baked some butter press cookies and let Ava decorate them.  Ava sneaked three and ate them and probably consumed more sprinkles than cookies.

What a great start to our Christmas.  We are so lucky to have such a loving and supportive family!

Christmas at Calvary

I love the fact that Ava attends a Methodist Day Care and that they talk about God and celebrate Christmas at school.  Ava learns so much at her school and I am amazed at the new songs and words that she comes home with.

Like last year, we received our favorite present from Ava's school.  Last year we received her foot print in the shape of a snowman and this year we received her hand print in a shape of a tree.  Homemade gifts are the best gifts, especially when they were made by our little girl.

 Ava had two parties at school and I signed up to bring the party favors to one of them.  Last year I purchased board books for everyone on Santa's Workshop, but this year while shopping on Amazon, nothing was grabbing my attention that I wanted to purchase.  I then decided to look on Pinterest and after some searching, I came across this idea Gingerbread Playdough  and decided that I could make this.

I grew up with my Mother making us homemade playdough and my Mom made some for Ava in May and it is still as fresh as the day she made it so I was really excited about making this for the first time.  I shopped on Amazon for supplies and purchased freezer tupperware with easy snap off lids as well as child safe cookie cutters to attach to playdough.

The playdought itself was super easy to make and only took 10 minutes.  The other hour and a half that I spent on this project was for the assembling and clean up.  Overall it smelled amazing and I was really happy at how they turned out!

This year Calvary had their 1st Annual Christmas Program.  It was scheduled for a day that we were going to be out of town but Ava has been singing Christmas songs for the last three weeks and I could not pass up the opportunity to see her in her first performance.  We changed out travel plans and on Friday headed to the Sanctuary at Calvary along with all of the other parents to watch this.  They had the one year old class all the way up to the five year old class and surprisingly they came in very organized and filled the stands.  They had 13 songs they were going to sing with the one and two year olds staying for the first five songs.  I went up to the front side of the church so I could get pics of Ava walking in and also to be in a good position to film the program.  As soon as Ava came in she saw me and instead of waving she started crying and these tears led to her screaming once she got on stage.  Before the program could start she was in such hysterics that I took her off the stage and she sat on my lap while her classmates sang.  After each song I asked if she wanted to go back up on stage and I even offered to go with her and she would not budge.  After her classmates sang there songs and got off stage we left and got on the road to head to Kingsport.  Here is hoping that this goes better next year...

Ava is not in this picture but her class is in the lower right hand corner.

She was all smiles right after we left and started singing Christmas carols in the car.

Sunday Christmas Funday!

This weekend is the only weekend that we are in town in December before Christmas so we wanted to enjoy some of our favorite Christmas activities.

 Last year we had our pictures taken with Santa at Cheekwood and while they turned out great, we had to stand in line for an hour and a half which took the Holiday cheer right out of us where we did not want to go to the other activities that they were offering for the children.  This year we were happy that they were offering photos both Saturday and Sunday and we made certain that we were there as soon as they opened Sunday morning.  We only had a 10 minute wait to see Santa and this year Ava sat on Santa's lap by herself without any tears.  

In case you have forgotten this was Ava's picture with Santa last year...

And here she is this year...

We also needed to get our family picture in with my Baby Britt Baby Bump...

Afterwards we went to the cookie decorating and Ava enjoyed a yummy Christie cookie.

 We then colored a gingerbread house, made a paper strip tree, and saw Santa's reindeer's.

 

After some lunch and much needed naps by all, Ava and I headed out to Opryland to go to the 

Holly Jolly Town Square.  

We went last year and I remembered that they had a children's train and I knew that Ava would enjoy spending her afternoon riding a choo choo.  They had an all day pass I purchased for $13 which was well worth the enjoyment that Ava got out of the hour and a half that she ended up riding the train.  I even let her take Pig along with us because before she left she brought me Pig and moved his mouth and said "Please Pig Train", how could I say no.

After finishing up with the choo choo we stopped and talked with Mrs. Claus and then went to look at the tree.  I noticed Ava reaching up and then she came over to me and said, "I can't reach it Momma" and then tried jumping several times to get to the top...bless her sweet little heart.

 In case you did not notice, Ava is wearing her Elf on the Shelf smocked dress, 

I cannot stand how cute this is!