The Third Week of Christmas

Dear Abigail,

And you just thought we were busy the last two weeks.  This week has nothing on them!!  Sunday started off with a fantastic Clark family tradition that you got to do for the first time - see the Rockettes!!  We decided (Aunt Steph and Mommy) that you and Ellie were now at a good age to see them.  I knew you'd love them, but in the past had been a bit nervous about you sitting still that long, but this year I knew you had it in you.  So, we met ALL the Clark girlies (and Nona, too!) for such a fun, fun, fun evening!  You were super excited to see Princess Alexis and even when I was naming everyone that would be there and said "Alexis" you said "You mean PRINCESS Alexis Moooooooom."  Yes, my bad, Princess Alexis.  You didn't want to leave her lap! 

You loved the show too and were particularly stoked about seeing Santa!  After the show, we all went to dinner at Maggiano's and filled our bellies WAY too full.  It was such a fun family tradition that I am happy you can be a part of now!
When we got home from the show, Mimi was at our house waiting on you!  Daddy unfortunately got that yucky stomach bug and Mimi came to help him out with Kate while we went to our show.  She's pretty awesome like that.  She was going to come up on Monday because you had your Christmas program on Tuesday, but she saw a crisis and lent a hand :)
On Monday, you pulled the card from the calendar and guess what it said???? It said "Get dinner in the car and drive around and look at Christmas lights!!"  Oh this is one of Mommy's favorite Christmas time activities and, again, a first for you, or at least a planned 'let's go look at lights' kind of first.  And, to make it even more special, Ellie and Uncle Jaybee and Aunt Steph joined us (and Mimi and Daddy). We left the babies (Kate and Kipper) with Miss Lauren and piled up in our car.  We ran through Chick-fil-a drive through and started on our tour.  We kind of messed up and went to the best thing first, but it was still awesome.  There is an amazing house just right down the street from us that has it's house lights set to a radio station, so you just tune your car radio and watch the lights flash and flash and flash.  We could have sat there all night, but more cars started coming around, so we moved on and just drove through several  other neighborhoods.  I think the adults were a little more thrilled than you and Ellie.  Ellie asked about 10 times if we could just go home now!  Overall, it was fun and I think as time goes on, you will learn to love it, too!
On Tuesday, you had your school Christmas program.  You have been SOOO excited about the songs you were singing and would not tell Mommy any of them.  Mimi was able to make it to the show and thought you did such a good job. Mommy did not do such a good job of getting pictures (or a good seat), but I still could see you singing away!!  You sang lots and lots of songs and even did hand motion with a few of them.  Here's the best I could get without blocking people behind me...

And your sister was very proud of you, too!

After the show, your school had a wonderful luncheon for everyone, including your favorite school buddy, Chloe!  

After your recital, we ran a few errand with Mimi including going to Costco where you somehow ripped that pretty little dress right up the back.  Destructive.  I'll say it again.  Destructive...

Wednesday's activity ended up being two activities because A) Mimi was in town and B) Daddy had to work.  See, we were supposed to go see Santa on Friday, but Daddy already warned me that he would be super busy with work and would not be able to go, and since Mimi WAS in town, we decided to just change it from Friday to Wednesday!  So, Wednesday morning, we got all cutesy up to see the big guy!  He just so happened to be at the mall, which Mommy was a little leery about, but man alive, that Santa was so awesome!  I don't know what I was thinking...

I also was a little leery on how excited you would be, seeing as the last 4 Christmas' you screamed while sitting in his lap, or worse, wouldn't go near his lap, but this year you were super excited so I waited patiently in line, hoping for the best.  Low and behold, you rocked it!!!  You were a little apprehensive at first, taking it slow, rubbing your eyes to make sure this was the real deal and not just a dream...

You kept a little distance while getting the basic meet and greets out of the way...

It looks like you are making a hard decision here, deciding whether this is legit, whether he's worth you in his lap...

And it looks like a decision was made...

And look how perfect the two of you are!!!!  What a great picture! 

I was SOOOO proud of you, and so was Mimi.  I couldn't believe it and just sat amazed with a big grin on my face, I was so proud.  You continued to sit in his lap and tell him the 3 things you wanted - a drum set, a doll that looks like you, and a dog that bark.  

Now, I can't say too much about your sister and Santa's relationship, other than she's just not too thrilled to be sitting in his lap...

Soon after Santa, Mimi headed back to Munford and we headed home for a nap.  That nap we had to do our originally planned calendar event - Go to Opryland Hotel!  So looking at lights is in my top 5 favorite things, but Opryland Hotel is probably #1, well, other than the actual week of Christmas stuff, but you know what I mean!  I LOVE that hotel at Christmas and every year I say we're going to stay the night there the next year so we can REALLY enjoy all of it.  It never fails, we always have to limit what we do and there is sooooo much fun stuff to do!  We still had a blast, don't get me wrong, but we just need to go and stay a day or two!  

We walked all through the hotel and you found your horses that you get a picture with every single year! 

And found a street lamp to climb...

And finally made it to the kids zone where you enjoyed being a kid, including being a conductor of a train...

And driving some fun little cars...

But probably the most exciting for you (AND ME!!!) was that you saw AND WAVED to Puss N'Boots and Shrek!!! Like the real live dressed up in costume Puss and Shrek!  I couldn't believe it.  You didn't want to hug them, but you were totally fine running up to them and waving at them and wanting to go back to wave again.  Why am I so excited you ask??? Because I now see Disney World in our near future!!!!  Woo-woo!!! First Santa, then Shrek.  I mean, come on, Mickey is just around the corner, right?!  

Anyway, we had a lot of fun wondering the halls of Opryland and enjoyed some "Mexican" for dinner.  I put that in quotes because we ate at the Mexican restaurant at the hotel but you were thoroughly disappointed when they did not have white cheese dip! 

On Thursday, we relaxed at home trying to get a few things together for a trip to Munford.  Again, I can't quite remember what we did, but the calendar said "Christmas craft" and, well, I'm sure we did something along those lines.  Or maybe we just took a much needed break to prepare ourselves for the upcoming days!  I do know that on Thursday morning you got to go to Kate's gymnastics class and were SOOO excited about it.  Usually you have school, but since school was closed for Christmas break, you got to go!  You were shocked (and excited) that Miss Christy was also Kate's coach and ran up to her with a big ole hug.  You did pretty good with listening although I had to tell you a couple times that those were for the babies or get down from there, or you know, the usual.  Thankfully, not a lot of folks were there so Miss Christy let you play a lot.  And Kate's other teacher, Miss Courtney, was  super impressed with your talent.  She had never seen such an energetic girl :) Here's a pic I was able to get of you two together, a VERY hard task at gymnastics!

Thursday night/Friday morning, you woke to tell me you had thrown up in your bed.  I ran upstairs and sure enough, you did BUT the good news is you were big girl enough to throw up on the floor rather than your pretty white bed spread :)  I cleaned it up, cleaned you up, and put you back in bed with the garbage pail beside you.  You preceded to throw up one more time and back to sleep you went.  Mommy slept in the bed beside you, just in case you needed me, but you were fine the next morning.  I was very hesitant on our activity that day - drive to Munford for baking day, but Mimi was determined you were fine and would not make anyone else sick.  She just would NOT let you miss the annual baking day!!  SO... we got ready for the drive.  And, to make things more stressful for Mommy, I mean, more fun, we asked Ellie to go with us!  Uncle Jaybee dropped Ellie off (knowing you threw up the night before!) and Daddy met us at noonish to head that way.  We were there in no time and you and Ellie, in no time, were having a blast playing dress up and 'house.'  

Friday night Mommy and Mimi and Daddy went to Sarah's "End of the World" party (no worries, it didn't end, I felt confident it wasn't, so that's why we went) and so Bebe came and stayed with you and Ellie AND Clara Lee, oh and Kate!  Seriously, all 4 of you.  And she is 13.  I mean, seriously, only Bebe could do that. AND, she got you and Ellie asleep in the bed together, while Clara Lee sat downstairs WITHOUT tv!  We were all super impressed, and your sister even woke up at one point and she got her back to sleep, all with Clara Lee right by her side.  She is our champion babysitter, no doubt, and you girls love her.
Saturday was our big day, though.  It was our annual Baking Day at Mimi's house! We've done this a couple years now and I must say, Mimi is got this thing down to a T and it gets more and more fun with each year!  Here are some pictures to highlight the events.  As you can imagine, it's lots of decorating and baking and TONS of playing with friends and family!!!

Everyone decorated cookies and ice cream cones and their faces! and afterwards we turned on the Elf on the Shelf movie and everyone ate lunch!

All you kiddos wanted to play in the playroom for a bit, so the mommies/aunts/grammommies/great grandmommies enjoyed some hanging out time!

After playtime was over, we hopped right back into baking, making some yummy mini pecan pies!  Sydney did NOT like the Pam with Flour spray!

You and Clara worked as a team, and while I'm sure your dessert would have turned out great, we actually had to throw it away because it didn't have any eggs in it, as we ran out...

I don't think y'all cared...

Ellie and Anna Beth teamed up and made some delicious pies! 

Last on the list to do was make a craft.  Mimi helped all you kiddos make a cute little snowman to hang on the Christmas tree!

And last, but not least, was the group shot!  

What a FUN FUN FUN time all you had.  We love Mimi's annual bake day and are already making plans for next years!  A fun Christmas tradition that everyone enjoys.
Another great week comes to an end with baking day and that just means we are SOOOO close to Christmas Abs!!!!  Love you and all your excitement!!

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!!!