Favorites from Christmas

Yes, it was Neil's gift, but Ben is happy cause he thinks Neil won't beat on him anymore.

I had a hard time deciding between this one or the one with Busia trying to turn Neil's frown upside down. Glad to see the boys' favorite bedtime book is immortalized here.

Neil can't be bothered to smile for the camera – he's BUSY.
(Santa also rewarded me with the retirement of the potty chair when we got home!)

Truck time with the English boys. Ben now says Matt is his favorite cousin, but I think it has more to do with the computer time they had together.

Truck time is tiring.

Christmas Ornament

Ben brought this home from school this week. Mama thinks he's handsome.

Polish Christmas

I read Donna's Blog the other day and June had made a comment about her memories of Wigilia. So today I'm reading an article about one of our favorite shows, Community, and the actor discusses being Polish Catholic and briefly describes Wigilia and oplatek (in the last paragraph). If you are a Community fan you will be surprised by which actor has the Polish upbringing.
Community Wigalia Link

I attended Wigilia only once, but my memories were not so much about the food. I think Brian may have argued that I did not have to eat all of the items, but I'm pretty sure I would have at least tried everything. (Try everything once, avoid it in the future.) For me I was more "traumatized" by the everyone sings Christmas carols portion of the evening. So, in the future if I'm on Free Factor I will eat the Madagascar Hissing beetle, but I won't sing a capella.

Sidebar: I'm still learning to read Polish. In my mind, Busia should be Buscha and Wigilia should be Vigala. And must always remember to capitalize Polish, otherwise it can be confused with polish; like polishing the furniture.

Ben's Field Trip

Brian joined Ben for his first field trip yesterday. They have been studying Food at school so they went on a field trip to Jewel. Got to visit the deli, produce, fish monger, meat packing department, box crushing machine (baler), and bakery. They decorated cookies in the bakery, which Ben shared with Neil when he got home.

Brian received a nice compliment from Ben's teacher: Ben is the most agreeable and easy going kids she has ever taught. He also has the distinction of being the class line leader. Basically whenever the class leaves the classroom Ben gets to be the first guy in line. (He may be the only one who listens based on some classmates Brian observed).

Pink Eye

As if potty training was not enough fun for me, Neil woke up today and I think he's got a case of pinkeye. Ugh!

My Repair Team

All of our repair projects are now addressed by a team of workers. I overhear things like "Okay, now hand me the Phillips" and "I want the pliers". Incidentally, the dishwasher needed attention because the door was sticking. Ben took a pretty scary ride backwards and under it the night before when he was trying to pry it open.

Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

We had our first snow today, 5.5 inches total. The boys were very excited to get out and shovel the driveway. Ben has been really looking forward to this. Earlier in the week we had a little dusting. When he came home from school that day and stepped off the bus he burst into tears saying, "why did you shovel all the snow." I had to explain that it just blew away, not that I had done it.

The boys also got to visit Santa at the clubhouse today. They both asked Santa for candy, but after trying candy canes they may change their minds. Neither one liked them. Ben was also curious as to how Santa got to the clubhouse since he didn't see any reindeer. Brian explained that reindeer are reserved especially for Christmas day. If memory serves me, I also had to explain how Santa gets in our house last year since we don't have a fireplace.