Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!!!

I think it is pretty well known that Ava, our daughter, has spent the past five years sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed. We tried from the beginning to put her in her crib, and maybe we were weak, but her crying got to us.  There was one incident, when she was only six weeks old, that we let her "cry it out" and at the end of TWO hours, she was still screaming and I was a mess.  I brought her to our bed and never forced the issue again.  We decided as a couple that some battles were worth fighting, but this one was one we were going to let take it's course.  We talked about how we knew that when she was grown, we were not going to be sad we let her sleep with us, so we allowed this habit to continue.
We only have a queen size bed so as she got older, things got less comfortable for her, being squished between mommy and daddy.  We started a new rule about a year ago and that was that she had to start out in her bed in her room and if she woke up, which she did EVERY night, she could come over to our room.  This worked better for us and her, but we still wondered if she would EVER decide to sleep through the night in her own room. 
She told us when she turned five, she would be grown up and sleep all night, but that didn't work either.  However, Christmas is a magical time and a time for miracles and this week a miracle happened in our home.  Ava wanted a pink Christmas tree for her room because her cousin Ceci has one and she loved it.  She told her Grandma Bumbaugh that she wanted one for Christmas. Grandma took her to the store and bought it for her and then Grandma and Pappy came to her house and helped her to put it up in her room to surprise mommy and daddy.  Her surprise was that she promised Grandma that she would sleep in her room all night long if she had this pink Christmas tree.  We didn't really believe this because she has made many promises of the same sort to us and not followed through.  However, we were willing to try it.
She had so much fun decorating her tree and getting her room ready for Christmas.  That night, she put herself to bed, came out and said good night to us and told us she loved us and then went back to go to bed.  After about ten minutes, I went back to peek on her only to find her sleeping in her bed and her tree on.  I was amazed and excited.  That night, she never did come to our room.  She slept all night in her own bed!!!  This is now five days after the fact and she has yet to come to our bed.  Wow, I am so so proud of her and I tell her each day how excited I am that she grew up and is now sleeping in her own bed.  It is a bit sad, and we miss her but we are so grateful we let it up to her and she did it when she was ready.  The transition was amazing and I think that Christmas will be all year long in Ava's room if that is what it takes. :)