Holiday Festivities

We were quite busy during the first 2 weeks of December. After Lauren got out of preschool, finished her tennis lessons, and was on break from gymnastics, the last 2 weeks went by nice and slow.

She had a fun little performance at her church school. She is hilarious. Seriously hilarious. With Lauren, you just never know how she's going to do. She really hammed it up last year with her singing and dancing. She did fantastic at her dance recital last May. This year? Not so much. She got mad over something so she stood there, had an evil look on her face, and had no part of the performance. She later told me she was angry because she couldn't come sit with me. I can only imagine how age 16 will go. On the bright side, she sure was cute and posed for pictures in her precious outfit for me.

Her sweet friend, Meredith.

 

Lauren has been taking tennis at a nice tennis club here in town. I played in middle school. I loved it and one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't continue playing. Sports are pretty competitive here at the big private schools so I figured we would start young and see if she liked it. She loves it. It's such a nice club and Ive really enjoyed getting to know the other parents. She's on break now but starts back up next week. We went to pay for her lessons yesterday and she had a mini meltdown that she couldn't play. The club put on a nice event for the kids in December. They had Santa come, they made pancakes, the kids colored, made reindeer food, etc. It was so nice. She really does love Santa, promise. She gets super duper shy around him. Connor was amazed.

We ventured over to Rock City. It's my most favorite holiday tradition here in beautiful Chattanooga. The lights are beautiful and it's so fun. Lauren enjoyed making a gingerbread cookie. Lots of icing = totally Lauren.

Little L made her first build a bear. We celebrated a great school semester with her first trip there. Best thing ever! I wish we could go all the time. It was so much fun. Poor Connor dude. He'll get his chance soon.

 Visits to the carousel downtown. We know this place well. It's close to home, only $1, and so fun. Connor took his first ride.

There is a Christmas parade downtown Chattanooga. We've been a little spoiled by the Disney parades. I'm not sure we'll be back for this one. We saw some interesting folks downtown. But hey, Lauren waved and waved like Mickey was coming next. Sweet girl.

Connor is like "what is the world is this? There's no lights, music, or fun characters."

Posing...as always.

 

Gigi's cupcakes. The fabulous 12 minis that are in the holiday box. Delicious and pretty.

We ventured over to the Electric Power Board's awesome Christmas windows after the parade. They are so so awesome every single year.

 

 

If you are local, read up. This is a little hidden gem we found this year. So ya'll know how you can cross the mountain we live on and end up in the valley? There is a beautiful house that was recently built down there. The husband inherited quite a bit of money and they've build this house with a massive garage. Not like a typical garage, like this huge huge work garage with multiple doors, buildings, etc. They have 78 trees. Seriously. They are all set up in these rooms. It's gorgeous. When you finish touring, they have hot chocolate and it's wonderful. It's free as well. Go next year. It's amazing.

 

And lastly, I spent the month of December getting Christmas bows out of Connor's mouth. The boy loved the tree :)