It's raining. It doesn't rain very often in Boston so this is notable. It's also much warmer, although only for today. It's like a late autumn day in Porthcawl. Forecast says tomorrow is  back to the usual blue sky, sunshine and near freezing temperature. Not sure which I prefer - I guess a bit of both means you appreciate both.

Anyway, there is still a bit of catching up to do to bring us up to date but in the meantime we're getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow. The girls finish school at midday today and are off until next Monday which will be nice, particularly as their school doesn't have a half term break so the term has seemed very long.

After much debating about whether to go away for the Thanksgiving break or whether to stay home and go out for a Thanksgiving meal or to cook a meal at home we have decided to go for the latter option, thinking that we'll have a more relaxing day. I gather that as a mum I should be highly stressed by now, planning a huge feast to feed the entire extended family. Thankfully, as it's just the four of us (we did invite some friends but they had already made other plans) I can keep everything low key and we can just enjoy a (hopefully) tasty turkey dinner and an easy day. We're not really sure what else is involved other than the turkey dinner. The day starts with the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York on the TV. We think at some point during dinner everyone joins hands and each person says their thanks for something and then everyone watches the footie on the TV in the afternoon. At least that's what we've been told. We're hoping to skype both sets of parents/grandparents to fulfil the "celebrating with the family" element of the day and also to say "happy birthday" to Dad.

We're hoping to go out somewhere for the day on Friday, avoiding the shops as the day after Thanksgiving is known as "Black Friday". All the shops have huge sales and we have been warned to avoid the shopping malls unless we want to get involved (which we don't). On Saturday we have been invited to the house of one of Barry's IHI work colleagues, a former UK Fellow who stayed. His daughter is in the same school and same grade as Isabel so we should all enjoy the evening.

So, back to the end of October. We celebrated Halloween on October 31st. "Celebrate" is the correct word to use - Halloween here seems to be an excuse for parties and fun. We went trick or treating with our South African/UK friends and the girls, Megan and Megan's friend Catherine all dressed up as characters from Peter Pan. Rachel was Peter Pan, Izzy was Captain Hook, Megan was Wendy and Catherine was Tiger Lily. Megan's little brother Jacob dressed up as a very cute Mr Smee. The girls went to houses in the vicinity of Megan's house and managed to collect a large bucketful of sweets, much to Barry's horror!

Much as I don't like trick or treating at home, the evening was great fun. There were loads of kids out on the streets in a wide variety of costumes. Many of the houses were decorated and there seemed to be a code that if a house had decorations or a pumpkin outside, it was fair game for trick or treating. If there were no decorations or pumpkins, it was left alone. It seemed to work as the girls were welcomed at every house they went to. There was a great atmosphere and even the weather was kind and mild, allowing the girls to wear their costumes without coats.

Just before Halloween there was another celebration - the Red Sox won the World Series!! On the sixth match of the seven-match World Series final play-offs the Red Sox achieved their fourth victory over the St Louis Cardinals, winning their first World Series since 2007. There was much jubilation in the Appleton household as well as at Fenway Park. We have got very caught up in the baseball, not just because we have enjoyed watching the games but also because so many of the Red Sox players are real characters. Also, there has been a sense of divine inevitability that they would be champions this season. They had a disastrous season last year, finishing bottom of their division, and dumped their coach and a load of over paid players. They appointed a new coach and bought in a load of new players who lived and breathed baseball rather than enjoying the high life. The Boston Marathon bombings seemed to engender a strong team spirit and a desire to give something back to the city. They played well throughout the season, had a "never give up" attitude which won them many matches in the final innings, and endeared themselves to the fans by growing beards and promising not to shave them off until the end of the season (this was a follow on from the Bruins ice hockey players who started sporting beards following the bombings as a symbol of "Boston Strong"). Even those players who began the season clean shaven had beards by the end and the Red Sox shop did a roaring trade in false beards.

The Saturday following the World Series win, ie Saturday November 2nd, the Red Sox had a victory parade through Boston. Being big Red Sox fans we thought we should go into town and watch it. The streets along the route were lined several people deep and it felt very similar to me to the Olympic torch relay. There was a sense of great anticipation as everyone waited for the parade to arrive and huge cheers greeted the players as they passed on Boston Duck Boats. The biggest cheers were reserved for David Ortiz, voted MVP of the World Series and a Red Sox legend, and closing pitcher Koji Uehara, a Japanese player new to the Red Sox this season who speaks no English but has become a hero to the fans for his ability to close out the opposition in the final innings. The phrase "Koji time" has entered the Red Sox lexicon, meaning "we're 100% confident the opposing team will score no more runs now that Koji is pitching".


On the T - cheek to jowl with other Red Sox fans.

Waiting for the parade to arrive.

Finally, they're here!!

So, Red Sox excitement over, our next stop was Disney World. We took the girls out of school for a few days but managed to book the holiday over a public holiday weekend and an early closure day so we had a six-day holiday for missing just two and a half days of school. Having said that, the girls were given a load of homework by their teachers to complete during the holiday which wasn't entirely easy to fit in with the long days out and late returns to the hotel each day but the girls were very good and did all the work asked of them (even if some of it was on the plane journey home between 9pm and midnight!).

We had a great six days with lovely warm weather most of the time. The Disney parks were a bit busier than we were expecting but we still rarely had to wait longer than 15-20 mins for a ride and most of the time the queues were much shorter. The girls had a ball going on all the big roller coasters that they were too small to go on when we visited six years ago. There was much less character meeting and greeting and much more running from one ride to another. 

Day one was Disney's Magic Kingdom.

The evening "Electric Parade" at the Magic Kingdom.

Day two: Universal Studios Islands of Adventure park, including Harry Potter World.

Day three: Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Day four: Disney's EPCOT. Not many photos for some reason. Rachel was adamant she wanted to meet Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger who were in the UK Pavilion.

Day five: Disney's Hollywood Studios. Again, not many photos. We had lunch in a great 1950s diner-style restaurant, complete with middle-aged bossy waitress (in the nicest possible sense - she was lovely).

Day six: Universal Studios. Rachel got to meet her idols (Scooby Doo and Spongebob) and Izzy got chatted up by Men in Black, who then joined us for breakfast!