Don't wash my lucky socks!

One of the things I have loved most about competition season has been bonding with R over our pre-meet rituals. I asked my friends what they do before competitions - traditions, rituals, superstitions, etc. I heard lots of carbo-loading from several people, and my own grandmother refused to watch my mom, aunt, and uncle when they competed because she got so nervous. Most of the answers were pretty tame, but I'll let you all decide how crazy R and I are.

Keehn Household Gymnastics Rituals

• Lucky Turtle Pajamas

• For R's first meet there was a pajama theme, so we had to go out and buy something cute, of course, but also something that a) fit and b) was appropriate for the weather. We ended up with pink Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pajamas that she wears *most* weekends to bed before a meet
• Pre-Meet Mani/Pedi/Massage
• This started as a way to make sure her nails had all polish removed and were clean, but turned into a mani/pedi (with clear polish), and a foot massage. Grandma does a whole leg massage with special lotion, and even dad gets roped into performing these tasks when I'm away. Before Games in Ames I was helping with the meet on Saturday before R competed on Sunday, and E got to join in on the massage. E LOVES lotion, and got a foot rub, too. 
• Healthy Meals

• Whether we're on the road or at home, we do special grocery shopping to make sure that we have all kinds of fruits and vegetables and proteins for R to consume as small meals and snacks the day and night before, and morning of a competition. Don't get me wrong, we try to eat fairly healthy all week, but we do put an emphasis on healthy choices during meet weekends. 

• Potato'clock
• This one might be my favorite. This started because we went to do our healthy meal grocery shopping and my mom and I saw these awesome loaded baked potatoes at the grocery store. We bought them and cooked them at 4:00pm to have as a snack. R couldn't figure out why we would be eating potatoes as a snack when she had already requested fettucine alfredo for dinner, so we told her that we always eat potatoes at 4:00 on Saturdays at grandma's house. This one has carried over to our house, as well as special trips to grandma's to eat her potato. It's not always at 4*, but it's always delicious. 
• *I actually think it should be at 8:00pm because then it could be POT-EIGHT-O'CLOCK (get it? Pot-8-o'clock? PoTATo? Work with me here). However, 8:00 is when we get ready for bed, so that just didn't work.
• Grandma's Hair Salon
• We got into a habit of having grandma do her hair for each meet, to the point that we sometimes even spend the night at grandma's so we don't have to get up so early. Could I learn to do it? Sure, probably, but it's fun to have my mom involved, and she seriously does it better than I would. 
• Mommy/Daughter Slumber Parties
• Either we're on the road and sharing a bed (or couch), or we kick daddy out of the bed and he sleeps downstairs, because the night before a meet you know R and I are having a slumber party! It's not much of a party, because we mostly just go to sleep so we can get up early, but it's still a tradition.

Now that I've typed it all out it does maybe seem a bit extreme, but it's all in fun. I hope you'll share some of your rituals, traditions, or "lucky" items so I know I'm not the only one!