Thanksgiving at Williamsburg Va.

For Thanksgiving we went to Williamsburg and Jamestown.  The birthplace of our great nation.

We started in Williamsburg.  This is the Governors mansion.  During the Civil War it was destroyed and Rockefeller rebuilt this and the rest of the town.

Below is inside the mansion. This is the two oldest daughters room.

Johnny and Grace Thanksgiving day.

Grace in timeout - Williamsburg style.

Downtown Williamsburg.

It was a beautiful day but a little cold so we bought a refillable mug for hot chocolate.

Wish we could have taken a carriage ride.

Here the kids are standing in front of a flute player.

Next we went to Jamestown.  Kind of did the reverse history.  It was right on the river and further away geographically so we did it second.  Below is a statue of Pocahontas.

Construction on the current church tower began in 1639 taking 4 years to complete. The rest of the original church was destroyed after abandonment in 1750 when a new church was built 3 miles away. Next to the original 1639 tower is a church building built in the twentieth century on the cobblestone foundations of the older 1617 church and brick foundations of the 1639 church. The present church was built by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in 1907, and the original 1617 foundations may be viewed under glass on the floor inside. These foundations represent the church where the first Representative Legislative Assembly met, which convened there on July 30, 1619.^[1]
Nearby St. Luke's Church is a similar church surviving from 1632.  Below is a photo of the nearly 400 year old church.  The oldest one in the US.

 Excavation of James Town.

 Replica of one of the three ships that brought the first colonists to James Town. The federal parks takes care of the original James Town and about 1 mile down the road is where the town has been rebuild with colonial buildings, fires, a church, the tree ships and an Indian village. The members of the Virginia Company that came with the first ships did not worry about the Indians. They were told that the Indians were a peaceful, helpful people. The colonists were really worried about the Spanish who were settled in Florida.

 We came home and decorated the house.  We bought our first fake Christmas tree.  Initially, I had a problem with a fake tree having traditionally driven up to the mountains to cut down a tree.  I love the smell, and the beauty.  But since we'll be going overseas soon this makes more sense.  It packs down to a small box, has the lights built in, and if it tips over I won't have a huge puddle to clean.  The kids loved that it changed to multiple colors.  After a while the blinking and constant changing started to get a little annoying.  :)