This past weekend we had our first of 4 Christmases with the family. We traveled 8 hours to Corpus Christi to have Christmas with my mom's side of the family. Considering we had 4 adults, 1 toddler, and 2 dogs in the car it was not too bad of a drive. Ava is a pretty good car rider and we all just gear ourselves up for a long time in the car. I'm not gonna lie though, finally being out of that car was awesome!
Ava kept herself plenty busy and there were lots of people for her to play with. I didn't bring anything for her to play with since I knew she would have more than enough things to entertain her after we opened presents. Before presents my mom found this Lite Bright in Mimi's closet and to say Ava loved it is an understatement. She played with it for about 45 minutes straight.
I took it home with me and hid it in the closet. I am thinking this will be a great thing to take out when I am feeding Connor and need Ava to be entertained.
My sweet cousin Ryan thought it would be a good idea to take Ava outside and water the plants together.
When it was time to open presents she opened them so fast and furious I had no idea what she got or who it was from.
I think Daddy likes his new A&M hoodie.
It's become tradition to give all the grandparents a calendar with pictures of Ava.
The whole family (minus me, the photographer)
Ava and all her presents
She loves her new baby doll and accessories
Later that evening we drove around to see lights, particularly this one house (now houses) that go all out with lights and decorations. The decorations are super tacky but fun none the less.
Part of the display are tons of creepy manicins dressed up as choir singers. Some even have moving heads which adds to the greatness.
The man who lives here comes out of his house every night (this is a huge Corpus attraction) and he secretly walks around with an intercom that he talks into pretending to be this Santa. You can go up to him and tell him your child's name and any other info about them that you want to give and then when they walk up to Santa he greets you by name. I don't think Ava knew what to think when he started talking to her. He clearly looks fake and I am sure it totally confused her.
Everyone had to get thier pictures in the sleigh in front of all the nice decorations. ;)
Sisters
Alli & Greg
Mom, Ava, & David
Matt & Lisa
Holding my sweet girl. Something I haven't been able to do in 4 months. (more on that in the next post)
Another family picture in front of Mimi's house
And for kicks, this is what I opened my bedroom door to find the other day. No caption needed! :)
After a disappointing trip to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa (the lines were outragious) and lots of crying in the car, we took Ava to the mall last night to sit on Santa's lap and get her picture taken.
I took these with my camera but we also have another one to frame in the house that I paid $16 for, such a rip off!
Sweet girl with her dark circles and puffy eyes from a short nap and crying in the car. She never smiles for pictures like this but I was proud of her for sitting on his lap and telling him what she wanted for Christmas. Big step for her!
