Thanksgiving has come and gone once again. We have so much to be thankful for this year, as we do every year. This year has been very different with "the move", but we are thankful to be settling in and adjusting well (for the most part anyways...). We are also thankful that, even though we moved so far from our parents and siblings, we still have family that we can visit. We traveled to New York on Thursday to visit "The New York Nobles/Benoits" and join them in celebrating Thanksgiving. It felt good to walk into the Benoit home, get hugs, smell a delicious turkey roasting in the oven, and know that we were with family. Everyone was so welcoming and made us feel right at home. We look forward to spending more holidays/celebrations with this group during our time here in the east.

We left our home early Thursday morning to make the trip to New York. We had directions we were following, but at one point R.C. just had a feeling we were not on the right track (we were not lost, just a bit confused since it didn't look familiar at all). He decided to ask the backseat for advice since Russell seems to be a driving/direction whiz. When R.C. asked,"do you guys know where we are?" surprisingly, Russell had nothing to say. Max, on the other hand, spoke up and said, "welcome to no where!" After drying our eyes from laughing so hard, we realized that we were not lost at all and were, in fact, almost there.

Russell and Max warmed up to everyone quite quickly. Max is usually the one that clings to us when he is around new people or people that he doesn't see often, but he seemed comfortable from the start. A few highlights from Russell and Max's day:

• Maxwell shared his beloved blanket with Great Grandpa Noble. He rarely shares his blanket with anyone so this was very nice to see.
• Russell kept busy helping clean up. He just kept asking Aunt Sue if there was anything else he could do. What a nice boy!!
• They both were having a great time saying Cool Whip. It sounds like such a simple thing to say, and not all that funny, but trust me, it was HILARIOUS!!
• Russell played connect four with Jeremy and Luke. He loves this game and was so happy to have new people to play against. Russell was even able to win a few games on his own!
  
• Max told anyone who asked what his name was, that he was, in fact, Peter Pan.
• They both put their shoes on and walked people to their cars. They felt the need to keep everyone safe and felt the best way to accomplish this was for they, themselves, to oversee people walking to their cars. Once again, what nice boys!!
• Maxwell found that he LOVES cranberry sauce. He ate more of this than anything else.
• Russell walked around with a bowl of mints offering them to people. I believe he was the one who ate the most mints though, since on the ride home I could smell minty fresh breath coming from the backseat.
  
• Maxwell cried and cried when we had to leave. He obviously had a really good time. (And he was really tired! He was sound asleep before we had traveled 3 blocks!)
  

All in all, a GREAT day was had. We headed home around 5:30 and listened to Christmas music the entire time. I had held them all off as long as I possibly could. I finally had to give in and sing along. Hearing O Holy Night 3 times in 3 hours was a great way to end Thanksgiving day. Also, when I turned to look at the boys sitting so quietly in their seats, enjoying the music, I found that they were holding hands! They are such great brothers!!