Our alter egos

Ok, I know, I'm like waaaaay late on showing the "after" photos of the house. My excuse is that I've been too busy to pick up some memory cards for my new camera. But today I will. Sadly though (for you) we leave for Pennsylvania early tomorrow morning which probably won't allow for any photo taking until after we return in January. I know, I'm a terrible blogger these days. I'll try to be better in 2011.

So we're pretty excited for this trip. Not the actual 9 hour road trip, but the being home part.

Here are a handful of things we are looking forward to in random order.

• holding our newest nephew Joel Andrew (born yesterday!)
• playing with our other 4 nieces and nephews
• Mia's first snow!
• time with the cousins
• a Master family Christmas, just like we used to have way back when
• catching up with BJ & Mike
• spending some time with Pa
• a white Christmas (after a few years without!)
• warming up by the wood stove
• tomato bisque soup from the Brasserie
• baking cookies
• designing a bench for our mudroom
• getting the heck out of NC for a while
• play time with Sadie Boo
• Wendy Jo's cookies
• building a snowman
• the annual Lengacher family gift exchange!

There's probably a ton of things I forgot to mention, but as you can see we're going to be pretty busy!

And I know this is a terrible segway, but bring the topic back around to this post's title (Our alter egos), I feel compelled to share a little secret with you all. Back in PA (well, only in Lancaster) we aren't known as Ben & Krista. Sometimes we are Uncle Ben & Aunt Krista, but more commonly we are know as Farmer Ben & Mrs. Ben. Huh? Yep. The Farmer & his wife.

From the Berenstain Bears!

Some how one day one of the little guys got a bit confused about Uncle Ben sharing the same name as a character he watches on TV and the 2 personalities merged. Uncle Farmer Ben. Naturally the Mrs. Ben came along with it. If you don't recall these 2 from the books you read as a child, here's a great character description we found on Wikipedia.

• Farmer Ben, local farmer, neighbor, and family friend. Though good-hearted, he is not afraid to lose his temper when he feels things are unfair or not to his standards. He once hired Brother and Sister, along with their friends, to help with chores when he and his wife were about to lose their farm.
  
• Mrs. Ben, Farmer Ben's wife. It is hinted that she often tells Farmer Ben what to do.

I'm not so sure Farmer Ben's description fits the build since I can't even recall the last time I saw the real Ben lose his temper (although he is good-hearted), but that Mrs. Ben is spot on. Every good man needs a Mrs. Ben behind him, right?


Merry Christmas!! Hope your holiday is filled with love, laughter and lots of joy!