Getting ready for Christmas

We've been having a lot of fun getting into the
Christmas Spirit.

The first weekend in December Ainsley had a Christmas dance recital, and Santa Clause was there. :)
Ainsley was super cute, she told me she thought she might be shy, but she went right up to him, sat on his lap and told him that she wanted 'a white kitty that walks'.
I don't know where this desire came from, but out of the blue she started saying that she wants a 'white kitty that walks' I kept thinking she'd change her mind or start asking for other things, but she's been quite consistent. :)

For your viewing pleasure, my ballerina elf.

Her dance partner Meira

We put up the Christmas tree!
We got a new one this year. Tom had been asking for us to get a bigger one for years and I finally broke down and agreed.
I thought it would be too big for our house, but turns out I love it!

Ainsley LOVES our tree. When we were putting it up she was running around the house yelling "I'm SO excited, I'm SO excited, I'm SO excited!" She loves to stand there and look at the tree. She tells me at least once every day how beautiful our tree is. And I agree. :)

All over my tree are little lace circles my grandmother made that look like beautiful snowflakes. They make up the most of my decorations. It's simple. But I love it. I love that each of the other ornaments on the tree mean something. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Here are the two for my girls. There's a silver spoon with '2007' on the stem for my Ainsley. And above it to the right is a little green mitten that says "Baby's First" for my Eleanor.

Another of my favorites. This is from our trip to Europe the year after we got married.
We saw a lot of things, but the Eiffel tower was the one I was most excited for. Every time I see this it makes me think of kissing my husband in the most romantic city in the world.

My mother made these out of real sheep wool when we lived on a ranch with sheep.
I love them, and hope to always have them and give them to my kids when they get older.

an ornament from my childhood.
I can't remember a year when this wasn't on our tree.

And with the Christmas tree, goes the Christmas village!
My grandmother hand painted all of these, and they are very special to me. One year I'm going to set it up with snow and more people. This year I thought it looked great on the top of my desk.
I think these two are my favorites, a Bakery and a Bookstore!
(though I love my antique store, flower shop and school too)

Ainsley loves to help me in the kitchen.
She's the cutest little assistant cook. So of course, we made cookies.

and decorated them :)

Our two favorite cookies.
Ainsley's 'Gingerbread Girl with Blue Hair'
and My 'Flamboyant pirate'

We also made a real gingerbread house for the first time!
I've done them with graham crackers, but never the actual gingerbread before.

and luckily Aunt Roxanne came over to help us decorate :)