The Second Week of Christmas

Dear Abigail,
We began our second week of Christmas with a little travel back in time on Sunday.  That is, we went to the Dicken's Christmas in downtown Franklin.  It was a pretty yucky day with rain on and off, but we snuck in between downfalls and enjoyed being outdoors for a bit (not to mention it was a random 70 degrees outside!).  Unfortunately, we walked right up to a person dressed up like a puppy dog and you about had a fit.  What's funny is Ellie was all about going to see that puppy dog, BUT, all the real dogs that walked by (and there were A LOT of them), she would completely wig out (like you did/do with the dressed up characters) and you ran up to each and every single real dog asking the owner if you could pet it!!!  It was tripping me out because you two were exact opposite!  What's even funnier is that Ellie keeps saying she wants a puppy from Santa Claus.  I'm pretty sure that is not going to happen because even the teacup poodle that we saw sent her in a frenzy.  You, however, could have sat forever petting each one.  Well, except the "cow" dog that walked by.  It was by far the largest dog I have ever seen in my lift, to the point where I wasn't sure if it were a horse or a dog and when you saw it you said "There goes a cow mom."  It was that big, seriously. I didn't even want to go near it.
There were other entertainment besides dogs, of course, including the harpist that you and Ellie loved watching/listening to.

 And then you saw Scrooge and felt the need to talk to him. You literally chased him down to say hello.

 And then, acting in full character, he asked you why you were bothering him and if your parents knew you were wondering the streets.  You told him you were in charge and he said that's the way it should be!  And you did get him to smile a bit for the camera :)

 We heard some Christmas carolers and you and Ellie popped a seat on the wall and listened...

 Then you spotted Sweet Cece's and got rather excited...

 We wondered around a bit more and grabbed a snack (that would be a corn dog for you!), did some dancing while a little horn band played some Christmas tunes and then found some horses for you to ride...

 We were so proud of Ellie because this was the first time she road the horse!!  She did really good, too!

 You loved your horse and kept petting him on the behind, saying 'getty up!'

 We headed back towards the car and ran into that wizard looking guy from Oliver Twist...

 You asked him his name and he told you he was from Oliver Twist and when I asked you who he was you said "Octonauts"!  Ha!  You trip me out sometimes.  All in all, a great step back in time with the cousins!

After the Dickens, we decided we needed to join Ellie for one more dinner together and headed to eat some white beans and corn  bread at her house!  That's 3 dinners in a row with that girl.  Glad you two love each other so much.  We made it home and all went to bed super early because we were still recovering from that slumber party.
On Monday, our Christmas activity was "Make yummy treats for the neighbors."  We were supposed to watch the SOund of Music while making treats, but Mommy couldn't figure out how to work the DVD player in the living room, darn technology, so we just jammed to Christmas carols.  We made mini pecan pies and reindeer cookies and of course you had to try them out.  And, since we already made a huge mess in the kitchen, I let you make "soup".  This is your favorite activity and you ask all the time to do it.  You basically take a big bowl and stir in whatever I give you, which depends on the mood I am in.  Today I was in a cleaning mood so I gave you flour and garlic salt and sesame seeds and a couple other spices.  You played for 30 minutes mixing and pouring and stirring and creating a rather non-pleasant smelling soup.  If only it didn't make the biggest mess in the world... No biggie though, you even helped clean up, and then we decided to relax and watch a Christmas show, Mickey Mouse's saves Santa or something.  A fun-filled Christmas day, huh!

Tuesday means school and then gymnastics, but before we officially started the day, you pulled the card from the tree and guess what it said???  "Pick an angel from a tree at the fire station".  After gymnastics, we tried to go by a fire station but 2 things:  1) the date had already passed to bring the presents back according to the tree so I wasn't sure if it was too late to do it and 2) the 'gifts requested' included Ipods and Xbox games and randomly expensive things like that, instead of the "baby doll" or "play doh" type toys I was expecting.  So, we didn't pick an angel.  I'll know next year to do it a bit earlier on the calendar.  And, while I felt bad that we didn't get to go by someone less fortunate a present, we were at Publix a couple of days later and they had a table set up of toys you could buy when you checked out so you picked one of those out and we bought it and put it in a box to go to a shelter.  So in a round about way, we completed that task :)
Wednesday and Thursday are kind of blurry and I can't quite remember what we did, but my calendar says that we went shopping for Daddy and others at the Dollar Tree and picked toys out to take to a shelter.  Let's act like that happened.  We did do that, I'm just not sure it happened on those days.
You LOVED picking presents out for everybody (or well, Mommy, Daddy, Sister, Mimi and Pic-pic). You would have picked out for everybody but, well, even the Dollar Tree adds up.  You had a bit of trouble not getting anything for you and with each person's present you would say "Now they will need to share this okay Momma?"  I assured you that I would indeed share mine, even though I had to close my eyes while you put it in the basket.
On Thursday night, Mommy went to her very own gymnastics class, at the same place you and Sister take class, but this was for adults who want to flip around like their little girls :).  Mommy had a BLAST and will start going every Thursday, however, that night when I got home my tummy wasn't exactly feeling up to par.  I went to bed not thinking much of it and in the middle of the night that darn oh stomach bug attacked me!  I hoped it was just a one time thing, but by 7 the next morning, I told Daddy he needed to stick around a bit before heading into work because I just wasn't feeling well and by 9:00 am I told him to just call on in and say he was working from home.  I was worthless and could not stay out of that bathroom.  I was confident I was dying and had to rely 100% on Daddy to get you ready for school.  I have no clue what that consisted of because I stayed quarantined in my bedroom, but Daddy did say he ran into Chloe's mom and the first thing she said was "Oh Abby, I've never seen you in blue jeans before."  HA!!  Daddy immediately explained the situation and she understood.  I think you may have gone without a snack that day, because he didn't even know to fix you lunch until the last minute and he also said you got very angry at him because he didn't drop you off, but rather took you inside.  I think he was too late you drop you off, so don't be too hard on him.  It was a rough morning for him.  I was out all day long and Daddy and I even had plans to go see The Hobbit that night and had already bought tickets.  We canceled the babysitter but Daddy had to take you and Kate to the actual theatre to get our money back for the tickets!  It was not a good day for him either :)  BUT, good news is, we all survived.  Or, well, Mommy was feeling much better by Saturday morning.  To say the least, we did not do any Christmas activity on Friday.
Dad took you to basketball practice Saturday morning while I ran a few last minute Christmas shopping errands (since I didn't get to do anything on Friday!) and Saturday afternoon we headed over to Christopher's first birthday party!!  It was Dr. Seuss themed and CUTE as ever! You had tons of fun running around like a crazy woman with Ellie!

And then there was Thing 1 and Thing 2 that made things so much fun!!

We had a blast celebrating a great first year with Kipper and loved hanging out with all the fam.  

Now, as far as Pinky goes, she has been rather busy with traveling back and forth from the North Pole, updating Santa with your well being.  But she's rather enjoyed herself when she's watching you, to say the least.  She's had a bubble bath (or rather, a marshmallow bath) in the sink, a tea party with Woody and Buzz, watching a movie in the media room, drinking hot chocolate from the hot chocolate bar and even spelled out "Be Nice" with cherrios!  She's been rather cute, if I do say so myself!  

And these pics were from last week at Mimi's, but they were WAY too cute not to post...

I think Mimi got her a Christmas card pic, what do you think?!  

We're getting closer and closer to Christmas little girl and your excitement level has reached an all time high!!! Love you!!!