The third booklet of my Keeping Christ in Christmas Copybooks is ready. This book uses passages from Luke 1 and Luke 2 and focuses on Gabriel’s visit to Mary and her giving birth to Jesus, fulfilling the prophesy of Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Next week passages are from Luke, John, and Galatians about the promise from God fulfilled.

Download Keeping Christ in Christmas Copybook-Week 3 HERE.

If you missed Keeping Christ in Christmas Copybook-Week 1 or Keeping Christ in Christmas Copybook-Week 2, you can find them by clicking on the respective titles below.

Christ in Christmas Copybook-Week 1

Christ in Christmas Copybook-Week 2

     A few years ago my mom put electric candles in the window for Christmas and left them up year round because she liked the ambiance they gave.  Surprisingly last Christmas I learned that these lights orginated in Colonial Williamsburg!  When I told my mom, she was surprised too. Not knowing their history, she only started using them because she liked them.  

    In the 1930's, when the historic area of Williamsburg was being restored to its colonial past, contemporary Santa Clauses and flashing electric lights outside the residents' homes didn't quite lend themselves to a colonial ambiance for the guests. At that time, there were only a few exhibition buildings and many homeowners in the historic area who had lived in their historic homes for years.  Pondering how to treat visitors to a colonial Christmas feel at the newly opened Colonial Williamsburg, while not stepping on the toes of the current homeowners, researchers set out on a quest to discover charming colonial Christmas traditions.

      After much research, it was discovered that there weren't any historical Christmas decorations in the colonial times.  When Virginia was a colony of England, the state church of England was Anglican, which observed Christmas as a solemn religious time.  Festivities didn't start until after Christmas, with the 12 days of Christmas. Hmmmmm, what to do?

     One gentleman suggested an old tradition in his family that went back to the 19th century, that of putting a lit candle in the window.  This idea made the founder of Colonial Williamsburg nervous, so special attendants were hired to put candles in a bowl of water in the few exhibition homes.  When electric candles were invented, they were used instead. Not only the local homeowners of the historic homes, but also guests to the area, liked the idea so much, that they bought out the supply of electric candles in the local stores.  As guests took their candles to their own homes, the tradition spread around the country.

     By the time I discovered all of this last Christmas, I decided we needed to buy electric candles for our house in San Antonio, Texas the next Christmas.  About a week later, my husband started interviewing for a job in Washington DC, since he was retiring from the USAF.  When we moved to Northern Virginia this year, I was excited about putting electric candles in our own colonial house. My husband could not understand why in the world I would want to do such a crazy thing. No, he would not do it, no matter how much I explained to him about the Colonial Williamsburg tradition. (sigh) I dropped the subject last summer. Imagine my surprise when last month, when we were at Colonial Williamsburg for the Coffeehouse opening, my husband said we needed to stop by the visitor center store on the way home to get a supply of electric candles to put in our windows this Christmas!

     We decorated the house Thanksgiving weekend and my husband wanted my ideas on how to decorate the outside of the house. In San Antonio we always put up string lights around the edge of the house and bushes and trees and put luminarias along the driveway and sidewalk. I preferred my husband not put lights on the house since it is a t-a-l-l house, three stories high on two sides.  We agreed to do garland, wreaths and candles, like we see in Colonial Williamsburg! I am so thrilled to have a Colonial Williamsburg decorated house!  After decorating our house, I was surprised to see how many other Virginians have done the same thing!  This is an extremely popular look in Virginia. The labor involved is not only simple, the resulting look is simply beautiful.  Do you have candles in your windows?

     Another decoration that Colonial Williamsburg implemented was a recent Colonial Revival idea gained from popular decorating magazines. Knowing that historically some greenery was used here and there, the historic area began to bedeck the outside of their doors with greenery and natural elements for swags, garlands and wreaths. To encourage the homeowners, a contest began, which continues to this day. Amazingly, the idea that was neither historic nor original to Colonial Williamsburg, was in fact popularized by Colonial Williamsburg because of the publicity it generated. To this day, decorating magazines feature the vastness of lovely decorations throughout the historic area.  I cannot tell you how many times my favorite magazines have featured the variety of wreaths on the doors.  

While we were visiting Colonial Williamsburg during the Grand Illumination weekend, we went from door to door to admire the decorations.  The decorations for the exhibition buildings are done by the nursery staff.  Some of the buildings are not exhibition buildings, but are private homes. The home owners may decorate their doors and enter the contest that originated in the 1930's. There are two categrories for the entries.  Those in the homes may decorate the doors themselves or they might decide to hire professionals to design and make their wreaths.  The day I took these pictures, the judges were going from door to door with their clipboards.  We have wondered who won in each category. Did we choose the same winners?

    These are wreaths from the homes:

My son was extremely intrigued with this one. You can see it close up on the CW web page. Using coffeebeans, it looks like coffee is being poured into a mug.

 Here's the Palmer House with its interesting niches for apples. I highly recommend reading the article that is linked, which is full of historical tidbits and morsels of hilarious humor.

I think all of these are done by the colonial nursery. They are usually thematic.  I challenged my kids to figure out the themes.  We didn't guess all of them. This is the site of the cooper's trade...

 This is the gaol (jail) with its sparse wreaths. 

Christiana Campbell's Tavern had wreaths full of nuts and fruit...

 Raleigh Tavern, an unofficial meeting place when the House of Burgesses was disbanded twice by the Royal Governor in preRevolutionary days, has clever decorations. My kids understood the cockades, but the bundles of wheat stumped them. I think they represent fasces from Ancient Rome.  My son insisted it couldn't be fasces because they were neither true bundles nor did they have axes sticking out.  I stood my ground and insisted they were mere artistic representations of a historical theme.  Afterall, real coffee was not being poured into the mug in the coffee wreath.  The fabric bundles for the Milliner's wreath was not real garments.  The intricate wreaths at the Silversmith shop were not real jewelry. Okay, okay, my son laughed and insisted I had made my point!   

The Silversmith shop had intricate wreaths mirroring the intricate designs of some of the silver jewelry in the shop...

The Milliners had a wreath with bundles of fabric...

The Courthouse with apples...hmmmmm, to represent sin from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? 

the Roscow Cole House...

The Kings Arms Tavern had the characteristic clay pipes of the era that would have been smoked by the gentlemen who gathered here...

The Mary Stith House, where the actor/interpreters often appear, had decorations with musical instruments...

Market Square Tavern...

The Greenhow Store...

The Geddy House...

The St. George Tucker House...

The George Wythe House...

The Governor's Palace...

 For more information on Colonial Williamsburg Christmas traditions, from music to Christmas trees and everything in between, here are more interesting articles.  There are also popular walking tours throughout the historic area where guides tell about the decorations.  Incidentally, at the link, there is a poll in the lower left hand corner, where you can vote for your favorite Christmas event in CW.  I chose the decorations...and so did most of the others who took the poll.  Merry Christmas!    

   Last week "Jamestown Unearthed", a Colonial Williamsburg Electronic Field Trip, made affordable for homeschoolers by Homeschool Buyer's Co-op, premiered. This EFT was a bit different from others we've seen.  Instead of being acted out by actor/interpreters, we saw a genuine archaeological dig at Jamestowne.  We heard from archaeologists on the process of digging up history.

   Tuesday we read the background historical information in the teacher's notes and did all of the activities together, orally. Wednesday we watched the broadcast and did the on-line activities.  The computer based activities had us compare primary source documents with artifacts that were found at the dig.  The kids also did the on-line vote.

     Thursday was the live broadcast, with an actor/interpreter portraying one of the soldiers. There was also the head of archaeology at Jamestowne and the curator at Jamestowne.  After the first broadcast, my kids thought of questions to e-mail to the archaeologist.   

     You might think we didn't do much with this EFT. Actually, we did more than usual! A few years ago we went to the living history center at Jamestown where the kids got to see the fort,

go on the ships and work at the Powhatten village. 

 Last September we went to historic Jamestowne, where the actual fort was located. 

All that is left now is the church tower,

from which the lead archaeologist based his theory of the fort being in the near vicinity under the ground instead of washed into the river as previously thought.  We got to see the area where the digs are, but due to rain the day before, it was covered in tarps. We plan to return another day to see the archaeological dig.   

     The kids have been to other archaeological digs too! They've talked to archaeologists at Mount Vernon, Montpelier, and Colonial Williamsburg. This is the Ravenscroft site at Colonial Williamsburg last July,

where they even got to do hands on activities.

Even I got a thrill to actually touch artifacts sifted from the soil. How often do we get to touch history? 

And how can I forget the CW archaeology dig in 2004 and 2008

which resulted in the opening of the Coffeehouse! 

I've been so slow with blogging lately!  The holiday season has us busy!  (My photo host has also been giving me fits in uploading pictures.  It is usually fabulous, so I'm spoiled.)

I finally managed to upload pictures, so we'll continue the play-by-play of our Arizona trip!



Over there:


And a then from "over there":

What a beautiful and awe inspiring sight.  Pictures (at least my pictures) can't do the Grand Canyon justice. 

As amazing as the natural wonder is, anywhere we go I enjoy watching people:  the people were fascinating, and in return, I realized that people were watching us. 

So many people wanted to take our pictures!  Oh, yes, a  few kind souls offered to take a picture of our whole family (one of them is posted a few posts down).  That didn't surprise me.  What was odd was those who wanted to take our picture with their own cameras!  There were visitors from all over the world--many from Asian countries.  The Asian women were fascinated with our children.  They'd see Kieran coming around a corner and "ooh!" and "aah" over him.  (We think he's pretty cute ourselves.) Then they'd see Keegan and say, "Brother?  Oh!  he has brother!"  A moment later they'd clap their hands in delight seeing the three girls!  "All brothers and sisters?  All?  One, two, three, four, five?"   It was astounding to me because while five is more than our national average, it isn't something that usually stops traffic.  Several of the ladies asked if they could take the children's picture.  Their exuberance and genuine excitement was irresistible, so we were happy to oblige, but  I do wish I'd taken a picture of them taking their pictures.

The other picture I wish I'd taken was of the Condor Man.  As we were heading back toward the train, we saw a man waving an antenna back and forth.  He was off by himself, but as we got closer he looked over at us, and seemed amiable.  The children asked what he was doing,.  (Ken and I were curious ourselves).  We walked over to ask, and ended up being given a wonderful science lesson.  He explained that he was picking up signals from California Condors, and provided a wealth of information on the enormous, endangered birds.

Next up, in my super-slow play-by-play, the return train ride.   Stay tuned, it might be a day or three unless I can mend my ways.

Hi everybody - I know I've been absent for ages again, but in theory I'd really like to get going with little updates here and there, if nothing else. Latest update: I'm pregnant!  I happen to be feeling wretched with this particular pregnancy, so that doesn't really tend toward helping me blog consistently. Nonetheless, I'm trying to figure out a better picture system again, and think I may have one. Please let me know if you can see either or both of these pictures! Thanks, and happy Advent to you all!

     Last weekend we went to Colonial Williamsburg's Grand Illumination.  My husband wanted to attend this major event. Because it could be extremely cold (and it was) I would have been perfectly content to have stayed home.  (Remember, this is my first winter this far north in my life!) Yet for weeks I worked on psyching myself up to endure the cold to make my husband happy. He had me make reservations for all the events he chose, some of which were already booked. At the last minute the weather was getting crazy, with even snow in the forecast!  Driving 2.5 hours south from our house meant we'd be warmer in CW, so we went! As cold as we were, we kept telling ourselves we were warmer than we would have been if we stayed in Northern Virginia.  We are now home, there are no frostbite cases, and we all had a terrific time!  Once again we did a lot of new things!

     As we walked into the historic area, I was instantly charmed by the gorgeous Christmas decorations that I had heard about for years.  I didn't get to see too much, since it was rainy and I had my hood pulled over my head to keep warm and dry. We made our way to the museum to see a special musical Christmas program.  This was called "Christmas Day in the Morning" and featured two colonial musicians with interesting period instruments and period Christmas songs.  We got to sing many of the songs with them.  Before they played a medley of four songs, they gave background information and named the tunes they would be playing. We hadn't heard any of those names before, so we were prepared to hear songs that were completely new to us.  When they played the tunes, their eyes lit up with enjoyment as they watched our reactions...we knew every tune as contemporary children's songs like "Pop Goes the Weasel", "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" and the "Muffin Man"!  

     Over and over again at our Christmas events, we learned the difference between a colonial Christmas and a contemporary one. In the eighteenth century, the days leading up to Dec 25 were for advent, the solemn meditation on the religious significance of Christ's birth.  Then the festivities began the next day on Dec 26 through Jan 6...the 12 days of Christmas!  In fact, George and Martha Washington, who loved celebrations, got married at the end of the 12 days of Christmas, because it was their favorite time of year.

     After the music program, we braved the cold and rain to go on the Christmas tour of some of the homes of the historic area. Did you know that some of the employees and big donors live in the historic homes?  We got to go into several of them.  The first house we visited was the Palmer House, across from the Capitol. 

 It's also called the Apple House.  Those holes were left behind from support beams during the reconstruction process.  Apples are put into them in December.

We had fun going into this house. It was gorgeous! My husband loves to get the interpreters to talk in the 21st century and somehow he got one of them that we met at Prelude to Victory to reveal that he lived in this house.  Even when we walked in to the dining room, my son directed my attention to the sword the interpreter wore during the weekend we had met him.  My son had been eyeing that sword during Prelude to Victory and now on the Christmas tour, it garnered all his attention yet again.  (No, I am not talking about Lafayette.)

      The next house we visited was that of the actor/interpreter who portrays Thomas Jefferson!  I'm going to keep his home a secret. In fact, I've kept it a secret from my own family for months! Last summer I figured out which house was his but I didn't tell anyone.  Now we got to actually go inside.  Who happened to be there to greet us but Thomas Jefferson himself. I was so overcome with awe that I couldn't say what was on my heart. I wanted to thank him for allowing us to come into his lovely home.  (I become speechless with all the Founding Fathers.)  When the kids walked up behind me, he remembered us. (Few of the interpreters recognize me, but they always recognize the kids!)  Mr. Jefferson even stepped out of character for us, as we chatted a bit.  Then we saw the rest of his home.  That was incredible! 

     We toured a few more homes which were wonderful!  I've always wanted to live and work in CW. My husband hasn't been too sure of living in the historic area, but that day his interest was caught.  He is now open to the idea! My favorite house was decorated with a lot of my favorite things.  They are also homeschoolers so I felt an instant closeness to them.  One house we visited had a sunken kitchen.  That was definitely unexpected! 

      In between visiting some of the houses, we went to Raleigh Tavern to see a Christmas subscription ball. We were told how our money to the ball would go for the needy (it was actually free admission due to our CW tickets, but it was a part of learning about the ball). Then we were taken into a room where several of the actor/interpreters were dancing. Even Patrick Henry was dancing and enjoying himself! I've heard that about him, that he gets completely focused on what he is doing, whether he's fired up about politics or genuinely enjoying himself while dancing. It was very dark in there, lit by a few candles.  We  sang "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" together, learned a round that we all sang, and then played a game.   We were told to draw a playing card out of a hat, then we were put in order according to the number on the one side of the card. On the other side was a phrase, which we read in the order we were placed in, resulting in the reading of a poem.  The person who drew the king (one of the interpreters) got stuck with buying us a round of drinks (I think that's what he got stuck with. Whatever he got stuck with was taken in good humor.)  That was the end of the merriment and some of the actors noted that they recognized us or came to talk to us. I finally had a chance to introduce my children to one lady, because she often stops to talk to them. I think my daughter has the same name as her, except it's spelled differently. I was watching for a reaction from her, but if they have the same name, she didn't show it. She does a terrific job staying in character! She thanked me for informing her of their names. All of the interpreters are really nice and a lot of fun! 

     Although it wasn't too bad trying to stay warm by day, the evening was cold! We stood near a cresset waiting for our evening tour, "Christmastide at Home." We walked to the Palace and saw four different scenes in different outbuildings, that told the stories of how CW had celebrated Christmas over the last two centuries. First we went to the kitchen to see a special story about the eighteenth century custom of Christmas boxes. Then we went to the carriage house where we saw a continental soldier in the Virginia militia meet with his sister and poignantly discuss why he would not marry the lady he loved, because he had no property.  However, he informed his sister that he had volunteered to go out of state to fight with General Washington in return for land.  Can you imagine how his sister felt, going further into danger?  Then he fired a gun, noting the eighteenth century custom of firing guns at Christmas...which is still done today on Christmas Eve in CW.  

     Next we went into one of the large outer buildings...I've never been in them before! They are bigger than they look!  We saw the story of the first Christmas tree in Williamsburg. This scene took place in the 1840's. A German professor from the College of William and Mary was staying with the St. George Tucker family. With two of the Tucker children, he shared the tradition of the Christmas tree from his home country, as well as songs from his homeland, "Stille Nacht" and "O Tannenbaum". 

     Finally we went to the large outer building on the other side of the Palace. As we walked into the building, we heard popular Christmas music from the 1940's. We walked into a room with a Christmas tree decorated with bubble lights.  I've seen them on hgtv before...they are lights that have a bubbly liquid in them. My son was intrigued with these and before the scene started he asked why people don't use them anymore.  This scene was sad and brought tears to my eyes. It was with a mother and daughter, where the dad was overseas in WWII. They talked about how Dad would miss the unique Christmas customs of CW.  (I remember where my husband missed a Christmas with us when he was overseas.)   By this time, the town has been restored to it's colonial past and the Christmas customs of the town tree, firing the guns, candles in the windows and holly and wreaths on the doors were discussed...all of which I will go into more detail in a separate entry.  Thus wrapped up our first cold day for the Grand Illumination weekend. Would we survive another day? Brrrr......

     The next morning was even colder!  It had to be below freezing!  Usually we like to enter the historic area early to see the animals.  I told my husband I could not do that in the freezing cold, but I could finish my Christmas shopping at the Visitor Center.  I found old CW EFTs on sale...$4.99!  I found one I thought my kids would especially like. Then I headed towards the costume book section and the family followed me.  I wanted to peruse the costume design books to see if there were any that would help me with future costumes. As we turned into that area, someone caught my husband's attention to talk to him.  I stood there looking at the gentleman, thinking that he was vaguely familiar, when I realized it was the actor who portrays Thomas Jefferson in 21st century clothes!  We couldn't believe it!  I tore myself away from their conversation to peruse the costume design books with my kids, then I sent them off to look at EFTs.  Meanwhile I grabbed a few Christmas gift items I hoped to keep hidden from my kids.  When I checked out, the saleslady recognized me from my previous visit the day the Coffeehouse opened.  That night I was agonizing over the costume design books, hoping to find something to help me make the Lafayette costume and she helped me with a few resources...neither of which helped me but I did purchase them for Christmas gifts for my son. She asked how the Lafayette coat was going and I said it was finished. She was surprised and asked how long it took me to do it.  Five days. She was shocked! I got my son to take his cape off for her to see.   

     After getting my shopping done in the other shop and chasing my daughter away who seemed to want to stay with me to see what I was buying (I have a difficult time keeping secrets from these kids) I put the packages in the van and found my family still talking to "Mr. Jefferson." They were talking about Texas and my goodness, I'll never think of Texas in the same way again after listening to a hilarious story that "Mr. Jefferson" told! 

     Finally we left and walked the back street, Nicholson Street, to see the wreaths. I had suggested to the family that we work our way to the Capitol and Duke of Gloucester Street to see if any of the actor/interpreters were doing something fun.  On the way, my son wanted to stop in the cabinet maker shop so we did that, while I sat and relished the warmth. Finally we left and continued down the road. We tried to walk up by the Capitol, but the pathways were roped off for the Grand Illumination that evening. After taking a more circuitous route, who should we see but George Washington and another gentleman surveying the area!

This was great!  I've always been interested in surveying and to see George Washington himself working the equipment absolutely brought history pages to life!  He remembered us and shook my son's hand.  They put my son to work with the equipment.

Although we learned about the mechanics behind how the surveying works at Prelude to Victory, we now got to see it in action. 

 We also learned something new. Colonel Washington (it was 1774) told us that this city surveying was done a bit differently from the field surveys he typically did.  City surveys must be precise, since individuals owned city lots and an accounting had to be made for property lines. In the field, however, a more general survey is done.

         Then we went to the museum for another music program my husband had selected. This one was contemporary, with music from ancient times to modern times.  They had us stand up to sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" with unusual, hilarious motions. Afterwards one of the performers teased us, by saying that there was a hidden camera and our actions would be posted for all to see. My favorite was an Indian Christmas Carol that the kids and I sang for a unit celebration.

     After the program and lunch, we returned to the historic area.  I suggested we head over to see if the actor/interpreters were doing anything fun.  On the way we stopped in one of the stores and the lady who made my son's Lafayette hat was busy with customers. I found a gift for my daughter and paid for it. The cashier commented on the nice costumes and my son's hat.  I pointed to the other lady and the cashier asked, "She made it?" "Oh yes, and my son is waiting to say hi to her." So the cashier caught her attention. When she saw my son, she remembered him.  "Mr. ___________! Oh, look at the hat!"   

     As we approached the Raleigh Tavern my son exclaimed, "There's Mr. Murdock!"  I knew there'd be something fun!  He was loudly speaking in an extremely bored tone, "Come and see the dancing Quaker.  You'll regret it if you don't. You'll always wonder what you missed if you don't come look." 

I looked in the box and yes, that was a dancing Quaker. He was moving the puppet with a stick.  However it was hilarious watching people's reactions and uncertainty as to whether they should look into the box or not. On top of that, Mr. Murdock is simply hilarious. We came back a few times and at one point when he was playing a wind instrument that only had a few holes, he remembered us. My husband yelled, "Encore!" so he played again.

Then he asked if our son and daughter were there. We pointed to the kids in costume. He asked them to dance to his music. They refused. In an extremely bored manner he said he'd play two flutes if they'd dance to his music.  They refused. In an extremely bored manner he said he'd play two flutes and stand on his head while playing them, if they danced to his music. I wanted to see that! They refused. Later I tried to talk them into making something up so we could see Mr. Murdock's reaction. They flat out refused. I told them I'd show them my Mommy Pouty Face and my expression made my son laugh...but it didn't convince them to dance.  We made our way back again (actually this was warm up strategy, we were walking around and around and around the historic area trying to build up body heat!) when he saw my daughter and asked her if she'd dance. No.  He asked her if she knew how to dance. No. What? If she doesn't know how to dance, she won't get a husband and will wind up an old-maid spinster daughter that her parents will have to support.  We were all laughing. In the 21st century he's much nicer, this is just an act and the way people thought in the 18th century. I thought I was doing well teaching my daughter geometry, Latin, chemistry, the classics, history, etc.  But in the 18th century a girl her age learned dancing, needlework, how to run a household, etc.     

     When we walked up the street, we met a guest who asked us where the House of Burgesses was.  That stumped us.  Did she mean the building or the people?  She didn't know.  Hmmmm. I said they met in the Capitol, which might be giving tours. She seemed more interested in the people.  I told her the men were not in session at the time, but if she went to the Raleigh Tavern, she could see a dancing Quaker. That perked her up! She excitedly went up the street to find the dancing Quaker.   

     Finally the Grand Illumination started. We stood near a toasty warm Cresset in Market Square.  I've heard that everyone comes to the Grand Illumination. I have never seen so many people in the historic area.  There are three stages of entertainment before and after the fireworks, near the location of the firing of the fireworks. These locations are near the Capitol, Courthouse and Palace. From our vantage point we could clearly see the fireworks shot from behind the Magazine and Palace and could almost see the ones from the Capitol. They are all programmed to fire simultaneously. All of us see exactly the same fireworks (same style, color, timing, etc).  These fireworks were also quite different.  Some seemed like sparklers revolving in the sky and others exploded into millions of flashy stars.  As cold as I was, I must admit it was a terrific show!

         Monday morning we took pictures of all the great wreaths on the doors. I'll go into more detail on this in another entry. Then we saw Alexander Purdie. He was standing by a painter. He said he was going to commission him to paint his portrait.    Then we went to the Capitol to listen to Colonel Washington speak. We learned lots of new things!  We learned that when the First Continental Congress assembled in 1774, all of the British colonies of North America were invited, including the provinces of Canada (although it was not called Canada yet) and the islands in the Atlantic and West Indies. 

     Later we saw Alexander Purdie riding in a carriage with a lady who was doing the driving.  That didn't match up with our 18th century perceptions, but we didn't have a chance to ask about it.

     After lunch we went to the Tucker House to meet with Gowan Pamphlet. That was great!  When he saw my family he smiled and said we were his parishioners!  He remembers us?  He sat down and said he was there to answer our questions and about an hour later he asked if we had any! He talked all about the Great Awakening and its influence on the American Revolution and freedom of religion.  Oh, I should mention that Gowan Pamphlet is an African American.  He was born a slave in Mrs. Vobe's tavern and worked for her most of his life.  After she died, she wrote in her will for him to be freed!  You can imagine how excited he was about that!  He is "now" a Baptist preacher of his own church!  That is why he called us his parishioners, because we attend his meetings sometimes!  Someone asked him to sing for us. He not only sang for us in his incredible voice, but he had us sing too.  It's a beautiful yet simple song.  I wish I had the words memorized. I stumbled upon it at the ringtone download page earlier today. It's "Sit on Down" and talks about resting in the Lord.   

     There weren't any questions, so after the singing he ended the time. At that point my husband tried to pull him into the 21st century (as he always tries to do) to ask a question...which ended up in my asking tons of actual history questions.  Now I'm trying to remember them.  Gowan Pamphlet had mentioned Thomas Paine talking about religious freedom so I asked where he wrote about it, in "Common Sense?" Yes, he went into great detail about that. I had to ask another question, about Paine's background.  I told Mr. Pamphlet that he probably hears this all the time, but all I know about Thomas Paine is the one sentence in the history book, that he wrote "Common Sense." I also said I do not teach my kids history with those text books and he said he knew full well that I gave my kids a great education! Well, Mr. Pamphlet told me that Thomas Paine was a failure at everything he set his hand to. Then he met Benjamin Franklin on the docks of England, who sent him back to his print shop in Philadelphia to do some writing, which eventually produced "Common Sense." "You mean Thomas Paine was English?" I asked incredulously!  Yes, he was. We talked about that a bit.  I told him we would study "Common Sense" in our next history rotation and he said he knew we would.  He even gave me the title of a book to read.  Wow, I'm racking up the reading list from these actors at Colonial Williamsburg! I got a few other book recommendations from an actor through a friend.  But I'm up for the reading challenge!  Now to see if I can find the books!  Afterwards the kids incredulously commented, "Mom, he said that whenever he sees us he is encouraged!"  

     After this we went to see a few more decorated houses on that end of town, then sadly we headed home.  We are always sad to leave CW.  We would love to make it our home someday.  And as cold as it was in CW that weekend, it was warmer than back home where we found snow!