Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and I would say it is the best one we have had yet as a family.  It had it's fraught moments of course, and I did stay up until 1am the night before getting it all ready, but the day itself went really smoothly and it was one of those days when all was right with the world.
     We don't live in America, of course, so I have to make extra efforts to make sure my children understand and experience Thanksgiving in the way that Americans do.  That means I take them out of school on Thursday, and I even call off all homework, practicing etc. by about 6pm on the night before Thanksgiving as well.  I love the night before Thanksgiving when so much of the food preparation is happening.  It started this year with our turkey, as I was determined to soak it in brine overnight, so the three little girls helped me assemble the brine, which consisted of all sorts of spices and sugar and onions and oranges, etc.  Here they are squeezing orange juice into the brine:

     They found helping out very exciting, and I even heard comments like 'I love Thanksgiving Eve - that's what this is, isn't it, Mommy, it's Thanksgiving Eve'.  And when the brine was all assembled, they peered into it and Georgiana cried 'Oh, that just looks like Christmas!'

     Next we had to tackle the pastry, for the pumpkin pie and the apple pie.  For this I had to drag in the teenager (that would be Abigail!),

who worked hard at the pastry, but also played hard whilst in the kitchen:

     Once the pastry was done, Imogen did the filling for the pumpkin pie, which ended up being the best pumpkin pie I have ever tasted, so I was very proud:

     Abigail was then put to work making dough for the dinner rolls, and Samuel agreed to do the 7-up salad and green beans:

     All this activity meant that the next morning all I had to do was make the yams and apples, broccoli and cream cheese dish, cranberry sauce and gravy.  We were able to sleep in on Thanksgiving morning, and had a leisurely breakfast of brioche rolls and hot chocolate.  I got a surprise when Georgiana and Eleanor took it upon themselves to do their own family scripture study, an activity which normally seems to underwhelm them (what wonders a day off will do!):

Georgiana and Eleanor then helped me with the yams and apples, each claiming the right to the sole usage of the apple peeler/corer/slicer but finding it in their hearts to share it with one another anyway:

     Then, miracle of miracles, everything was either done or cooking or waiting to be cooked by 11:30am, so I got my heartfelt wish of being able to visit the Guildhall in Boston on Thanksgiving!!  The Guildhall is where they imprisoned the Pilgrim fathers on 23rd September 1607, for trying to escape England for religious freedom.  A group of English separatists, many of whom would later become known as the Pilgrims, were determined to leave England in the early seventeenth century because they were not allowed to practice their Puritan religion and were being forced by law to attend only the Church of England, with which they did not agree.  As if this was not unjust enough, it was also illegal to leave England if you were doing it on the grounds of seeking religious freedom elsewhere!  So, if you were a Separatist, there was no way to follow your conscience legally. 
     Anyway, among the leaders in this group of separatists were two men, William Bradford, and William Brewster, who would later be among the first to sign the Mayflower Compact in 1620.  In 1607, they hired a ship to take them from Boston to Holland, where they could have greater religious freedom - a brave and noble act, but one which was, at the time, illegal.  They got on board the ship, put all their belongings safe below deck, but the captain would not sail the ship.  Finally, the authorities showed up, arrested everyone on board, stole all their goods, and hauled them back into the town center.  Everyone from the ship was imprisoned, in the Guildhall, in these cells which we got to see yesterday:

     I don't know when exactly all the members of the group were released, but the leaders of the group, such as Brewster and Bradford, had to stay in the Guildhall under house arrest for at least a month to await trail, which also took place in the Guildhall, just upstairs from the cells:

     The Guildhall court was a local court, and in the end Brewster and Bradford were told that because their crime was of a severe nature, they had to go to Lincoln for their case to be heard in the larger court.  The locals were sympathetic to Brewster and Bradford, however, so they released them and told them to make their own way to Lincoln for their court hearing.  At that, Brewster and Bradford, of course, disappeared, and spent their time planning how their group of separatists could get to Holland without getting caught, which they managed to do about a year later.
     I love history; I love museums; I love old books; but I was especially moved at the Guildhall because I was overcome with the sense that I was in the same place that these great Pilgrim fathers had been, these people who had great religious convictions and were not afraid to live by them, even when it was dangerous to do so.  They knew that the only way forward was to grant people religious freedom.
     But Boston's connections to the Pilgrims does not stop there.  There was also a man named John Coton who was the preacher in the local church in Boston, called the Stump.   Although it was a Church of England church, he had Puritan sympathies, and preached according to those sympathies.  About eight years after the Pilgrim fathers left, he preached a sermon in the Stump in which he basically said that he had had enough of the Church of England, and didn't feel that England was a place where he could worship according to conscience, and he was moving to the colonies and did anyone want to go with him.  Most of his congregation accepted his proposal, which consisted of about the top third of the wealthiest people in the area!  Here you can see in the distance the tower of the church where he preached:

     These were the people who founded Boston, MA in the US.

     After a thoroughly inspiring trip to Boston (hard to come by, that is), we made it back home in time to finish eveything off and eat by 3:30.  We had Bishop Shami and his family, and the missionaries over, making 16 people in all at dinner:

      After stuffing ourselves with all the fabulous food - and yes, the turkey turned out really well - we played 'Pit' and 'Big Boody'.  Our guests left and we watched Lord of the Rings.  An epic ending to an epic day.

     I said in my last post that during half-term we 'did' Halloween, but didn't include there what that meant.  This year we managed to get all the festivities done in one day, which was an miraculous feat.  I usually have to spread out all the fun over a few days because people just can't seem to pay attention long enough to get it all done.  This year, however, we started out early in the kitchen making Halloween sugar cookies:

While those were baking and cooling, we got on with carving our pumpkins.  Finally, I have some children old enough to be able to carve their own pumpkins, as well as help out with carving the pumpkins of the younger ones!

We got around to breaking out the sugar in the afternoon as we decorated the cookies and some pumpkin cupcakes:

It was then time to get the costumes on and have our Halloween feast.  We dined on witches hair, monster eyeballs in blood, Frankenstiens's toes, and monster guts.  Then Harry Potter (Samuel), Mona the Vampire (Georgie), the little black cat (Nelly) and the tooth fairy got ready to go trick or treating.

Tim set out all our jack-o-lanterns, so that the one family who did come trick or treating to our house was greeted with a welcome sight (no one comes trick or treating to us because we live on a road with lots of old people and somehow no one thinks that they are ready to receive trick or treaters).

This one is Georgie's (she did it all by herself!):

This one is Samuel's.  He is going through a Lord of the Rings obessive phase at the moment:

Abigail and Imogen actually got along well enough to make a joint effort with their jack-o-lantern:

This one is Eleanor's, which matches her costume:

Finally, our little Verity had a pumpkin as well (carved by Mommy, who was going for the easy option):



     It's autumn - the perfect time to be alive.  We had half term last week, and celebrated in style by hill walking in the Peak District, doing Halloween, visiting Grandpa and Grandpa Bleakley, and going to the London Temple.
     The first hill walk we did was up and around Mam Tor, on Monday.  Apparently it was an old Roman Fortress, but all I have to say for it was that it was very windy on the top.  The views were wonderful, though.

     After we walked down the peak of the hill, the wind subsided.  We continued walking along the ridge and without the strong winds, everything was very, very still. 

It was late afternoon, so it was a bit dusky, damp and chilly, wtih autumn leaves around us.  The perfect autumn day, made even more perfect by the perfect autumn treat to keep us going:  gingerbread!

     We spent the night in Sheffield with the angelic Dyson family, who fed us beef and pumpkin stew with yorkshire puddings to revive us.  The next day Tim had to go to a work meeting, but the rest of us braved the hills again and did another walk, this time near a place called Froggart.  We went with Pat Dyson and his grandchildren, Tom and Anna, and his son-in-law, Richard.  We got a little lost at the end, and the walk ended up being about four hours long - more than I had anticipated, but the fresh air and scenery were worth it.

     One purpose of these walks is to get my children to enjoy the seasons, of which I think autumn is the most distinctive.  I was constantly encouraging them to 'look at the autumn colors', an injunction which I was convinced was falling on deaf ears, until suddenly Samuel to me, when we were looking at this beautiful view, 'Look at the colors!'

     There were also boulders upon which to climb,

    
     Edges off which to fall,

    
     Mud in which to lose our shoes (this particular shoe is Georgie's),

    
     Mushrooms on which we could not dine,



     And fairy-tale forests in which to get lost.



     We ended it with a trip to Chatsworth Farm Shop, where we saw their Christmas fair.  The three little girls were going wild over all the Christmas merchandise, and then all of a sudden Georgiana realized that there weren't any other children around and said, 'Shhhh, we need to be quiet - no one else seems to be talking.'  Is this a sign of growing up?  The childlike innocence is fading ....
     I left with smoked wild boar and sticky toffee pudding. Can't think of anything more seasonal.

     Finally, for the first time in four years, my children have been able to visit their mother's homeland and see their American relatives.  Well, only some of my children.  The oldest three have been granted passage to the New World - the youngest three were deemed too expensive and too young.  However, I will count my blessings and be grateful at least some of us could come home this summer.
     It has been a whirlwind trip so far, as it always is when we come home.  When we arrived we went straight to a Hamilton family reunion up near Sugar City, Idaho, which is where both of my father's parents were raised.  It was the usual wonderful mix of catching up, hugs, words of encouragement, and conversation with aunts, uncles, and cousins.  We had the traditional 'Beat the Sheep' run, as well as our age-old family program/talent show/auction.  Mandy and Dave gave the best performance of the night, I think, with a song about 'Mother Earth', and a verse that went something like 'The buffaloes are our second counsins, on our mother's side.'

     On Sunday morning we had a very touching devotional at my grandparent's graveside, again in Sugar City.  My aunt talked about how my grandmother always encouraged her children to reflect the light of Christ by reminding them to 'make the world a brighter place.'  It was moved to be reminded of the tremendous heritage that I have. Both my grandparents and my great-grandparents are buried in this cemetary.

Here is my extended family singing 'Love at Home' and 'God Be with You Till We Meet Again'

Abigail and Imogen at the grave of my grandparents, Lloyd and Nina Hamilton

Samuel at the grave of my great-grandparents, Charles Orson and Pearl Hamilton

Well, the big news here is that Daddy is finally home from Afganistan! Yea!! Tim got home on Wednesday, 21 July, in the afternoon, just in time to pick the kids up from school. We decorated the house with a home-made sign saying 'Welcome Home Daddy', plus decorated the outside with lots of 'Welcome Home' signs, flags, and stars. I made him one of his favorite meals -meat loaf, potatoes, runner beans, carrots, beetroot - and for dessert, chocolate brownies with a cherry sauce, made with cherries from a nearby tree. We also gave him a toy Lancaster airplane we bought at Penvensy Castle at Easter, and a mug that says 'World's Greatest Dad' (that was one of those purchase where I had no idea why I did it five minutes after the fact).

It's been geat to have him home, but he was certainly put in the deep end the minute he arrived. Imogen had a leaving/birthday sleepover the next night (Thursday), which party continued on into the next day (Friday), when a whole new set of friends arrived at 10am and stayed until 3pm. Then Abigail had a leaving sleepover party, which started at 4pm (on Friday), and ended the next day around noon. Soon after Abigail's friends departed, we were off to a party at Alice and Paul Hearne's house, friends of ours from the High Wycombe ward, which was an hour and a half drive away. We got home late Saturday night. So, it was more than 48 hours of straight partying - or, more than 48 hours of constant food preparation, clean up, and babysitting - when he got home.

We celebrated his homecoming today by taking the children to the cinema. Tim, Imogen, Samuel, Georgiana, Eleanor and Verity all went to see Toy Story 3. Abigail and I went with her friends Lucy and Sophie to go see Eclipse. I think Tim got the better end of the deal!

This has been a massive weekend for our family. It's all been in the diary for at least six months so we knew it was coming - just a matter of executing it. Abigail and Imogen had a big concert in the Ely Cathedral on Saturday night. They sing in a choir called The Ely Imps, and this was their summer concert, called 'Mad Dogs and Englishman: A Celebration in Words and Music of All Things English.' It was a combination of various readings on Englishness and traditional and perhaps not-so-traditional English songs. The songs they sang included 'I vow to thee my country', 'Devon, O Devon', 'King Jesus hath a garden', 'English Country Gardens', 'Hail, Poetry', 'Dance a cachucha', 'Yesterday', 'Jerusalem', and Elgar's 'Pomp and Circumstance'. It was a great evening - very patriotic for Brits.
They've had rehersals for the concert on both Friday night and Saturday afternoon, so Margaret took the three little girls on Friday afternoon and took them for the weekend - such a help! On Friday night after the rehersal I was able to have a girly night with my older girls in the first time in maybe a year? We watched 'Julie and Julia', about a girl named Julie who takes on the challenge of cooking through Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' in one year. I have to say that the movie reminded me alot of my life, and I've been pondering about it's themes all weekend. One good aspect about it is that it was very pro-marriage - not something you see alot these days in films.
On Saturday after the girls' rehersal Grandma and Grandpa Bleakley came and took us out for Chinese food - a new experience for the girls! And I used the few spare hours to get my hair cut, which ended up as a mini-disaster. I said I wanted my hair shoulder length, and it is definitely, definitely not shoulder length. Let's just say, it's shorter than that.
Samuel had an exciting schedule, too, this weekend, as it was father and son's camp on Friday night. Daddy isn't here, of course, but Matt Holman from the ward offered to take Samuel, and he had a blast. Lots of sports, from what I can gather. As I put Samuel in Matt's car and gave him the homemade chocolate cake I had made especially for him to take to father and son's camp, I asked him 'Do you want to take a book to read?', and he didn't even hesitate or contemplate the answer: 'no', he said.
Then, today, I had to teach our adult Sunday School class, which is always a challenge and takes time and thought and energy. Lesson on the book of Joshua - being strong and courageous in choosing the right. After church, Abigail and Imogen had their second big event of the weekend: a violin concert, where they perform in their groups in which they have been playing all year. They play in both the Suzuki Book 2 group and the Suzuki Book 3 group. They played 'Waltz' by Brahms, 'Gavotte', by Gossec, 'Bouree', by Handel, and for the Book 3 group, they played 'Rhumba' by Michael McClean. They played really well, as did all the performers. The final number in the concert was the Bach Double, which almost made me cry. It's so touching to see young musicians perform advanced pieces, and that is what the Suzuki method makes possible. It's a method that changes ordinary kids into really capable musicians. Goes to show that education, rather than inborn traits, is the main factor in what skills and talents a person achieves in life. Bad teaching = little or no skills.
It was so sunny this whole weekend, and today was just perfect - the girls played in a lovely auditorium at Fitzwilliam College, and we had refreshments afterwards in an area that was surrounded by huge windows, so everything was light and airy and you could see the gardens at Fitzwilliam perfectly - all the green and all the white blossoms everywhere that are characterisitic of May.
Then it was off to Margaret's to be reunited with Samuel, Georgiana, Eleanor and Verity, and to have a lovely Sunday lunch. It really was a near-perfect day. I can't think of anything I want to add to it, except having Tim here to share it with me.

School has been in for a few weeks now. Abigail, Imogen, Samuel and now Georgiana are all in school. Abigail started in year 7 this year - a big move up to secondary school, Hinchingbrooke. She cycles to school every day, which is 2 miles from our house, so she's getting some good exercise. So far she's been very happy with school. She likes her teachers for the most part, and her subjects, which include English, Math, Science, French and History, where they are learning about ancient Rome! Yea! Abigail has been reading the Roman Mystery books by Caroline Lawrance, so she knows quite a bit about ancient Rome and has been able to participate to a great extent in class discussions. The school has good systems in place to make sure the children are responsible with parent communication and with homework, and so far we're pleased with the school.

Imogen started year 5 this year, and has two teachers, Mrs. Kommerfield and Mrs. Driss. She's made an excellent start by being very punctual in her work and making sure she's got what homework she needs, etc. She has lots of friends at school and seems very happy there.

Samuel is now in year 2, and also has two teachers, Mrs. Leach and Ms. Vass. He has a really good attitude about school and seems to be enjoying it. He has a good attitude about getting himself ready for school and doing all the things he needs to do before school, like his practicing and his job.

Georgiana has started big school this year, and has been going full days to reception for just over a week now. So far she loves going to school and is excited to share with me what she has learned. Her teacher is called Mrs. Cole.

Eleanor and Verity are at home with me. Eleanor hates going to anyone but me or Tim, and screams whenever either one of us leave, so she's very much at home with me these days. I just take her with me whereever I go - it's just easier that way. But it's not that bad, not like I remember taking Abigail and Imogen places when they were 2. Eleanor doesn't tend to run away from me, and she's pretty quiet when she's with me, so I can get a few things done. The point is that we have fun at home while the kids are at school.