Ava got a “princess ball” for Christmas. Then she wanted it suspended so she could swing it. We put a 2×4 up on top of our free-standing wall in the hallway like this:

Princess Ball attached and swinging

Well then she figured out she could swing on her ball. Only we didn’t build it for the strength and stresses of a human swinging.

So we re-engineered the “swing” and used a heavier rope and made a handle out of PVC pipe and gorilla tape. Now she is like a monkey at the zoo, swinging every day and getting brave by even hanging upside down!

Ava woke up at 6:00am on Christmas morning calling out “Mommy!” I went to her room and she said, “Santa didn’t come.” I said, “How do you know?” she replied, “He didn’t eat his milk and cookies.” “Did you check?” I asked. “No.” I took her to our bedroom and she retold all of this to Daddy. Daddy hopped right out of bed and said, “Let’s go check!” (Scott is so cute on Christmas morning.. he woke up at 5am and couldn’t go back to sleep. He was so excited when Ava woke up! I on the other hand could’ve happily gone back to sleep).

Ava went to the living room with Daddy and was delighted to see the stockings full and the milk and cookies all gone.

After opening presents, Scott and Ava made fresh squeezed tangerine juice while I made German Pancakes.

We spent the whole day just relaxing and playing with new toys until it was time to go to Grandma’s house that evening.

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family, hope everyone has a great day.

Some Christmas-y pics to share

Jenn decorating the tree we brought home

And on Christmas Eve the three of us (and Farley) drove up into the mountains to go sledding and play in the snow.