Thanksgiving Three

This blog is written in honor of my dear friend Nancy (and for Barb too!) and so you will understand dear friends that this is a little more detailed than normal for Nancy's enjoyment. We missed you this weekend Nanc~Here is a special message from Louise, too~




Our third (and final!) Thanksgiving event was a wonderful overnight weekend at Mark and Louise Sewall's house. All together there were 14 of us! They absorbed our family as if we were just that, family, and we had a fantastic time together. It was hard to leave! When we arrived this is what we found their six children had done for us~our children thus entered child heaven!

The Sewall's live right next door to their church, and so we headed next door for our big meal~first the children made indian headbands and colored some papers~

Then Mark read the Thanksgiving story to all 28 of us. There were four families present for Thanksgiving, and of each couple present, one spouse was American, (except for us of course). This was a fun combination of people for us, three of us were in the ministry, and all of us could relate to the transition back and forth between England and America. It was a very nice time for all of us, we certainly enjoyed it!

The children had so much fun!

Jim carved the Turkey~

The food was delicious! And of course, we had way too much--they certainly have some good cooks in this country. One traditional British food is below, bacon wrapped sausages~

After eating, the children all went upstairs to the church's gym, and ran like crazy, while the adults sat too full to move~

We went back to their home and got the children ready for bed, (all ten of them)~


with of course the mandatory light saber event~(Nancy, George told Andrew they were going to be 'brothers' this weekend-he reminded me of your boys with Andrew!)

and then we got them all in bed. While we adults talked and talked and talked! At about 10-ish, Claire came down and announced "I can't sleep, I am too happy!" She did finally go to sleep, but woke at 5:00 a.m. and she and Catrin and Laura played Boggle until 6:00, and then read until 7:00 when they got up. Needless to say, she fell asleep on the ride home!

The next morning we went back next door for the service, where Mark preached; (he opened the Word from Hebrews 6:12-20, talking about our need for faithful patience based on God's faithful promise. It was a blessing to hear him preach so faithfully, Nancy) Jim quietly snapped this picture from his seat in the front row--

Also, Mark asked Jim to read Scripture, which was really special too~here is a picture of their sanctuary when everyone had cleared out to go have a cup of tea.

Here is a picture of the Sewalls at the front of the sanctuary:

A picture of each child, here is Laura, her favorite food is chicken pot pie, (she is also a book-worm like Claire)

Catrin, really likes Tortellini, and she and Claire hit it off well, too.

George, who as you know is surviving well in the midst of many females, is a hoot! His favorite food is beef pie (he really likes the pastry)


Lucy, (don't you just love her name?) just beams, I love her smile! Her favorite food is (baked) beans on toast. For real. Louise told me it is actually very popular.

Eleari, is an absolute sweetheart. She asked Andrew this morning in a very gentle voice, "How was your sleep, Andrew?" Andrew's response was unfortunately, "Where's Dorge (George)?" We are still working on his kind responses. Eleari's favorite food; fish cakes. These, as was explained to me, are tinned salmon mixed with (mashed) potatoes and rolled in breadcrumbs before cooked. We are learning a lot about different foods!


Jim fell in love with Meredith (which is very easy to do) and so we have approximately 40 pictures just of her. She is very cute. Has the same little fat fingers and arms like your Sara did, Nancy. Her favorite food, Marmite on toast. This yeast extract spread is interesting. Many British children grow up with Marmite, and many take Marmite sandwiches to school too. There is a reason, however, why their advertising logo is "you either love it or you hate it" because Jim and I couldn't swallow it, but our kids all really like it.

Here is a cute picture of all their children together. A beautiful group.


We hope to get together with them soon again, we had such a lovely time.

Hope this gives you a good picture of our Thanksgiving week! Needless to say, we were very spoiled with some very good food, and now we have to face reality again~ (Not EVERY night is a Thanksgiving dinner!)