I’m back from my 11 day country retreat with the in-laws. I feel so much more relaxed now. Thanksgiving dinner was great- my FIL smoked a ham and a turkey too! My MIL bought Schwann’s Dark Cherry ice cream too and it was heavenly- it just needed lil chocolate bits in it! LOL.
I learned how to use a dehydrater while up there. I dried apples, peaches, bananas and pears and then made granola cereal out of it. It was fabulous! I’ve heard so much recently about the benefits of oatmeal and almonds on your cholesterol levels- such as a 1/2 cup a day of oatmeal for a month can lower your cholesterol 24 points. Almonds are chock full of calcium and good fats too. I am going to try the oatmeal 30 day challenge. I feel so gunky after all the bad-for-me foods that I’ve consumed while on hiatus.
Brendan is talking so much more now! I think he had a growth spurt too! He just loves his Bopa, his Mimi and his Uncle Anthony! I got them to agree to drive all the way down here on the 18th to babysit so DH and I could go to his company’s Christmas party (they are usually FABULOUSLY FUN) with the promise that Bren and I would go back up with them. So Christmas will begin early this year! YAY! DH will join us on the 23rd.
What Bren learned to say while we were away:
It’s hot/ It’s hot? (He’ll ask when we tell him “Don’t touch that.”)
Puts finger to lips and says “Shhhh!”
outside
water
balloon (“ball-ball” LOL)
And the biggie- last night:
“Bye. Dada. BooBoo. Kisses” Brendan said this when he saw me putting a bandaid on a cut- he went to go get Daddy to give my boo boo a kiss! And when DH came into the room with him he ran over to me, pointed and said “Uh-Oh!” And then gave my boo-boo a kiss! I was so shocked at the whole complexity of it! Completely floored. Kisses is a new word- I’ve only heard it that once.
We put up some Christmas lights last night. It was fun. We wrapped the two poles that frame our front door with alternating layers of green and red lights giving them a cool candy cane effect. Darrell made an awesome gigantic Christmas tree out of our flagpole. It just needs a bright star. Brendan loved watching us put up the lights. He said, “Oh, pretty!” over and over. Of course, he had to touch them too. LOL. I can’t wait til we go out and see all the fancy, lit up houses. It’s one of my all-time favorite holiday activities.