November 2007

I tell you what! When the cold weather arrives, it arrives! It's cold, and it's here to stay. We had our first hard freeze on Halloween - 6 weeks late! Thank goodness for global warming. ha/ha. As I told you in October, Michael enjoyed his trip to NYC. He's pictured below with his friends at the U.N.



Although it began to be quite cold and the leaves started dropping, we did not get any snow until November 16, and it melted almost immediately. In fact, when friends and family called from Big Spring over the Thanksgiving holiday to tell us all about the 8" of snow, we had none! The days were getting shorter and shorter, however, and it was getting dark about 4:30 or 5:00 in the afternoon. This was difficult because as soon as it got dark, we all wanted to go to bed! And of course, it was a bit early. So we went to see a few plays and films to pass the dark evenings, and the kids had plenty of homework. Garry went to Big Spring on 11/14 to check on the house, get a haircut, etc. He also shipped two of our cats, Cookie and BunBun, to me (in Boston). These are the two who didn't make it with the cat shipping service back in August, so my mom had been feeding them for 2 months. Michael and Hannah and I spent a weekend in the Boston area, attending a church function and doing a bit of shopping. I met the cats at Logan Airport and we all went home. Only 4 days later, I put the cats out in the early afternoon, and BunBun disappeared. We put signs and notices out everywhere, but no one had seen her. We were very depressed about losing her, especially Garry, since she is really his cat.



Earlier in the month, however, we enjoyed taking the dogs for walks and playing in the leaves (like Hannah and Alyce in McIndoe Falls, above), and spending some time outdoors in the afternoons. We spent Thanksgiving with some friends from church. The Spence contribution was a ham from the North Country Smokehouse in Claremont, NH. They have the best bacon, ham, and maple mustard we've ever eaten. H.E.B.'s Central Market is supposed to be carrying some of their products - we can highly recommend them. The day after T-giving, we attended the Christmas parade in Littleton with friends, and went to a Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial in Sharon, VT, on Saturday. The following Monday, I started dragging out all the Christmas stuff, looking for places to put it all. I wasn't completely successful, but it still looked like Christmas at our house before the big day.



The Connecticut River began to freeze over late in the month, and we saw turkey flocks foraging in the fields around town. (They made themselves scarce before the feast day - I guess they've gotten pretty smart over the years!) Hannah was drafted to play in the McClure Alumni Band, a local group which gives concerts throughout the year. We live next door to the Town Hall, and Garry heard music coming from there one afternoon, and noticed that Hannah's Sunday School teacher's car was parked out front. He told Hannah, who went over to investigate. Her teacher, who plays coronet, said, "Hey, Hannah, don't you play an instrument?", and she was recruited to play bells on the spot. The band is named for George McClure, who toured small NH and VT villages to teach band at their little schools once a week. He gathered the especially talented kids together to form a band and took them all over New England during the summers for concerts. Most of his alumni are in their mid-fifties or older, and Mr. McClure has passed away, but the band plays on.



The month closed with a bit of snow to put us in the mood for Christmas.