Search

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Halloween for us

Several people asked me if Simeon was dressing up and if we were trick or treating. The answer was no and for several reasons. First off we're not really into Halloween. I definitely enjoy dressing my boy up, but Halloween has pagan origins that I'm not into. The Orthodox Church celebrates Saturday of the Souls days several times during the year, none of which are October 31st. We have some really cool traditions that I will enjoy sharing with Simeon and talking about as he gets older. One is the tradition of Koliva, a dish that is blessed during the service in commemoration of the dead and partaken of by the members after the service.

That being said if people want to partake in harmless Halloween festivities I really don't mind it, I'm not judging anyone. I grew up participating in Halloween and it was fun and harmless. Daniel on the other hand grew up living in the same neighborhood as many of the other members of what would become St. Peter's Orthodox Church. There families were searching for ways to raise their families as faithfully as possible and elected to have them dress up as Saints some years and have little parties for them. Daniel did tell me that some of his friends did trick or treat. And if Simeon does want to trick or treat when he is older and some of his friends are into it, he won't be dressing as anything evil or demonic, not on our watch. I think this is a great book about why dabbling in the occult can be dangerous, strong for some maybe but truthful. I wouldn't recommend this book for a very young child.

Ok enough about my beliefs! I know y'all are here to see pics of my cute boy. We did have a fall festival at church our teens put on. Daniel and I are the teen leaders and the other parents and teens really pitched in to make this a fun event for the kids at our church. Simeon wore a very fallish Wrangler shirt that I got at a consignment sale, so cute! He always has fun with other kids at church and this was no exception, and I think the parents had just as much fun.




So Halloween is here and gone, and we are a week away from Nativity Lent or Advent as the West calls it. I can say I can't wait. I am definitely in need of a renewed effort to concentrate on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. If anyone has any suggestions of how to involve a small, busy child with almost zero attention span into our Nativity Lent I'd love to hear them. We will go to church services of course, but as far as at home? I have a neat calendar someone gave me that you fold the flaps to expose a different saint everyday (no there's no candy in it:), and Simeon would enjoy it. I hope I didn't put it up in the attic with the other Christmas stuff.

Parlor Market Restaurant Review

So Daniel and I went somewhere new last week. We have been looking forward to this place opening for awhile. Parlor Market is downtown, not far from the newly renovated King Edward Hotel. They have a website, but there didn't seem to be much on it. Check them out on facebook if you're interested.

First off it was such of a treat to go out. We don't go out much, and our goings out have to be early being Simeon is pretty dependent on me for bedtime. And really I don't mind being a home body. Daniel and I had years to ourselves before we were blessed with a child, and ate out plenty.

So we met some friends down there and had a delicious supper. The atmosphere was very nice, it is very nicely furnished and is a dressier kind of place. The food was very good, portions were small and pricey but very good. And to be fair it was pricey, but no than other nicer restaurants for dinner.The draw for us is the food is local and that was fun to choose from entrees from our state and states close to us. I had the quail and it was tiny, but so delicious. If Daniel hadn't ordered a salad and our friends hadn't ordered an appetizer I would have been still hungry. To be fair it was listed as a "small plate". Daniel had trout and said it was really mouthwatering good. We had a "salad" that was wilted romaine, fried oysters, and comeback dressing. It was good and I don't usually like Oysters.

If you want to go somewhere nice I'd recommend it.

Fall Fun

Wow, I'm so behind. I don't really know where time has gone the last few months. My last posts were primarily about our sleep issues that plagued us all of Simeon's life. It took about 2 weeks to get Simeon on a schedule and sleeping well. We had some rough times, but things our much better now. He really does so well on a routine, I'm so sorry I waited so long to put him on one. I absolutely love the No Cry Sleep Solution. It has really helped us out immensely. I thought we had fallen back into our old ways this week, but it turns out poor Sime has an ear infection and a tooth coming in, no wonder he was up more at night:(

We went to the fair, and since this was during the time we were just getting on our schedule we had to be home early (bedtime at 6:30!), so my mom and I went one afternoon. Now that he is getting regular sleep we can stay up a little later, but we don't push it b/c we know staying up later = everyone getting less sleep. We ate very unhealthy food and Simeon caused a goat stampede in the petting zoo. He started stamping his foot when he ran out of food and the goats got a bit excited, oops! Simeon really loved his biscuit, of course he is a little carb fiend, and I can only blame myself. I'm a carb lover too, and that is what he tasted in utero and via my breastmilk. Too bad they didn't at least put cane syrup on the biscuit, I remember when they did... As you can see Grandma Dee Dee was very into the petting zoo too!