We start off with Thanksgiving, or as Bennett would call it, "Thanks-for-giving". Wondering what one eats on Thanks-for-giving? "Thanks-for-giving food", of course!
As we usually do, we went to New Jersey for Thanksgiving. We drive down and back in one day, so it makes for a pretty long day. It was a small-ish crowd this year, 19 adults and 2 kids.
We didn't even bother trying to get Bennett to take a nap. We knew the odds for actually getting him to sleep would be pretty slim. Instead many of us went on walk. Unfortunately he ended up wanting to be carried much of the way. But here he is with Michael checking out an old tractor.
Back at the house there were lots of people to play Zingo Bingo with Bennett.
After supper he fell asleep in my lap. This is absolutely not normal for him at all. I think he was just over a year old the last time he fell asleep in my lap. Soon after this picture was taken we did wake him up to use the potty and change into PJs and he ended up waking up a bit too much. We left soon afterwards and he quickly fell asleep in the car.
Overall it was a nice Thanksgiving but it went by very quickly and we left feeling like we had barely talked to anyone.
The week was full of lots of baking of pies. Tuesday night I baked a Marlborough Pudding for Liz. On Wednesday I made a pear pie and a pecan pie. And then on Friday/Saturday I made another Marlborough Pudding, a carrot pie, and Chris made chicken pot pies.
Why all this pie? Saturday we hosted "Piesgiving". Andrew and Gentry brought lamb pasties and a pork and apple pie and Dad brought over spinach pie.
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| Spinach Pie |
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| Pork and Apple Pie |
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| Marlborough Pudding |
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| Lamb Pasties |
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| Individual Chicken Pot Pies |
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| Carrot Pie |
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| Beaumont had already decorated for Winter |
On Sunday we had our weekly OSV visit. It was very quiet at the village. Most people were likely busy traveling home from Thanksgiving. Plus the weather was a bit yucky so I'm sure that kept many people away as well.
One of the things on the schedule was to help the farmer with seasonal work. I think the original plan had been to cut wood, but since Bennett was the only one around to help, the farmer decided to sharpen some tools instead. Bennett got the job of turning the sharpening wheel.
Back at home, we made an Advent wreath.
During Advent I'm trying to come up with some sort of activity every day. One day we made a paper chain out of construction paper. The next day we painted wrapping paper.
He'll probably hate me later in life when he sees pictures of himself just in undies, but we knew how messy this would be, so stripping down to the undies was a necessity.
We also decorated our tree. Although the ornaments that Bennett put on were all on the lower branches, they were mostly spaced out. Well, not these. Luckily they weren't too bad so I didn't need to rearrange much.
Last Friday was the holiday party at Bennett's school. He was very excited that he was wearing party clothes and he even told everyone he saw that these were his party clothes.
After eating all of the kids got to decorate cookies. Bennett seemed to think that making sandwich cookies was the way to go. It certainly was less messy than having to deal with all the frosting and sprinkles that he used.
Last Saturday we went to Sturbridge for their Christmas by Candlelight program. This officially ended our streak with 25 weeks in a row-- from June 22nd through December 7th. We also learned that we aren't the only regular visitors. There's one family who also comes pretty much every week, but they have a child who's a Junior Intern. Not sure that is quite the same as us since the parents have to come to provide transportation. Then there's another family who comes 2-3 days in a row and then comes back again a few weeks later for another 2-3 days in a row.
Anyway, while we were at Christmas by Candlelight we started off watching part of a performance by Full Gael. We've seen them perform before at OSV and really like them. Bennett wasn't quite as mesmerized this time as he's been before, but he did enjoy the music.
Next we walked through a couple of buildings, making mulling spice sachets, learning about Saint Nicholas, etc. Then we made our way to the bonfire on the common where we ran into Dave and Victoria. Victoria let us know that she would be reading Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and invited us to listen. So after dinner that's where we headed.
We then headed to a few more buildings where we sampled fruitcake, gingerbread, and viewed a miniature village (complete with a few miniature OSV buildings). At the tinsmith we made twisted tin ornaments.
As we were leaving we passed back through the visitor center and noticed that the line for Santa was much shorter than when we arrived so Bennett got to see Santa.
I'm not quite sure that Bennett understands that Santa brings gifts and that you are supposed to ask Santa for what you want for Christmas. When we saw Santa at the mall on Saturday (we were there for something else so figured we would see how he did with Santa) he asked for "a truck". Or at least I think that's what he said. He was pretty quiet. At OSV, while standing in line we prepped Bennett that Santa might ask what he wanted. He said "a hat". What color? "Red." Ok, sounds good. Santa can do that! But then when Santa asked him his response was, "a present". What kind of present? "A red one."
Since then I've tried getting more info both asking, and having Bennett draw a picture for Santa of what he wants. He drew "a red present. With a bow on it."
On Sunday we were going to go to the Enchanted Village at Jordan's Furniture. We arrived there about an hour after they opened and the line was at least two hours long. We turned around and left. He was a bit sad at first but instead we went to Ikea and he forgot all about it.
Back at home Bennett helped wrap presents to mail to Georgia.
And that wraps up Nov. 25th through Dec. 8th!
