A Williamsburg Thanksgiving

This year, since it was just going to be the four of us for Thanksgiving, we decided to head out of town and do something fun. We haven't gone on any kind of vacation since Matt started his MBA, and we were itching to get out of the beltway, even if it was only a short trip. We made reservations to eat Thanksgiving dinner at Chowning Tavern in Williamsburg, VA (a city restored to look like the 1700s).

We drove down Thanksgiving morning, and 

Adelaide couldn't wait to start exploring.

Adelaide thought the 18th century outfits were great, 

but had no interest in wearing them. She brought an

actor out of character when she exclaimed, "You have

a funny hat on!" You'd think someone that wears a tricornered 

hat would have heard that one before, but he got a great laugh.

Eleanor was happy to try on anything that came her way. 

Keeping each other company while Mom and Dad listened

to boring ol' lectures from the tour guides.

Yum! Let's dig in to the feast.

We enjoyed a filling dinner in a fun atmosphere with 

a fiddler player and period actors. 

While Mommy and Daddy rested from

over-eating, Adelaide did her best to 

figure out how some of the historical toys worked...

where are the buttons? 

Churning, churning, churning...

Why are we poking the butter with the stick?

Matching Turkeys! Matt is wearing his

turkey shirt, a family tradition. Eleanor

is sporting a matching turkey bib.

Brace yourself! There is more. Lots of pictures this post. After a good night's rest in the hotel, we headed back into Williamsburg to enjoy all the Christmas trees and decorations that were hurriedly set up overnight.

Adelaide even put on her reindeer shirt and socks

to go into town to see the decor.

The Christmas decorations did not disappoint!

 We even ran into Santa! We had just come from the

candy shop where we had bought an advent calendar

with Santa's picture on it. Adelaide grabbed the calendar 

and ran to him, "Santa, Santa, we bought a 

picture of you!" She was beyond thrilled when he told 

her how nice it was and gave her a candy cane.

This is what Eleanor thinks about

being stuck in a stroller all day. 

After exhausting the kid-friendly sites in Williamsburg on Friday, we spent this morning checking out the Jamestown Settlement. Adelaide couldn't get over the replica ships. Even Eleanor was impressed.

 Working replicas of the three ships that 

brought the original settlers to Jamestown.

No matter how cold it was, Eleanor

insisted on pulling off her socks and

waving her bare toes around in the breeze.

We took a lot of pictures on this trip, but there was one incident where we wish we'd snapped a photo but didn't have our camera. Around 6:00 pm on Thanksgiving night, Adelaide was hungry again. We drove around town until we found a college sandwich shop that was open. They had a lot of sandwiches and a lot of Greek food. Melinda ordered the flambéed greek cheese appetizer, just for fun. They brought it to the table and lit it up - we swear we thought Adelaide would love this. She'd been pointing out the fires in Williamsburg all day, and she likes fireworks. We also told her exactly what was going to happen. She leaned in eagerly to watch.

As soon as Mommy's cheese went up in smoke, she lost it. Adelaide has some pretty good meltdowns, but this was definitely top five material. Her scream brought the cooks running out of the kitchen, other patrons jumped from their chairs to help, probably thinking she was on fire instead of the cheese. Every employee in the place was blowing and patting the cheese to put it out while Adelaide was sobbing, "I-don't-want-Mommy's-cheese-to-be-on-fire," over and over. Like the good parents we are, we were doubled over laughing, because, when Adelaide spazes, it's pretty awesome. After it was out, Adelaide turned to the waitress, who was pretty traumatized that she'd made a kid cry, and said in a matter-of-fact voice, "Uh oh, now Mommy's cheese is hot." Then she started into her french fries, completely unaware of the pandaemonium she had caused.  That's the way Adelaide rolls. (Throughout the whole incident, Eleanor didn't even flinch, "Been there, seen my sister lose it. Where are my french fries?")

It was a great trip and, on a whole, and it was a lot of fun to get away for a couple days. But, now it's back to work. Only 141 days left in that MBA. Go Matt, Go!