Christmas comes but thrice a year...

I always hate coming up with titles for blog posts.  But then all of a sudden I thought of the line from the song. "Christmas comes but once a year".  Only in our case, that's not correct.  Sunday we had the first of our Christmas gatherings.  Then there will be the actual celebrations on Christmas, and then we'll celebrate on Saturday when we're in Georgia.

Nana and Gradpa watched Bennett on Wednesday.  They tried doing a messy craft/activity with Bennett (playing with shaving cream and food coloring- smearing it all together) and apparently Bennett did NOT want to get messy.  This is very strange to us, because we haven't had any problems with messy stuff, as is evidenced in these pictures.



Painting a piece of paper to later be cut into a bow for a wreath.

Bennett painted wrapping paper.  Here he's painting his feet to make footprints.



The funny part was watching him try to stand without getting paint on the floor.

  Yesterday he helped us with some baking.  He loves dumping the premeasured cup/spoon into the bowls and then mixing.  Don't worry, this spatula wasn't used again after going into Bennett's mouth.  And it would appear that he's a fan of peanut butter!

Someone turned 27 months old.  Eek!  And once again I was late taking the picture.  All week I kept telling myself to remember the picture, and then yesterday I realized I'd missed it.

As I mentioned, we had our first Christmas Celebration yesterday.  We went to West Street to celebrate with Nana, Grandpa, Auntie Hanna, Uncle Andrew and Aunt Gentry.

Bennett helped Grandpa cut out some cookies.  I think he got bored after just a few of them.

When I was a kid I remember my dad always setting up his childhood train around the Christmas Tree.  I was hoping that I would be able to put it up around our tree, but no such luck.  Instead Grandpa set it up at his house.  Chris and I saw it and started playing and then Bennett came over to watch.  I think we'll have to save up and get our own train.

Then it was time for presents!  Uncle Andrew made a kilt for Bennett. We had known about this in advance (had to provide some measurements) so I had ordered a sporran and kilt hose.  I'll have to knit him a better pair of hose because this pair was way too big.  And unfortunately these pictures came out pretty horrible.

Uncle Andrew later pulled a gold dollar out of Bennett's ear.  Wow!  How'd he do that?  Bennett kept checking for more dollars, and also trying to put his dollar back in his ear.  We also showed him that he could put his dollar in his sporran, and he liked that.

Another great gift was this mixer.  Bennett LOVES his play kitchen (Chris and I have plans to upgrade it for him, but that hasn't happend.)  The mixer came with bags of "flour" and "brown sugar" which he mixed up and we decided he was making bread.  Most likely the kind of brown bread that comes in a can.  He also got a play toaster which was fun because when you pressed the lever it launched the bread out.  The adults loved that!  It also came with a little wooden knife and some butter that you could slice, which was fun for Bennett.

Now on to some decorations.  I've mentioned our Advent calendar.  Here's a picture. This year I just have put cards into each stocking talking about what we would be doing that day- baking cookies, reading a book, etc.  In other years I might decide to include a small trinket.  I'm undecided. I had originally seen a very similar advent calendar on Pottery Barn's website but I hadn't liked the price tag.  Well, after buying all of the materials and the time put into making it, I should have just bought it.  I am happy with how it turned out, so I guess it was worth it.  Even if it's huge!  :)

I also thought I would share pictures of our LEGO winter village.  This all started last year.  Chris got me one of the sets and then after Christmas I picked up another set while it was on clearance.  Then this year I scoured eBay to pick up an older discontinued set, and for Chris' birthday I gave him this year's set.  And Black Friday weekend LEGO was offering a deal where if you spent a certain amount of money you got a mini set for "free".  Although there were many sets we wanted that would meet this dollar value, we didn't really need any of them.  Instead we bought a few smaller sets, and a certain nephew is going to be getting a whole bunch of LEGOs this Christmas.  :)

What's neat about these sets is that they don't just come with one building.  They have a building and then various accessories- benches, sheds, vehicles, etc.  So although this is only 4 sets (plus a mini set) it looks like so much more.   Plus some things show up in multiple pictures, so it looks like a lot.

Overview- sorry it's so dark.

Post Office, ice rink, igloo, woodshed, tree stand, postal truck.

Snowplow, bakery, and the postal truck and post office again.

Toy shop, tree, gazebo, sleigh.

Part of the cottage, the gazebo, tree, and the horse pulling the wagon.

The cottage

Toy shop, tree, horses pulling the sleigh and the wagon.

Week in review

The report from skating is that Bennett *can* stand up on his own, but that he doesn't like to.  He has much more fun just sliding around on the ice, and then using his teacher to stand up.  He also can march, and if pushed, he can glide.  Woo hoo!  Way to go, Bennett!  And this was the first week that I was able to hand him off to a teacher without him clinging to me.  Looks like we're making progress and that he's having fun.  He also has been saying "ice" (pronounced I-sh, with a long I) but we're not sure if that is due to his enjoyment skating or his love of the ice dispenser on our fridge.

It seems that every year or so I decide to try to make latkes.  And every time, they are a failure.  I think more often than not, they are overcooked on the outside and raw on the inside.  I believe I've narrowed down the problems to not getting enough moisture out of the potatoes, not using a binder, and not having enough oil.  This year I remedied all of those problems and we had success!  And the bigger success was that Bennett ate them.  (Ok, he maybe ate half of one.)  They had them the next day at school as well and Bennett ate another half latke there as well.  So now he eats latkes and french fries.  Won't touch mashed potatoes and not really a fan of roasted either.

Last night we had tortellini for dinner.  He ate a couple of pieces and spit others out, so we're not really sure if he liked them or not.  But for the ones he didn't spit out, we're counting it as a win.

With the Christmas tree set up, we had to clear Bennett's train table out of the room.  One night this week I set up a bit of track going around the tree.  It's not the easiest to use being so close to the bookcase and the tree skirt makes the track a bit bumpy, but I think Bennett liked it.  But then after having been set up for about 5 days, last night Bennett decided to take it all apart and put the track away in the bin with all the other track pieces.  I guess he didn't think it belonged on the floor?

Friday night we made cinnamon ornaments.  I realized I am a major control freak.  In theory I'm ok with Bennett getting messy and doing things his way, but in practicality I hardly ever let him play with play-dough or paint or things like that.  And with this project I guess I kept thinking that he was doing it "wrong".  Maybe people would prefer to get ornaments of misshapen blobs rather than hearts, stars, or elephants?  Hey, I did let him exercise his creativity with the elephant and bunny cookie cutters, although I did veto the turkey.

Saturday after skating we went to Brunch with Santa at Mimi's.  She just called me to tell me that everyone is telling her how handsome Bennett is and that he's so smile-y and happy.  Which for the most part is true- until you have him take a picture with Santa.  I tried to put him on Santa's knee and he was not having that at all!

It was a cold but fun night when we went to Christmas by Candlelight.  We had originally planned to go on Sunday night but after looking at the weather forecast (mix of rain, snow, sleet, etc) we decided to change our tickets for Saturday night.  All of the buildings in the center of the village were open with a variety of entertainments: music, mulled cider, traditional fruitcake, dioramas, etc.  There also were carolers outside the bank, musical groups at the Center Meetinghouse, and various recitations, a magic show, and a Punch & Judy show.  So much to see and do that we couldn't see it all.  Plus the crowds in some of the buildings where music was taking place made it impossible to get inside.  And we didn't want to get stuck inside a building and then have Bennett wanting to get away, so we skipped a few things that might have been interesting.  Santa Claus was there (the line was way too long so didn't visit with him) as well as Father Christmas, who is pictured below.

We had yet another visit with Santa.  I've lost count of how many times Bennett has seen Santa.  But this weekend we taught Bennett that Santa says, "ho ho ho".  So now Bennett goes around saying , "Tanta- oh oh oh."  Anyway, the outfit that Bennett wore for our holiday cards was just screaming out to be worn in a photo with Santa.  We were going to do it last week when we were at the mall having the pictures taken for our cards, but Santa wasn't going to show up for another hour so we decided to skip it.  So I brought Bennett on Sunday.  We got in line about 15 minutes before Santa arrived.  We were maybe 3rd or 4th in line, which shouldn't have been too bad.  Except there were only 2 out of 5 other employees working there.  2 people had called in sick and 1 had been fired the day before.  Needless to say, the two remaining employees were a bit frazzled.  I commented that someone would have to mess up pretty bad to get fired this close to Christmas and was told that she had given away $100+ of photos for free since she couldn't figure out the (idiot proof) computer system.  For being so close to the start of the line it took me about 20 minutes to get through once they got started.  Definitely shouldn't have taken that long.  I feel bad for all of the people who were further back in line.

I hope to be able to share the photos once most people receive their cards.  Those were mailed out today, so hopefully I can share something later in the week.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Lots of cute pictures this week, but not too many that I can share yet.  This week I made Bennett a costume to wear for our holiday card photo so there were a few fittings in the evening, and subsequent photos.  We took the photos on Sunday, so by this weekend we'll get the cards back and then they can quickly be signed and mailed.  Here are some pictures that I can share.

I made an advent calendar for Bennett (maybe next week I'll post a picture?) and each day there is a card with some sort of activity.  Some days it relates to what we were planning to do anyway (go to a party, take photos with Santa, etc) and other days it will be a craft, or on many occasions, it's a book to read.  Here's Daddy reading one of the new Christmas books

Thursday Bennett's school had a holiday party. Enrollment at his school is pretty low which works out well because he gets so much one-on-one attention.  They have had a number of new kids start recently though.  What was interesting though was that none of the new families came to the party.  But it was nice to see the kids and parents that we've known for a while now, and that are there every day.  I think there were only 4 families who came to the party (there were also a couple of older siblings) but it kept the whole thing to a manageable size and we were all able to talk.  And Bennett ate another new (to him) food at the party.  Spaghetti!  He also ate mango for the first time, but he hasn't found a fruit that he doesn't like, so that one doesn't surprise us very much.

Bennett decorating cookies (and eating M&Ms) at the holiday party.

On Saturday we set the tree up while Bennett was napping.  I think he was a little surprised to see a tree in the house when he came downstairs.  He helped us decorate and then Daddy picked him up to put the angel on the top.  Unfortunately as Chris leaned in, he got stabbed in the eye by the tree.

We also sat up this snowman that he received for his first Christmas.  He sings Jingle Bell Rock and dances.  Plus there's a little thing on the front of the package that he's holding that spins around and has LEDs that lights up and says Merry Christmas.  A little annoying to us, but Bennett just giggles like crazy.

Sunday afternoon we invited people over for gingerbread (graham cracker) house decorating.  To make things a bit easier I pre-made the houses the night before.  This is pretty helpful because the houses have a chance to completely set and are less likely to fall apart as you put candy on them.  I did end up making 3 houses too many since we weren't entirely  sure who would be able to make it and which adults would want to make their own houses.

Chris helped Bennett with his house, but I think Chris did most (if not all) of the work.  Bennett definitely enjoyed eating the candy though.  :)



Fun for all ages!

 And here are the finished houses.

Yes that's a TARDIS and a Dalek in the back.
We have a number of friends who are Dr. Who fans.

Licorice whip power line coming off one of the houses.

Is the Gingerbread Man a Shriner or just wearing a Santa hat?

My house, and Bennett's "wood shed".

I have to say, I love the way everyone uses the same materials in different ways. And also the way people think out of the box a bit to get materials to suit the need.  For instance, I used Golden Grahams as shingles on my house and Kristen broke them up to make stones for a pathway to lead to her house. Andes Mints got used as doors and shingles and also got cut up to make bricks for a chimney or a different style of shingle.

I do wonder though what people do with their finished gingerbread houses?  Do you just put them out to display and throw them away after a suitable amount of time?  Do you (or the kids) eat them?  It seems that it was a mix of the two options from those I asked.  Personally the idea of eating stale candy doesn't really appeal to me, and I have quite the sweet tooth. 

Ice Ice Baby (Toddler)

The other excitement of the weekend was that Awesome Auntie Mel proved her awesomeness by coming to the rink and freezing for me on Saturday!  Daddy couldn't come to skating because he had a booth at a craft fair.  Mel lives pretty close to the rink so I asked if she would be able to come by to take photos of Bennett and then watch him after his lesson until I got off the ice.  She was game!  I love looking at these pictures and actually getting a bit of a sense of how Bennett's lessons are going.  And even though he spends a lot of time sitting on the ice (which isn't really shown in these pictures) he looks like he's having fun.

He must have realized that Mel was there watching and taking pictures, because the instructor (who knows I was off skating on the other side of the rink) even asked him at one point who he was showing off for.

Cooking, and santa, and reindeer... oh my!

Monday night we stopped at Target.  I saw this antler headband and put it on Bennett over his hat.  Then he took it off, took his hat off, and wanted me to put the antlers back on.  Ok, twist my arm.  But you better believe I was going to take a picture.

Bennett ate salad again!  Ok, so most of his consumption happens while standing at the kitchen counter helping prepare dinner, but it's better than nothing. I guess we're just going to have to have him help more.

He also helped take the pancakes out of the frying pan.  Unfortunately he also reached out with his other hand on the first try and touched the frying pan.  Ouch!  But he had such a delayed reaction that at first we weren't sure if he was crying because he was yelled at for touching the hot pan, or if it was from a burn.  Turns out it was a burn.  Cold water and an ice pack seemed to make things better.

Sunday we went to church and he saw the Beep! (Sheep) in the office.  He even tried to climb on top of it, but that didn't work out so well.

And the other excitement for the week... we saw Santa! Earlier in the week I had been at the mall with Bennett picking up our family portraits.  We had another visit with Santa which went like the others- squirming like crazy trying to get out of my lap, ok giving high-fives, but then wanting to get away.  And as soon as we got up to leave, and all the way up the staircase near Santa, Bennett would walk a few steps, turn, yell "bye Santa" walk a few more steps, turn, "bye Santa".. repeat.

So yesterday we really weren't expecting a lot.  We were trying to decide if we would rather have the picture of Bennett screaming in Santa's lap, or if we wanted Mummy or Daddy to be in the picture with Bennett, and still maybe with less than stellar results.

We met up with Awesome Auntie Mel and her son Alexander.  They ran around for a couple of minutes and then we got in line.  I think the assistants were busy doing something so Santa walked around for a couple of minutes saying hi and giving high-fives.  At first Bennett was nervous but then he gave a high-five.  And he was doing pretty well.  When we got up to the front of the line he went and hid behind Daddy's legs.  Uh-oh.  This doesn't seem good.

Alexander had his pictures taken and then it was Bennett's turn.  Alexander hopped up into the chair so Mel could take a couple of pictures, and I think this worked perfectly to help get Bennett a bit more comfortable. 

In the end, he certainly didn't look happy, but he wasn't screaming.  So we're calling it a success!  Maybe next year he'll smile for us?

After visiting Santa we stopped in another store.  Bennett stuck his hands in his pockets (he's been doing this a bit lately) and started walking around.  Super cute!  Luckily he still hasn't figured out that things other than hands can go in pockets, but I think that pretty soon we're going to have to remember to check them before pants go in the wash.

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!