Thanksgiving

We're so grateful for Thanksgiving break! We were blessed to celebrate Thanksgiving this year with the Kelleys and a lot of new friends from all over the world. Our Thanksgiving had a very Bostonian international flavor, if that makes any sense at all (for those of you who live in the Boston area, it certainly will). Sarah made some delicious Thanksgiving food: sweet mashed potatoes (or mashed sweet potatoes, as Sarah calls them), green been casserole, cranberried meatballs, and several dozen delicious rolls, as pictured here:

We actually had dinner at Martin and Suzin's house. Martin is a friend of Taylor's from the public health program. It was so nice of them to extend their invitation to us as well. And we even got to talk to our family afterwards; the miracle of the internet--connecting families, from Boston to Wisconsin to New Jersey to Oregon!

Today, we went to Plimoth Plantation (the people who started the museum there spelt it that way intentionally, to distinguish it from the name of the village, and the rock). It was Kristin and Taylor's idea, and we were so happy to be able to go along with them and Lucas--a timely Thanksgiving activity. The plantation has made efforts to preserve animal species from the 17th Century.

This wild bull was looking like he was about to gore Michael, but thinking on her feet, Sarah snapped a photo, blinding him with her deft camera skillz. If you look close, you'll notice that his hair is reminiscent of a certain 2nd Robertson son.

The plantation had two small villages--a 17th Century English village full of ornery actors, portraying 17th Century ornery pilgrims, and a Wampanoag village, with current representatives from that tribe, explaining how life was back then and how it is for them now. We took this picture outside of a Wampanoag house:

The final stop on our tour of the 17th Century Plymouth Colony was the Mayflower replica, built in 1955-56 and sailed in 1957 from England to America.

From the ship, we had a beautiful view of the Atlantic (or whatever this particular part of the Atlantic is called).

From the other side of the ship, we had a different, but equally impressive view.

Not only is John Alden a Robertson family ancestor, but apparently he's also the subject of an epic poem by William Wadsworth Longfellow (of "You're a poet, and your feet show it; they're longfellows" fame).