'Tis the Season

We've been busy at the Freeman household getting ready for Christmas.  I'm pretty sure this is going to be the best Christmas, even trumping the year I got a new bike for Christmas and Mom and Dad let us ride them in the basement since we couldn't go outside.  Ainsley has a grasp of Christmas this year and has been excited about everything we've done over the last month.  I'm pretty sure she's going to be one very excited little girl on Christmas morning, and I can't wait!  Actually, I don't know who's more excited.  It may be me!

A package arrived at our house at the end of November.  It was an advent calendar that my boss's wife had made for the girls.  It is the coolest thing!  Ainsley gets to put (Velcro) an ornament on the tree each day until Christmas, and the ornaments are even things that Ainsley likes.  There's a John Deere tractor, cow, train, duck, snowflake, and even stockings with each of our names embroidered on them.  I'm pretty sure I have the best boss (and boss's wife) ever!

How cool is that?!

Ainsley gets up each morning and we put a different ornament on the tree.  She knows she can only put one on each day.  The first few days, she wanted to put the star on, but I told her we had to wait and put the star on last.  We'd put the star on Christmas morning.  About day three, she would run to the container holding all the ornaments and say:  "Not the star". It's so funny, because she'll say it four or five times while getting the container open.

We put the Christmas tree up late November and Ainsley couldn't wait to help.  She had to hand me each ornament to put on the tree, and even show me where to put them.  She couldn't quite figure out how to put the hooks so the ornament would stay on the tree, so I had to do it for her.  I've caught her a few times sitting in front of the tree, just staring at it.  Aunt Jennifer has a train that goes around the bottom of one of her trees and the girls love it.  Shopko had them on clearance a few weeks ago, so I went ahead and got one.  Ainsley was so excited when I brought it home and couldn't wait for Daddy to put it together.

I've caught Ainsley a few times laying in the floor moving her arms back and forth for a few weeks.  When I ask what she's doing, she replies: "Making snow angels".  Another thing where we have no clue where she learned it!

We introduced the Elf on the Shelf at the beginning of December.  I read Ainsley the book, and told her that the elf would be watching and would fly to the North Pole each night to tell Santa if she was good or bad.  I then told her she couldn't touch the elf, because the elf would lose her magic and wouldn't be able to fly to Santa.  Of course, as soon as Ainsley heard me say that she couldn't do something, her eyes lit up.  She then looked at the elf differently and put a finger out and slowly put it closer to the elf, wanting so bad to touch it, until I told her she couldn't touch her.  Once I said she couldn't touch the elf, Ainsley got a huge smirk on her face.  Not even a minute later, while the elf was sitting on the couch, we see Ainsley go over with a book in her hand and touch the elf with the book and then look over at us.  Joel and I both about died.  We ignored her at first, but after the second time of touching the elf with a different toy, we had to tell her again that she couldn't touch the elf.  It seriously drives Ainsley nutty that she can't touch it.  I've caught her too many times trying to touch the elf.  I just have to sit back and laugh at her.  She's too much like her Daddy!

Ainsley gets up each morning and doesn't make a big scene to find the elf, but Joel and I watch her slowly looking around for the elf as she gets dressed, walks down the hallway, and into the kitchen.  When she finally sees the elf, she doesn't point it out.  Instead, she'll just look at the elf for a few seconds, get a grin on her face, and go about the rest of her day. 

The elf's name is "Tink", and Tink hasn't done anything too crazy.  In fact, a few nights I guess she was sick, because she didn't move from the spot she was in the day before.  Tink did turn the milk in the refrigerator green one day, and Ainsley absolutely loved it!  Ainsley laughed and laughed because the elf turned the milk green.  She asked for green milk all day long, and I think was a little bummed when all the green milk was finally gone.

I'm pretty sure Ainsley's going to be disappointed when the new year hits.  She's been a little spoiled with having multiple cards to open each day, and getting to play with all the Christmas gifts that I haven't wrapped.  She loves opening each card, and especially loves the ones with pictures.  We got a card from a lady I work with in Dallas who has three girls, and Ainsley carried the picture of the three girls around the day it arrived.  She told me the girls in the picture were her friends, and she wanted to go see them.  She refused to put the picture down!

Playing with the Christmas presents I haven't wrapped yet....don't worry, though.  None of them are hers!

I've been busy baking, and I've had two little sidekicks to help me.  Ainsley has to pour everything into the bowls and stir.  I had her help me unwrap Hersey kisses for peanut blossoms one day, and she took that job very seriously.  It was so funny to watch her, and she wouldn't let me help.

Poor Lily....Ainsley stirred the flour a little too hard and flung flour all over little sister!

Ainsley and I put together a gingerbread house one evening, and she had a blast doing it.  I'm pretty sure she enjoyed eating all the candy and icing the best, but that's what's so fun about it, right?!  She decorated it all by herself.  I only had to put the icing on, and she did the rest.  I think she did a pretty good job!

Sneaking some candy in her mouth

It didn't last long....as soon as we were done, she started eating all the candy off of it!

Kathleen and Lani came over one evening to bake and decorate cookies with us.  Ainsley couldn't wait for "Lambie" to come over.  I found "the best sugar cookie recipe ever" on Pinterest, and made a batch of it.  Well, "the best sugar cookie recipe ever" was a bust.  Luckily, I had a few packages of sugar cookie mix from Aldi in the pantry that you only had to add an egg and a tablespoon of water.  I whipped that up, and those were the best cookies ever!  I would recommend going that route for sure. 

The girls (and Jack for a few minutes) had fun decorating the cookies.  Ainsley started putting sprinkles on the cookies, and was saying "Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle" every time she did it.  I have no clue where she came up with that, but we all got a good laugh out of it!

Ainsley's cookies....would you like some cookie with your sprinkles???

And then, the girls discovered the icing.  Ainsley especially liked the blue icing, and was eating spoonfuls at a time. 

I can see many more cookie baking/decorating days with these two girls in the future!

I just realized that poor Lily isn't in any of these pictures.  She really hasn't been left out of anything.  She's usually sitting right beside us, watching or with Daddy in the other room.  Next year, she'll be more involved, and in more pictures!