Weekend Festivities

We had a busy and fun weekend! Here's the update:

On Saturday, we had our small group over for our annual Christmas party and Yankee Swap (White Elephant exchange). Our group does a mix of gag gifts and nice gifts, so you never know what you're going to get. But there is always something that is the most talked-about item, and usually that item gets recycled back into the gift circulation year after year. For a while, it's been a shower stick--a thing that basically hangs down from your shower head and sprays water from holes in the tube. One of the things that makes this item so funny, other than the actual product itself, is that the pictures on the packaging are borderline censorable. There are all these half naked people showering, and it has always cracked us up. In fact, last year, Bryan and Sara actually cut out construction paper clothes and taped them on there before wrapping it up and putting it in the pile of gifts. Anyway, Nathan and I had thought that someone else ended up with the famed shower stick last year, but we found it in a closet THE DAY AFTER the party! I mean, COME ON! It had been there a year, and we found it the day after? Oh, the irony. And now we are stuck with it for at least another year. I don't know if that thing is going to make the move to Houston with us or what. Of course, the Benesh side might beware--there is a similar gift exchange on that side of the family at Christmastime, and there might just be an anonymously given shower stick this year. . . . Anyway, we had a nice brunch and gift exchange with our amigos. Then, Noah, Nathan, and I all took long naps (always the mark of a good day).

Sunday was our sixth anniversary, which was so sweetly announced on the blog by Nathan yesterday. :) (I still cannot get over how skinny I am in that picture.) Anyway, in the morning, we went to the early service at church, which begins at 8:30. Really, y'all, that is pretty early for our family. We usually aren't really ready to face the day until nearly 9:00. But we decided to go to the early service in order to do something else special yesterday, which was to go to a model train exhibit at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington. We had just heard about it the day before, and as soon as it was mentioned to us, Nathan and I looked at each other and said, "Noah would love that. We have to go." So we sacrificed our sleep and got to church early in order to be able to get ourselves out to see the trains before naptime. It was worth the outing; Noah really enjoyed checking out the trains:


That evening, Nathan and I went out to dinner at Mamma Maria, which is the same restaurant we went to last year. Now, the last time we went, my entreé was pretty much amazing. This time, we both enjoyed what we got, but really the standouts in the meal were the pesto that was served with the bread and the cappuccino at the end of the meal. They were truly outstanding. I ordered the rabbit dish, which was served with freshly made pasta, and Nathan was the adventurous eater of the night and got a trio of wild game raviolis: wild boar, oxtail, and lamb. Overall, the most fun thing was just getting to go on a date, get dressed up, go to a nice restaurant, and to go out to a part of town in Boston (the North End) we rarely visit anymore. Actually, we were kind of laughing when we got to our table, because our view from the second floor included the fire escape, the dark, narrow cobblestone streets, the gaslight street lamps, and the rain. Nathan pointed out that it totally looked like a scene out of a film noir movie.

Also, Noah said his first two-syllable word this weekend. It was "meatball."

Anywho, that was our weekend. It's a busy time of year for us, between Christmas and anniversary, but it's always fun.