BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02181 Today began or trip to Florida for my cousin’s wedding reception at Disney as well as a few days of visiting with Allison’s parents. Two years ago the family went to Florida for the Christmas holiday and we had a heck of an adventure coming back because we had to drive home, unexpectedly and unplanned. Southwest had cancelled a ton of flights including ours. Well, because of that we had some credits on Southwest and so when making pans for this trip we were able to use those as well as a SouthWest credit card to get our flights there and back for the whole family for under $500, total. I had to pick some pretty wacky and somewhat inconvenient flight times but we were able to do it. We landed in Orlando a bit after 10pm and were able to get to Allison’s parents’ place before the ball dropped for the New Year. Now we have about a week in somewhat warmer weather than home.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02180 Tonight we went to La Salette to see the lights. I had received message from a friend of mine from college, Patrick Tully. He asked what there was around La Salette for places to eat. I gave him suggestions and realized that we had talked about going to La Salette tonight as a family. We hadn’t made it there so far in the Christmas season and this was the last chance so we headed over to see the lighting of the place and then walked around to see all the sights. I thought we could catch up with my friend, but unfortunately they were not going to arrive until an hour after we’d be done our trip. After our visit to La Salette we had dinner over at Bliss. It was one of the warmest visits we’ve ever had to La Salette and the least crowded. Even the Nativity set museum was way less crowded than in the past. The displays are done so much nicer now, too.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02179 Eva worked 52 hours ont he embroidery of her costume. She showed it to us today. This is for a character that is one of her favorites and she has been working very hard to get this costume completed. She has a second costume like this one with tons of embroidery to do but that one is not yet complete.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02178 Today the boys had one adventure while the girls had another. I learned that I had a full day of Personal Time that I had to take or lose by the end of the year so I picked a day where there wasn’t much happening at night at work. We’re still short a person and one other person was going to be out for the weekend. That would leave only two people on and I don’t like taking time when there is a downtime to manage. But, it worked out that nothing was happening so I booked the tickets to aht andy and I could go to Brick Fest Live in Worcester. Brick Fest Live is a LEGO show where people come with their LEGO creations both amature and professional. There are also a bunch of LEGO themed activities to do. I had gone to Philly Brick Fest several years ago when I was doing a LEGO themed YouTube show. That event was really good and I had expected the same sort of thing from today’s show. Today’s show paled in comparison. It was very small and there wasn’t a whole lo...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02177 I took my walk this morning because today we were heading home around noon so that I could work tonight. I decided to go the opposite direction of where I had gone the other days and instead of heading to Great Bay first I headed to the Falmouth Harbor. The water was very calm this morning. I was able to catch one of the boats heading out of the harbor as I came down the hill. I then walked up and around the Falmouth Plaza that now has an Aldis. I walked through the Aldis since I had never been in one before. There were some treats that I was very interested in picking up on a future trip. I then walked behind Walmart over to Marivista and back to the house. In the later morning andy and I helped dad put a bunch of things away for the Winter. We loaded up the outside shower with tables and chairs and then his tires into the Van. We drove home and I took a nap to get ready for work because I was working tonight but off tomorrow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02176 On the day after Christmas my sister Shelby and her family arrived on the Cape. We opened gifts and enjoyed lunch in the morning and early afternoon. I went on another long walk around the area to get those 10,000 steps in. We’d do some more steps when we went over to Cape Cod Lanes for an afternoon of bowling. Bowling with the whole family was a lot of fun. We had two lanes and enjoyed the mild competition. Everyone had fun playing. Mom and Dad came a little later and watched. I’m glad that we caught our server and asked her to take a photo of all of us together, too. When we arrived back home we hung out and had some pizza for dinner. No movie tonight, just a lot of time on the sun porch. The cousins stayed overnight with Andy and with Eva. Eva wasn’t super thrilled to be sharing her space with her energetic cousin but she made do and they eventually went to sleep. We had a very good day all together.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02175 Today was Christmas. We woke up and had our cinnamon rolls for breakfast while we opened our stockings. Stockings were rather light this time around because neither Allison nor I thought much beyond what to put in the kids’ stockings. We overdid it with the the kids, but for us, not so much. I even commandeered some of the kids items for our stockings so they wouldn’t be so bare. That is okay because there were some big deal things coming. Overall the presents were fewer to open but more to experience this year. We’re going to Disney and two days in the parks is a pretty big gift. We also are going to a couple of comedy shows in the coming year. Allison and I are going to see Nate Bargatze in August and the whole family is going to see Josh Johnson in March. Needless to say budgets for gifts went out the window. This will be the kids’ first live comedy show. They enjoy Josh’s comedy on Tik Tok and so do we so we’re very excited to see him live. After we had...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02174 Today was Christmas Eve. I started the day off by going to the Mall and doing my 10,000 steps. I dressed for the day. Later on we went to the 4pm Mass at Sacred Heart Church. Fr. Dave said the Mass. It was a very nice Mass and we saw a few people that we knew. We came home from Mass and had a nice dinner. The kids wanted to have our traditional chicken soup even though it was just the four of us for the meal. They really like certain traditions. after dinner we watched The Muppet Christmas Carol together. Then the kids went to bed and Allison and I stayed up doing all the last minute stuff and watching A Christmas Story.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02173 Allison and the kids made a bunch of tasty treats for Christmas today. They made the poor man’s truffles with pretzels, rolos and M&Ms plus they also made Chocolate Krinkle Cookies. We also worked on getting the things ready for Christmas day.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02172 This afternoon we had the full table read for The People Vs. Frankenstein. I am part of the jury and while I have no lines I do have to take part in reactions to the proceedings. I did fill in for Male Juror 1 who does have one line. They were not there. Looks like there will be a lot of rehearsals and the play itself will have 10 showings at least including one that we will put on the The Masons. The theater is in the basement of their building. I’m looking forward to the rehearsals and the performances.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02171 Today was my cousin’s wedding. Haley and her sister were the flower girls at our wedding. Josh and Haley were at the most recent marriage prep class and at our table. It was nice to hang out with them for the day as they prepared for their wedding. The wedding was really nice and we were all able to attend. After the mass we got a family photo together before going on to Town Tavern and Tap for a reception. At the reception we made sure to get a photo with Haley and Madison to show how grown up our flower girls are now. They are both married. It was interesting seeing my other cousin’s daughter as the flower girl for the wedding today. I started to imagine 19 years from now where that girl may be getting married. It is crazy how I started thinking about this during the wedding.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02170 I ran by the comic book store today and saw that Randy had a Hulk Mannequin now and Hulk was dressed as Santa. Very festive with the snow coming down all over. We had a nice bit of snow happening here and I hope it sticks around till Christmas.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02169 Tonight Allison and I went to Angle Tree Brewery to see our friend Jack Cappadona perform. He’s a very talented singer and actor. Tonight he was singing at the Krav Maga social. I did get to see some of my friends from Krav while I was there and had a nice conversation with Sensei Howard. Angle Tree is a nice spot and we had a good time. There was a guy who was there making wood fired pizza. his whole family was working for him and our pizza was delivered by his daughter who was in her Christmas pjs. It was nice to support a little family business.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02168 Tonight we had the kids decorate their Christmas trees. this year Eva’s new ornament was a miniature Playbill for Hadestown because that is the play that she is working on at school. andy’s ornament is a “Fishmas Tree”. It is a bunch of fish shaped like a little christmas tree because Andy loved their fishes and Fishing class at Science School this Summer. I know it is called Ichthyology now but it will always be Fishes and Fishing.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02167 On Tuesday night I did a thing. I saw that The Attleboro Community Theatre was holding auditions for The People vs. Frankenstein. I decided that I was going to audition. Mind you, I have not been on a stage since 1992. I did not tell my family what I was doing nor where I was going. Allison had left for an event and I told Eva that I was going out and I’d be gone for a couple of hours. I’d tell her what I did when I got back. She pressed for more info so I told her it wasn’t dangerous or illegal and left. This did not sit well with her and she was more incensed when Allison got home before me and texted me where I was to which I immediately told her. I had already auditioned by that point. When Allison got the text she must have made an excited happy noise and then when Eva questioned her she told Eva that she’d let me tell her when I got home. I hadn’t said anything because I wasn’t sure until my name got called that I would actually go through with it, bu...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02166 Tonight andy performed trombone in the first concert of the school year. It was sort of a Christmas concert since it corresponded to the time of year. There were a couple of Christmas songs in the mix, too. this performance limited us top just 3 tickets so we could not have anyone else come to see. Luckily they recorded it.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02165 It is Sunday and I am working from home tonight so no nice warm place to walk. Instead I walked around the neighborhood all bundled up in order to get my steps for the day. there are a few neighbors with some decorations on their lawns and I liked the look of these ones do so on my second pass I took this photo.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02164 Weekends are the toughest for me to get my daily walk in. However, when I work in the office I have my best chance of getting my steps in. The reason is that I go in a little early and walk all over the building. I can get my goal amount which has been 7800 steps according to WalkFit, the app I use. So, tonight I went in early in order to get those steps in and as many more as I could. I guess I must have been checking on something when I accidentally took this photo, which is good since I had not taken anything else today.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02163 This past year a new Transformers comic book series began and it has been one of the best series I’ve ever read. The latest issue came out this week and I read it today. I love how they are slowly introducing different major characters. The story has been excellent and I enjoy rereading the issues. The other item is a Bumblebee Hot Wheels car. There are 5 in this series but Bumblebee was the only one that I wanted from the series. I’ll be adding this to the wall of Hot Wheels. The Funko Pops figure is Soundwave and it has a mini Rumble figure that fits in the head portion of the figure. Funko has made several of these from different fandoms. There is a Hulkbuster and Iron Man one and A Voltron one, too. Three fandoms that I enjoy.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02162 I took andy to lunch today because they had a half day at school. Or rather a 2/3rd’s day. That is what Andy told me as we drove to school in the morning that it wasn’t a half day it was a 2/3rd day. The funny thing is that when Allison and I attended a parent teacher conference with Andy’s math teacher she was impressed that Andy was right in that assessment of the day. We met with 3 of Andy’s teachers tonight and they all had some great things to say about Andy. We were very proud to hear those nice things and how much they enjoy having Andy in class. In the afternoon Andy and I enjoyed a lunch at the Blue Pride Bistro. It was probably the worst service we’ve had there but we are aware that it is run by kids who are learning how to run a restaurant. I think the server was quite overwhelmed today. So we tried to give as much grace as we could. When the food finally did come it was very tasty and we enjoyed it very much. We also picked up some treats to bring hom...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02161 A few weeks back I was able to order a Groot PopPowls set for myself. Today I found them at Walmart. They had all of them available. I made the decision to put together a Christmas gift set for my niece and nephew. Movie night with fun popcorn bowls. I also made sure to snap this photo and send it to my friend Marybeth because her son is a big Marvel fan and would love the Spider-Man and Groot PopPowls.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02160 I’ve been walking daily and trying to get to 10,000 steps each day. I do love that feeling of my fitbit buzzing on my arm when I hit that 10,000th step. Very satisfying. I’ve been walking at the Emerald Square Mall. It is pretty sad these days. There are a handful of stores that still open. When it rains there are buckets all over the place and the escalators are on permanent repair. Every day that I go someone is working on them but haven’t gotten them working.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02159 This year Andy was a huge help in putting up the tree. I asked that they give me a hand and Andy was really helpful in doing so. Andy carried several pieces upstairs and then helped Allison assemble the tree. Then Andy helped me put on all the lights.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02158 I have a new t-shirt that I picked up from Temu. Not a huge fan of the fabrics they use, this is a very shiny shirt almost silky but I loved the design of it and thought it was pretty funny. I certainly can feel that way playing against much younger players when I’m on Fortnite.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02157 As I walked around the building last night at work I noticed that they now have a christmas tree up in the lobby. This decoration caught my eye because it is a plastic replica of the ornaments that my grandmother made and that we hang on our tree each year.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02156 After relistening to the Nate Temple series I’m going to start relistening to a bunch of Dungeons and Dragons books that feature one of my favorite characters, Drizzt Do’Urden. He’s a drow, a dark elf. He also has a mystical panther named Guenhwyvar. If we ever get another cat I insist we get a black one and name it that. Apparently this character was created by my cousin’s college roommate. That is pretty cool.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02155 Tonight was the talent show at Andy’s school. This year Andy is running the soundboard for the theater productions. We’re real proud of their hard work doing this. Two kids in the theater programs at their schools and both behind the scenes.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02154 I received this Jalapeno ketchup as a gift and this was the first time I got to use it. It really complimented the Meatloaf. So tasty and spicy.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02153 Tonight we went to Feehan for the Winter Art show. Eva had two pieces in the show and one of them was really special. She made a piece of an image that I had taken for her Sophomore social and it is of she and her friend Miles from when we went to Miles house prior to the event. Eva had to create this piece backwards and in stages to make it work properly. It is really nice. Here is a closer look that Allison took.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02152 I seem to go through XBox controllers pretty frequently. The convenience of a wireless controller is great but they are much more expensive and once they get stick drift they end up less than useless when playing certain games. When you try and line up a shot and the stick moves on it’s own it is a real pain in the neck. All of my controllers now have this issue in one form or another. I did have my cousin try and fix a bunch of them and at least one is passable but not great. So I picked up this new one, it is wired but it does have a couple of special programmable buttons on it and speed triggers, we’ll see if it helps my gameplay.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02151 Fitzy, our Elf on the Shelf, has made his return to the house. It took him a couple extra days this year but he’s back. We’re not quite sure if Andy still believes but we’ve brought Fitzy back because Andy likes to look for him, although Andy hasn’t been as vigilant about when Fitzy moves. We’ll see if Andy says anything about Fitzy or Santa this year.