christmas vacation has begun...

we drove to ky yesterday and it was a long, but great drive. ava was practically perfect. as long as she has her DVD player she is good to go...except when she was fast asleep and daddy accidentally woke her up when he yelled from excitement about an upcoming trip to greece with young life.

 our picture order arrived tuesday and i tore through them like a little kid on christmas morning. seriously it was funny...i was so excited to see them up close. they did not disappoint...they never do.

 ava on our 8 hour road trip yesterday. i thought she might fall asleep around 2pm (her normal nap time)...nah she feel asleep at 6pm. two hours before we arrived at pop pop and lee lee's house. as you can tell by the glazed over look she has...she was watching an elmo movie. or maybe you noticed that little bruise on her forehead. see below.

 on sunday afternoon ava tripped on our rug and hit her little head on the bottom edge of the stairs. it was awful. i did not see it, but justin did. although i was pretty sure she was fine (i am the calm one in these situations) justin was not too sure so we headed to our first ER visit with little aves. she ended up being fine and is healing just fine. she is seriously tough. 

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hebrews 10:24. been thinking about that a lot this week. wanted to share.

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christmas traditions. sharing just a few before we spend the next several days with the vast majority of both sides of our family. as we began our drive yesterday i could not hold back the tears as we talked about this week. seeing family. moving all over the place. the craziness in the midst of wanting to be intentional and restful. i am just so thankful that this christmas is about family and celebrating...not about chemo and cancer. for those of you fighting...my hear aches for you. especially during this christmas weekend. this season will pass. i promise.

a few ryder family traditions:

1. lots of christmas movies. especially the holiday. the family man. the family stone (a little sad for me now). four christmases. love actually. serendipity. ava prefers frosty the snowman.

2. baking. we bake a lot. mostly cookies and banana bread this year. ava bakes right alongside me. we love it.

3. making some of our gifts. this year i think i made about ten gifts. can't show them yet.

4. send christmas cards. will put on blog this week.

5. spend more time at home together as a family than any other time of year. i love love love that.

6. new pajamas for ava. we do this for each holiday or special occasion. birthday, halloween, christmas, summer time, etc. i tend to find them at old navy. usually on sale. right now she loves her scary pajamas from halloween the best.

7. host a little christmas party. this year was my first time. it was just a few women from my tuesday night bible study but i loved it. good food. good drinks. great conversation. so thankful for my new friendships.

8. growing up we did a birthday party for jesus. with a cake. bible verses. a poem. some singing. i love it. my mom wrote it all up for me and put it into a great little email. if you would like a copy simply email me at libbyryderblog@gmail.com and i would love to share this special christmas tradition.

off to get ready and take ava to happy feet 2 with her roma and aunt marlene. her first movie ever. 

not sure how this will go...

t minus 3 days.