More Christmas...

I am playing catch up (as usual)!

 Christmas wore us all out, but it sure was fun!

 We kicked off the season and the celebrating here!

Chris' family goes to Gatlinburg every year in December!  This year I suggested we get a chalet instead of hotel and we found this beautiful place up int he mountains!  It was a great 3 story cabin with a king suit for each couple!  It was great!

The only down side was the rather treacherous drive up the mountain to get to it and it was a bit of a drive down to Gatlinburg!  I think next year we'll do a chalet again, but something closer to town!

The best part of Gatlinburg is always the time spent together!  Plus everything is decked out for Christmas and it is a great way to start the Christmas season!

 This year Jessica is expecting (much like me last year) and is too close to her due date to travel on Christmas!  Sooo... we celebrated with her there in Gatlinburg!

Ava Grace got her first taste of opening gifts and she liked it!

 Lily, a seasoned pro, liked it too!  ;-)

 The girls both got such fun and thoughtful gifts from Jessica and John!

I think the winner for Lily was this UT mascot stuffed animal that folds in on itself and becomes an orange ball!  She has turned into the biggest UT fan in the family!  You know I am loving that!  She asked for UT stuff for Christmas and tried to steal the UT gift at the dirty Santa at our family gathering!  She says she pulls for Tennessee because that is where she is from!  Believe it or not, we are even converting Chris to pull for Big Orange!!

After Gatlinburg, Christmas seemed to rush at us all at once!  The weeks between Gatlinburg and Christmas flew by in a flurry of shopping, decorating, holiday parties, and fun!

Ava Grace caught on quick to the unwrapping business! Although the first box or two of the season were all about the paper and bow, by her second round she had figured out that good things were in those boxes too!!

Lily enjoyed helping her get her paper started and speeding her along when needed!

I sure do love these girls!

Christmas in Chattanooga this year turned a little from tradition!  We had Lily before Christmas instead of after this year, so the family adjusted and we celebrated on the 23rd and 24th!  Kenslee and my SIL above enjoyed the musical book that Grandmommy got for both little girls. 

Ava Grace also got her first Bitty Baby!  She loves her baby.  Just today she held her up against her and patted her back and kissed her head.  It was so sweet I almost got a tear in my eye!!

The big girls hand fun unwrapping a big box each full of individually wrapped gifts from Grandmommy and Papaw!  At the bottom of the box full of little gifts was the biggest surprise... a $50 gift card to American Girl!  The girls immediately climbed up in Grandmommys lap with the computer and started shopping!!

Although Ava Grace got the hang of opening gifts, she didn't quite understand that ALL of the gifts weren't for her.  Soo... she helped.... everyone.  :-) 

I am almost done with Christmas pictures!  Just have Christmas morning left and then we'll catch up on Ava Grace's birthday!  This birthday right next to Christmas thing is a challenge!

Tomorrow... one year.

Tomorrow our baby girl will turn one.

We have been planning and talking about how we "just can't believe it has already been a year!"  Tonight, however, it truly hit me.  I was on my way home and and I said to myself, "She'll be one tomorrow."  Yes, I teared up right there in the car... that's how I know it really hit me.

How in the world did the year go by so fast?  There are so many things I wanted to do.  More pictures to take, more videos, more playing, more documenting, more blogging.  But time doesn't stop for pictures or blog posts... and so tomorrow, we will celebrate.

This unbelievably sweet, curious, super silly, wild girl will be one.

She weighs just 19.1 pounds (as of last week).  She's petite.  She walks... everywhere.  She is all about walking and has officially thrown in the towel on crawling altogether.  She says Mama, Dada, Woof Woof, Roar, Bye Bye, More (with prompting), and copies several other sounds and words.  She does everything big.  Plays big and loud.  Loves big and loud.  She is a Mama's girl.  She has a soft spot for her Daddy in the mornings and doesn't want to let him go and gets really excited when he gets home at night.  Her sister has her whole heart and when Lily is around, we are all second fiddle!  We are kicking the bottle tomorrow, which is fine with her because she likes her sippy cups just fine and we have tried out some regular milk and she seems to like it too!  She is such a good girl... a trooper... she rolls with it!  We can take her anywhere and as long as we are close, she's a happy girl!   

Tonight was just another night to her as she played before bed.  But tonight, for me, was a night to pause.  When she toddled over to me and motioned for me to pick her up because she was ready to settle down and go to sleep, I held her a little tighter.  We snuggled longer.  I turned down the TV in favor of watching her sweet face as her eyes drooped and she drifted off to sleep.  Then, I held her and snuggled her some more.  My baby girl will be one tomorrow.  Wow.

Christmas 2012 ...part one of... ???

There is one thing for sure.  Christmas is more than one day in our family!  It's a season.  It's an extended celebration.  It sometimes feels like a marathon!  And... we kind of like it that way... kind of.

We spend our time, especially the days leading up to Christmas day, buzzing about!  Here and there.  His family, my family, our family.  Sprinkle in some friends, some shopping, a little baking, and moment or two at home, a late night Christmas movie or two, and before you know it, every second is packed with Christmas merriment!

 The result:  

Lots of memories.

Too many pictures to use in one post.

Car loads of luggage and gifts.

Lots to clean.

And... a lot of sleep to catch up on!  

As mentioned, there are too many pictures to post at once.  I had a hard time knowing where to start and how to narrow my choices down.  I chose to start with pictures from Christmas Eve.  There are a lot of pictures from before, during, and after Christmas to share as well.  This, however, was the day we actually got a family photo with everyone... even the baby... looking.  sort of.  So, I decided to lead with that!

Every Christmas Eve, as long as I can remember, and I assume longer than I have been alive, my dad's side of the family gets together.  We rotate houses - this year was at Mary Ann and Gene's (my dad's sister - my aunt and uncle).  This was Lily's first time coming to Christmas Eve brunch (we usually have her from Christmas day until school starts - this year it was in reverse).

Christmas brunch is always fun!  It is a tradition I love!  We eat first, of course.  There are the "classics" that are always there... my aunt's breakfast casserole, always a ham, biscuits and gravy, hot fruit, fresh fruit, doughnuts... and then we have some dishes that show up from time to time and those that are new.  This year my sister tried a new recipe - ginger pear muffins!  Yum!

Is there anything cuter than ruffle butts 

and chunky baby legs?? 

I think not.

 After everyone eats, there is lots of visiting.  We have 5 little girls, so there is always lots of playing!  My aunt's house is 3 floors and multiple sets of stairs, so the kids have a blast running here and there, up and down, hiding and seeking and playing everything you can imagine!

Eventually the kids get antsy and start asking when we are going to do gifts!  We get everyone gathered back together in one room (this year there were 22 of us and we had 5 missing due to medical and other issues).  We let the kids open their gifts from everyone so that they will have something to do while the adults do gifts.

 When I say, "do gifts" in regard to the adults, I am referring to "Chinese Auction" or "Dirty Santa."  Several years ago as our families grew, we started doing this little game and it has proven to bring lots of holiday cheer and many laughs each and every year.  The "big" kids (Lily, Bentlee, and Elizabeth included) get to participate as well.  It is so. much. fun.

 "The auction" as we call it, takes quite a while with that many people and lots of stealing.  Lily LOVED being a part and finally seeing what we have been talking about!  She scored big with a fun game AND some chocolates and hot chocolate mugs.  She drew the number 1 which gave her first and last pick - so she was thrilled!

Ava Grace caught on quick and wanted to open every one's gift.  Luckily, by the time auction time came, shew as pretty worn out and eventually gave in to a nap in her Daddy's lap!

Before her nap, she did lots of exploring, tried to play with the big girls, settled for playing with her cousin Kenslee (who also only fit into some of the big girls games), and lots of toddling around and climbing stairs!

I think my favorite part of this year was having my sister and brother-in-law with us!  They were there last year, but I wasn't because I was on bed rest with Ava Grace.  This year was even more special because now they LIVE here and will be here every year - very exciting!

 Ava Grace went through a total of 3 outfit changes!  Her dress was too hard to crawl/walk in.  This outfit got spit up on.  Then she ended up in her Christmas Eve PJs, just in time for the family photos, of course.

Here is a picture of the whole crew!  Left to right:  Grandmommy, Papaw, Chris, Ava Grace, Me, Lily, Ken, Sarah (SIL), Bentlee, Kenslee, Sarah (sis), and Malcolm. And??  Everyone is (more or less) looking and smiling... in one take!  Amazing.

After Christmas Eve brunch, we headed to Murfreesboro to pop in for barbecue with Chris' family.  Then we headed home where we baked cookies for Santa, watched a Christmas movie, played a game, read the night before Christmas and headed to bed anticipating the joy of Christmas morning!

I hope your Christmas Eve was just as merry and bright!

I'll be back soon with more from our Christmas!

Santa Clause is Coming to Town...

...but before he arrives, come the elves!

The day after Thanksgiving, Lily's elf Amy came for her annual vacation time in our home!  Amy brings more joy to Lily than anything I have ever seen.  She gets more excited about Amy than she did about our trip to Disney! lol.

Amy didn't waste any time getting around to her elfcapades!  The night she came she left a trail of toilet paper through the whole house, colored our milk red and green, got into the treat bucket of candy in the pantry, ate chocolate chip pecan pie, and played with Ava Grace's Cheerios! 

Amy wan't the only little one making messes!  We made lots of messes because it was time to decorate for Christmas!

Grandmommy and Papaw came up for part of the weekend to spend time with us and especially Lily since they haven't seen her in a while!  They helped us put up our tree and then Papaw held Lily up so she could put the star on the tree!  Ava Grace loved all the boxes and decorations and she was absolutely determined to eat everything "help" us!

Other than decorating, we just did lots of relaxing together!  Usually when Grandmommy and Papaw come we have a big agenda, but not this visit!  We reheated our Thanksgiving dinner and had it again with Lily and Mom and Dad and just spent some quality time together!  It was SO nice!

We got some playing in while they visited as well!  Lily always includes Ava Grace in her games and it is just so precious to us!  The picture above shows Grandmommy, Lily, and Ava Grace (who Lily grabbed and hauled up to join them) on the love seat "boat" with toys!

My mom got Lily the Little People nativity years ago and we got it out and set it up for Ava Grace.  She LOVES it!

It was so much fun having Mom and Dad with us for the weekend.  I know the girls enjoyed it almost as much as I did!

After Grandmommy and Papaw left, we did some more decorating and relaxing.

Lily toted Amy everywhere we went.

Lily also wrote a note to Amy and asked her to bring Ava Grace an elf.  And look what we came home to one day...

Amy went to the North Pole and brought back Mindy!!  Double Trouble for sure!  I can't imagine the elfcapades we are going to have this year with TWO elves under our roof!

Ava Grace LOVES Mindy and Lily is teaching her how to be gentle with her.

With all the mischief going on, even Lily started elfing around...

I do believe I will enjoy every moment of this Christmas season!  We are only a few days in and it has already been so much fun!

{Our elves are little different than the "elf on the shelf."  To find out more about our magical elves please visit: http://www.elf-magic.com.  If you don't have an elf in your home and are thinking about it, I urge you to consider a magic elf!!}

A different kind of Thanksgiving!

Every year we load up the car a day or two before Thanksgiving and head to Chattanooga to see my family! We make a tradition of helping my dad and brother "take the turkeys off" at the family restaurant.  After turkeys have been smoking all day, they have to be removed from the smoker and paired up with the correct pan and customer.  It's no easy task with giant turkeys and small turkeys and some just breasts.  This year they smoked so many Turkeys, Ken had to do it over the course of 2 days and one overnight!  But we were not there to help take them off.

Thanksgiving day, we always have lunch at my Aunt's house with my whole extended family.  We visit and have some coffee and dessert and then head back to Murfreesboro for dinner with Chris' family.  But this year, we didn't get to go to my Aunts or head to Murfreesboro.

(Lily and I had a craft project and created this Thanksgiving themed mantle.)

This year, we gave thanks at home.  

It will go down in history as the quietest (and warmest) Thanksgiving ever.

Chris' back was completely out and he hadn't been to work all week.  He was in so much pain!  They think he either has a bulging or ruptured disk and that it is against his nerve (more on that another time).  So traveling in the car was out of the question.  He was, for the most part, bound to the couch!

I was really disappointed not to get to enjoy all of the family traditions that we take for granted each year.  Then, I spoke to my mom on the phone and she said something that totally changed my perspective.  She shared with me that as she thought back over all of the many Thanksgivings that she has enjoyed, not a single one stands out in her mind.  They were all fun and enjoyable and delicious, but none of them were particularly unique or more memorable than the one before.  That struck me just right and I began to smile about our quiet Thanksgiving that was about to take place.  It was Ava Grace's very first Thanksgiving and it will stand out among all the others as a Thanksgiving to remember!

(Cornbread Dressing - made with my grandmother's recipe)

The day before Thanksgiving I headed to the grocery store with the masses!  I think I snagged the very last fresh turkey breast and was so thankful, because all the others were frozen hard as bricks and would not have thawed in time!

The day of Thanksgiving dawned sunny and warm!  We opened up all of the windows and enjoyed the fresh air!  I cooked all. day. long.  Fortunately I enjoy cooking.  I was determined to have all of our Thanksgiving favorites on the table for a big meal!  I brined and roasted a turkey breast, made corn bread dressing, gravy from scratch with my turkey drippings, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and rolls.  

For dessert, I made a chocolate chip pecan pie.

It was the warmeest and quietest Thanksgiving on record for the Hooper family.  Lily was at her mother's house and so Ava Grace, Chris, and I celebrated together, just the three of us.

(Gobble Gobble!)

We missed our families.

We enjoyed the peace, quiet, and time at home.

It was memorable.

It will stand out.

Ava Grace's first Thanksgiving was different, but one to be thankful for nonetheless.