Christmas in Franklin - Part 1

Dear Abigail,

As usual, our holiday season was filled with fun and excitement, and lots and lots of activities!!! So... Let's start from the beginning...

The weekend after Thanksgiving, your BFF came up for the whole weekend. Specifically, to go to her first Titans football game, but also to pay you a little visit! On that Friday night, we opted out of going to Mexican and the whole gang, including Sarah, went to Ryan's house. Wowzers - you kiddos were on full hyper mode, and all I can say is thank goodness we did NOT go to Mexican! Instead we filled our bellies with pizza and let you kiddos run around like crazy - and indeed you did. There were a few chases of Lovey, and a few head bonks, a really bad diaper rash and finally a peaceful nights sleep while the mommies plus Sarah played Spades. PS - Mommy and Miss Leigh are awesome at Spades and while your BFF may know all the terminology, she needs a little help with the game, just don't tell her I said so. But, let me tell you what she is good at - dealing with 4 crazy kids when none of them are hers!! She got extra points for putting up with all that...

Saturday was Franklin's Christmas parade, so me, you, Daddy and Sarah got our things together and headed that way. I have to say, luck was on our side, or maybe it was that we got there at just the right time, but nonetheless, we just zoomed on into a parking spot, found a place on the curb and waited. You had fun waiting...

And watching all the other kiddos waiting and even started copying the kids who ran out in the street looking down to see if the parade was coming...

And then it came. And you weren't to thrilled, to say the least. You were, well, scared might be the appropriate word. I'm coming to terms with the fact that many things frighten you. I'm fine with it, just wasn't expecting it considering you have no fear of climbing on any and everything and even further, jumping from said thing. And also, you are a rather friendly 2 year old. I mean, you have your moments of being shy, but that lasts a total of 2 minutes, and then its as if you've known the person forever. But, you will see over the next couple of blog posts, that indeed, a few things frighten you, including parades. So, you, being the princess that you are, decided that if you were held, then you would be content. So, Mommy held you, the entire parade, minus maybe 3 minutes where Daddy held you - but then he had to run after the candy...

PS - on a side note, thanks to this parade, Mommy discovered a new trick to keeping you in the shopping cart. Well, okay, Aunt Ash-ash told me about it too, but i didn't know if it would work. Anyway, at the parade, Daddy caught you a dum-dum, and you loved it, so now Mommy gives you one when I need you to sit nicely in the shopping cart. YES, I could threaten you with a time out, like the book says, but that's not going to get me through Target without losing my mind, now is it. But the dum-dum will, and did. So anyway - yay for dum-dums (and Aunt Ash-ash!).

So... After the parade, your BFF and I did a little shopping while you played a little with daddy and then some friends of Sarah's came in town (for the game), and stayed with us. Just like I said, you warmed up to them with no problem, and especially Mr. Brian - who helped the process by letting you play with his phone! Sunday morning was rather busy because we were getting ready for the game and getting you ready to pay a little visit to Ellie's house, but, we were able to throw in a little dancing before you were off...

I can't even come close to actually capturing what was truly happening, so I will try to describe it. Long story short (that was for you Sarah!), one of Mommy's favorite shows (Glee) had a song that Mommy and Daddy both loved, so we downloaded and have been playing it a lot. Well, guess who loves it??! YOU. And not only do you love it, but you love to stand on the chest thingy and dance to it. And when I say dance, I mean literally do the motions to the song. The clean version of the song is "Forget You" and you love to point your finger at whoever is near by and say "Forget YOU!" and "Forget her too!". It is hilarious to watch and you want to dance over and over and over again to it, which Mommy doesn't mind because she loves to dance to it too! We do have it on video, but it's WAY too long to download. Anyway, so this Sunday morning, you were dying to dance so you showed Ellie how to dance to it, and not surprising, she picked it up immediately!! Anyway, it has nothing to do with Christmas, but man alive you love that song!!

After a fun filled day at Ellie's/the game, we headed home and you and Sarah got a little play time in!

Sarah left (eventually - a whole other story where Mr. Lee had to save the day!) on Monday, and we started preparing for the next fun filled week/weekend! Or well, what we thought was going to be a fun filled weekend. See, Aunt Steph and I have been planning (with planning being the key word) to take you and Ellie to Snow at the Opryland Hotel. We were also going walk around the hotel, eat inside the hotel and even visit Santa. The daddies were going to have to meet us there because of work, but we had it all planned out, right? Nope. At the last minute on Friday, right before we were about to leave, I decided to check the time. Low and behold, the snow doesn't even start until 6. We were planning on being done around 6, or at least eating dinner and then heading home. Well, one thing led to another (i.e. the weather was really bad, the Dad's didn't think they could make it at all) so we decided to bail, and just go eat Mexican instead! And thank goodness we didn't go because it ended up snowing a whole lot just a couple days later!! But that's another blog... Anyway, we enjoyed a nice, normal Friday night, and got a good rest for the following day! Your great grandparents and great-great(??) aunts and uncles came in town. Just to clarify, that's Mammaw and Pawpaw, and then Mammaws sisters Aunt Betty Jo and Aunt Lois Ann and there respective spouses (Uncle Tony and Uncle Jimmy). Now, I'm guessing since they are my great aunts and uncles then they are your great great aunts and uncles? But that seems weird. And seems really old - so we may not say that around them, k?! Anyway, they were visiting the Opryland Hotel and all that is involved with that BUT on Saturday they decided to head to Franklin to pay us a visit. So, we took them to downtown Franklin where the Dickens of a Christmas was going on. Mommy had never been to this before, but how can it not be cool. It's characters from the classic Christmas story "The Christmas Carol" and includes everyone from Scrooge himself to Tiny Tim and the ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future, and all kinds of other lovely people dressed up in "Dickens" themed attire. All kinds of little shops are selling stuff and these people just are walking around as if it's 1856 or whatever era Dickens was set. So, me and you and then the aforementioned gang of grandpeople set out to see what it was all about!

What fun it was, too. I loved it, other than it was TERRIBLE weather. It was that drizzly rain, where you don't think much of it, until 30 minute into not wearing a jacket and you realize, wait - I'm wet. But, other than that, it was so cute. The women of the group shopped and shopped and the men patiently waited outside each and every one of those shops. This must come with age, or length of marriage, because no way would Daddy have waited outside like those guys! But, from what they said, they are just used to it! So while they shopped, we looked around - and guess who we ran into?! The Gang (minus Uncle Jaybee & Aunt Steph, who we will call The Scrooges - something about getting stuff together for a Christmas party or something... :) Anyway, Ryan and Miss Leigh and Mr. Lee and Miss EP and Mr. Jay and even Baby Grant were all there! It was such a nice surprise - we just can't get enough of them, can we! Even when we don't plan it, they still are there!! So besides the gang, we also ran into a lot of other people. Let's see - Mr. Scrooge himself paid you a visit. And thankfully you were in your stroller, eating your snack by the way, to which Mr. Scrooge had to point out that "Kids are so messy - Humbug!" We thought he was pretty funny. We also saw people caroling and one pretty girl was playing the harp just out in the middle of the street. So lovely. And then it happened... Santa was spotted. What a good looking Santa he was too, and he was just walking around, hugging everyone, taking pictures with everyone - so you can imagine Mommy was pretty pumped about the photo opps, right? Well, when I turned my shoulder, this is where I found you...

Hiding behind a bench, scared to death. No way were you going to give Santa a hug. We'd be lucky to get you out from behind that bench! Eventually Santa moved down the street, and you came to the curb, but that didn't stop you from telling Pawpaw a hundred times that "I not go see Santa" "I not go see Santa". At one point Pawpaw even said "Okay Abigail - I know you are not going to see Santa!" (where's that patience now Pawpaw, huh?!!!) .
You can't really tell, but you were telling him that, indeed, you were not going to see Santa! But he did convince you to get a picture with this lovely lady!

Who was nice enough to give you a candy cane!

Finally the ladies were done shopping, and we were starving. We (the whole crew) decided to meet Daddy at a restaurant away from downtown (which btw, was the best idea Daddy has had in a while!) and filled our bellies up. And thank goodness we went when we did because the rain started happening, and lots of it! Like I said, other than that rain, we really enjoyed the festival and spending time with the grandpeople! On Sunday morning, Mommy and you put our aprons on and started making yummy treats for all your teachers!

While it looks like things were going smoothly with the whole baking cookies thing - it didn't. Mommy has no clue what went wrong with the cookie dough (other than I used store bought!!) but all our cookies spread out and looked like one big cookie! So, we just munched on that while we made fudge for the teachers!!! What a great way to start the Christmas season! And there is SOOOO much more to come! Love you!

Thanksgiving 2010

Dear Abigail,

What a fun filled Thanksgiving week! It all started on the Saturday before the big turkey day...

We had to make up a gymnastics class, so since both Mommy and Daddy were at home this weekend, we decided to make it up on that Saturday so Daddy could watch you. He's never been to your gymnastics so he was super excited! And man alive, is gymnastics a much crazier place on Saturdays!! Lots more people tumbling around and lots of kiddos everywhere! But you still got to show off your skills for Daddy. You showed him how you can do the balance beam and how you do straddles on the bar and even did back rolls instead of your typical forward rolls! And of course you loved jumping on the trampoline. I think Daddy was enjoying it himself, too! So after gymnastics we ventured home to find Mimi at our house! You were super excited to see Mimi and Mommy even let you stay up a little later from your nap so you could get some good playing time in. Of course, you will soon see you had PLENTY of Mimi playing time...

That afternoon/night, Mommy and Daddy went to the TN Vandy game and you and Mimi took your first of about 5 trips to Target & Toys R Us. On Sunday, Mommy and Mimi and you, sort of, put out all our Christmas decorations!! Okay, fine, Mimi put out our Christmas decorations while you played and Mommy did a little sewing. Mimi just does it so much better than me... On Monday, we went to another make up gymnastics class and guess who got to come this time -that's right -Mimi!!! Unfortunately, this week at gymnastics was 'camp' week or something so there were literally classes of kids everywhere. So, to say the least, things were a little different, BUT, I'm pretty sure Mimi got a good idea of what goes on. She at least understands now why you are always jumping and climbing on everything, and why you come home exhausted!! Which you did. Monday afternoon was spent with another trip to Target and Toys R Us and on Tuesday, we decided, in order to finish up our Christmas shopping, you needed to head to school. Of course, Mimi told you she would pick you up from school and we all know you have the memory of, well, whatever has a good memory, so at the last minute, ran to pick you up and then, Mimi realized that she told you she would take you to the Big Park. So we ran to the Big Park before it got too dark. You loved showing Mimi your Big Park and I'm pretty sure Mimi was impressed. (PS - no pictures - not a single one. We were SO busy!!!!).

On Wednesday, Mimi headed home and you headed back to school because you were having a Thanksgiving dinner with all your school friends, and guess what - Mommy got to come, too! (and Daddy!). It was nice to see you interact with your friends and you made the cutest placemat and hat! We had yummy mashed potatoes and mac n' cheese and green beans and of course, turkey!!! It was all so yummy and I think it was a good prep for the huge dinner to follow the next day!! Here are some precious pictures from your class...

Here's you and your friend Madilynn (i think...)
And your friend who I can't for the life of me remember!!

But you sure seem to remember her!!
And of course your teachers, Miss Sabrina and Miss Brittney! You love love love your teachers and so does Mommy - and I'm pretty sure they love you too!

After a full belly and a good nap, we got to cooking for our big meal. You helped Mommy make a cheese ball and a squash casserole and these yummy doughnut hole acorns, oh and the miniature carmel apples that will be the death of me!! DELICIOUS! We were able to get everything done that night, minus a few extra apples which just made Mommy so happy because now we get to play on Thanksgiving morning!! And, where did we head, to the park! It was going to rain all afternoon so we knew we needed to get in that park now - and boy did we! We decided to go to the school playground that's right down the road and what a great park it was (don't worry, it's not Big Park, but it's a great alternative).

You had so much fun climbing on these sort of monkey bars. They were like monkey bars with a floor. But you didn't care, you climbed and climbed on them.

Oh, and the net. We weren't sure you could do it all by yourself, but you did! And you did it over and over and over again - with each time screaming "I did it Mommy - I did it!!!".

You and Daddy had fun on the slides...

And then you figured out that you could hang from them...

Oh and the tire! You loved swinging on the tire and even convinced Mommy to get on with you!

And I don't know what you call this thing but we called it the "Spinner" because you sat on it and spun around. Now, you loved sitting on it, and begged us to spin you, but as soon as we would you'd start crying. I think you WANTED to spin, but didn't like the feeling of the spinning. Mommy tried it and got pretty darn dizzy herself, so I know it had to feel weird to you!

We were just about burned out of energy when we saw a man and a little boy walking up to the park. As they got closer, Mommy realized who it was - it was Jacob and his grandfather!! It had been awhile since you had played with Jacob but you didn't seem to care. However, he was a little shy and while you begged and begged "Come on Jacob, come up here Jacob, climb the rope Jacob" poor Jacob just stared at you. Finally we headed home and left Jacob to play with his grandfather. But don't worry, we're hopefully going to see Miss Kristin and Jacob this Thursday!!

So, after the park, we headed home for to watch the Macy's Day Parade, which you didn't seem to care too much about but Mommy loves and is pretty sure we will make a family trip there sooner than later. Anyway... so after a quick lunch, we headed for nap time!!! We had to get our rest because we were headed to Uncle Jaybee's and Aunt Steph's, or as you like to say "Ellie's House"!!! You slept and slept (which is super awesome and has continued for multiple days) but finally woke up and we headed on over. Boy were you excited about seeing Ellie AND boy did you guys play SOOO well together. Mommy was so pleased with the way things worked out. You kiddos ran around like crazy, but Mommy and Aunt Steph didn't have to stress at all about where you were or what you were doing. You went up to Tent City and played forever and then you'd play in Ellie's room and when Caroline got there, it was even better. She was the perfect little babysitter. She loved playing with you and you for sure loved you some Caroline! We hung out with everyone and by 6ish it was time to eat! What a delicious meal, too! Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving Dinner...

Oh, yeah, you and Ellie occupied yourselves for a LONG time in the guest shower. For some reason both of you loved just sitting in there. Of course, you eventually found the soap, which found your eyes, which caused tears and screams, but it all turned out okay...

Look at you sweet cousins! You all played so well together - I can't say that enough...

Papa and his girls!

Okay, so I have to take it back a little. I said you got along so well, but I should have said that you got along 99% of the time, with that 1% being when that terrible singing duck was present. And it would appear out of nowhere, too. This duck drove us crazy for more reasons than one. First off, it sings "Splish Splash" over and over again. But, for some reason, both you and Ellie love it. But, neither of you are real good with sharing it. Now, I will say that you are a little better than Ellie as I saw her multiple times take it and just run for her life, however i did actually get YOU on camera running away with it...

So, all in all, that duck went to 'bed' multiple times. And I'm pretty sure Aunt Steph let it fly away after we all left! So we all spent the night and had a big breakfast and soon after we had to make our way to the Big Park to go on our annual after thanksgiving hike. It was freezing, but we still decided to go, just with a couple extra bundlings up! First though, we had to get a few pictures of these cutie pies!!!

And how about this one with Uncle Martin! How cute are you all!

So off to the park we went and what a ball we had...

Even Aunt Steph tried out the park...

We played a little on the park but then decided to start making our way on the hike. After pushing you in the stroller for a good bit, we reached a 'mountain' and decided to carry the stroller up this mountain, as we didn't know what lied ahead, and with you in it... Well, of course the second we reached the top we realized there was no need for the stroller, so we just left it there and let you run around!

After the refreshing walk outdoors, there was nothing better to do but pull out all the leftovers and eat some lunch! And of course, what came next - naps!! We put you girlies down for a nap and the rest of us watched Toy Story 3, and by watch I mean we all took naps while the movie was playing! After everyone woke up and played a little more, we decided we needed one more group outing before we ended this great Thanksgiving adventure. What better place to end it than at Goofballs! This was our first time at Goofballs - it's a bit like Chucky Cheese but for older kids as well. It was nice because we could let you run around and they even had those inflatable houses and lots of slides for you to climb and go down!!

poor Daddy tried over and over again to win you a bear...

After a bite of pizza, we decided we weren't ready to end the family fun (although Auntie Amy decided that basketball practice was more important than hanging out with us :) so we decided to stay yet another night at Uncle Jaybee's! We headed to their house, put you kiddos to bed and just chilled for the rest of the night. What a great Thanksgiving, huh!

And then to make it even more exciting, we had the gang over for hamburgers to watch the game on Saturday! You had an Ellie overdose and loved every minute of it!!! Both of you were very sad to see each other go, but I'm pretty sure you'll see each other soon enough!!

Again, what a great Thanksgiving, Abs! It was so nice to see you play with all your cousins and be so independent! And such a good time spending with family!! We are so thankful to have such awesome family!