Thanksgiving, pies, and Advent activities

Well the traditional weekly post has now been delayed long enough that this one will have to cover two weeks.

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.

Spinach Pie

Pork and Apple Pie

Marlborough Pudding

Lamb Pasties

Individual Chicken Pot Pies

Carrot Pie

After Bennett woke up from his nap we went to visit Mimi.  We brought her some Thanksgiving leftover, including a few of her favorites that hadn't been provided by the nursing home.

Beaumont had already decorated for Winter

We also painted some ornaments.  These were from kits which only came with red, green, and yellow paints.  Kind of hard to do much with limited colors!

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!  

The past couple of weeks

Here are a few things from our adventures over the past couple of weeks.
Bennett has always been a pretty picky eater.  He will consistently eat yogurt and pretty much any fruit, but that's about it.  Over the past couple of weeks he's surprised us with how well he's eaten some new (to him) foods.  Granted most of these aren't the healthiest, but at least he's eating.  And a couple of them he had previously rejected, so this is progress.  We can now say that he eats:

• Pizza
• Tacos,
• Salad
• Sour cream
• Cheeseburgers

What would have been Bennett's second skaing lesson was a bust.  The boy has a bit of OCD and he didn't like the fact that his helmet was in the skating bag and not on the shelf where it has lived for the entire summer/fall.  Unbeknownst to us, he took it out of the bag and put it on the shelf.  We only realized this after we got to the rink and had skates on.  We checked at the rental desk and in the lost and found box to see if there was a spare we could use, but no such luck.  And for kids, no helmet means no skating. So Mummy stayed off the ice with Bennett while Daddy skated.  Which was probably a good thing because Daddy needs more practice.  :) The following week we made sure we had the helmet and we think Bennett had a good class.  I asked one of the teachers how he did, and she said, "he can't get up, and he can't move on his own, but he was smiling."  Well, I guess if he's smiling he must have been having fun, right?  And we certainly aren't expecting him to be able to stand or skate on his own after only a couple of lessons.  It's just tough to see how he's doing since Chris and I have our lessons down at the other end of the rink.  Since none of the other parents of the Tot class are skating, they get to stand and watch and have a better idea of how the lesson went.

We came up with an idea for our holiday cards this year!  I really like the idea, but now I just need to find the time to execute it.  Making the necessary costume shouldn't be too difficult (I hope) but I need to get another big craft project finished up before I can begin.  However, we did pick up a necessary clothing item.  Hopefully Bennett won't be traumatized when he gets older and he realizes that I put him in girl's clothing.  :)

Mummy had a haircut on Saturday.  Bennett and Daddy tagged along because we were headed out afterwards and it was easier than me running home first to get them.  So Bennett did what everyone else in the waiting area was doing- reading magazines.  I didn't get a picture, but he selected Wine Officianado as his reading selection.  

When we got home later in the day, Bennett helped with some chores.  I think he needs a little more practice wrapping the cord on the vacuum cleaner.

We went and had our annual family pictures taken.  I'll share those pictures in a month or so after people get them for Christmas gifts.  While we were getting ready that morning Bennett lay down on our bed and had Daddy read him a book.  He'd never sat like this for a book before it came in handy when we wanted him to do a similar pose when we went in for our pictures.

Over the past couple of weeks we've had a number of chances for Bennett to visit Santa.  Given what a disaster meeting Sir Topham Hatt was, we were hoping that multiple exposures to Santa would be good.  We've lucked out that there haven't been any lines for Santa and he's now had 3 visits.  Unfortunately our plan isn't working.  He does NOT want to sit with Santa.  He'll tolerate sitting in one of our laps and giving Santa high-fives, but he's eager to get away.  When we do leave, he energetically yells "bye Santa" and waves.  This weekend we go for the "official" Santa pictures.  I'm not expecting them to be good at all.

Mummy's birthday was on the 18th.  Bennett helped open her cards and presents. Daddy helped Bennett make a card for me and Bennett traced his own hand for card.  I guess they do that a lot at school?  Not the most perfect looking, but nice to know what he was trying to do rather than the normal scribbles that don't look like much.


And that brings us to Thanksgiving!  He did really well in the car.  I'm sure he was getting antsy, but we brought a bunch of things with us to keep him busy.  And he took a nap for a little while, so that was nice.  He was pretty shy when we first arrived, but that was understandable given there were 22 adults and 3 kids and he only really knew 4 of the adults (Mummy, Daddy, Mimi, and Uncle "An-dew").  Shortly after arriving it was time to eat.  He was back to his normal eating habbits.  He ate cranberry sauce and a crescent roll, but that might have been it.  Maybe a little corn?

After eating we went outside for a little while to run around and burn off some energy- perfect after all that sitting!   Bennett loved being thrown around by Uncle Andrew and doing some chasing around. 

Then it was time to go inside for dessert.  At this point Bennett was a bit sweaty, hence the spiked hair. 

As I mentioned earlier, there were 3 children this year.  Bennett was the oldest at 2 years, R was 13 months, and T was 6 months.  Of the 3, Bennett had the least amount of hair and T had the most.  Not fair!  Not the best picture, but here are Bennett and R.  It was later in the afternoon at this point and they had both woken up from naps not long before, which I think is why they weren't much interested in having their pictures taken.

Speaking of picture taking, here are a couple of family shots.





Uncle Andrew, Bennett, Mummy, Daddy





The Smeals





Everyone who was there, minus 3 of the Smeals who left to go to another family gathering.



On the 24th I realized I had forgotten to take Bennett's monthly photo.  Understandable since he turned 26 months on Thanksgiving.  Although if I had remembered I probably would have brought along Paddington and the sign and taken the photo while we were in NJ.

On Sunday we went to Sturbridge with Uncle Andrew.  Daddy stayed home to work on some items for the store he sells at (wooden puzzles, ornaments, etc.)  It was COLD!  There also weren't many people there, probably due to traveling home and the temperature.  We saw them stuffing the root cellar with hay to insulate against the cold and we went into many more buildings than normal.  I guess that's understandable since we needed to warm up (any building with plaster, original wallpaper, or historic artifacts has artificial heat).  Plus with it being so cold we didn't really want to stand around and stare at animals too much.  But Bennett did get to see his beloved beep (sheep) and ocken (oxen) as well as neighs (horses) and cows.  I also learned that he knows one of our traditions- stopping at the general store to buy cookies.  As we walked along the common in that direction he said "cookie".  Hmm, too bad we were actually headed for the oxen.  But then we did go get cookies, which meant mittens had to come off to eat them, which meant freezy cold hands.

Over the past couple of weeks we've also noticed a bit of a language explosion for Bennett.  We can't wait until he becomes even more verval, but we've recently hear his variations of Andrew, mall, Santa, Patty, cookie, and numerous others.  Plus, he started saying "Mommy" rather than pronouncing it "mimi" which created a little confusion when around Mimi (grandma Breecher's name).  I'd rather that he pronounce it the British way with a U, but I guess for now I'll take it.  It did sound very weird to me at first though, having heard him pronounce it with Is for so long.

And in other family news unrelated to Bennett, one of the puzzles that Chris makes was featured on Apartment Therapy!  Unfortunately Chris was sold out of this particular puzzle at the time.  It's been relisted as a custom order, but so far we haven't seen any sales as a result.  Lots of increased traffic though, so that's good.

Until next time... stay warm!