Girls back in school today after the Christmas break so finally I have some time to update our blog. Apologies for the long break - December was a busy month. I'll have to do it quickly though - it's likely that the girls will have a snow day off school tomorrow as Winter Storm Hercules hits us. More on the Boston winter shortly ...

When I last left you we were about to visit Newport, Rhode Island. We had a lovely day - Newport is a beautiful town which needs more time to explore than we had in one day. We had a cold but exhilarating walk along the coastal footpath, the highlight of which is peeking through the fences and hedges at the back gardens of the mansions. In the afternoon we dropped into The Breakers, one of the most famous of the Newport Mansions, which belonged to the Vanderbilt family. It was like visiting a British stately home, if a little more ostentatious, with the added bonus of extravagant but tasteful Christmas decorations. The centrepiece was a 12ft poinsettia tree in the cavernous  marbled hallway. Sadly, we were not allowed to take photographs indoors but if you go to http://www.newportmansions.org/events/christmas-at-the-newport-mansions you'll get a picture of what we saw. The day finished with dinner at the house of one of Barry's IHI colleagues. Gareth was a UK Fellow at the IHI about 10 years ago and returned to Boston about 8 years to work at the IHI. He and his wife Donna live in Brookline and their daughter Ellen is in Isabel's grade at school. We had a lovely evening reminiscing about all things UK and wondering at some of the weird and wonderful things US.

The girls had a busy December at school. Fiddler on the Roof was performed Thursday 12th to Saturday 14th December. Isabel's cast were on stage the Friday night and the Saturday afternoon so Barry, Rachel and I were in Friday's audience. The show was absolutely brilliant. The standard of singing and acting was as good as any youth theatre show we've seen and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Isabel had a ball and has made so many new friends - not bad for someone who almost didn't audition because she was worried about singing in front of other people. Rachel ended up going to watch both shows on Saturday with a variety of different friends and Isabel went to watch Saturday night's show with the other cast so I think the Appletons showed their support!

The following Monday Isabel's school Chorus had its Winter Concert in the High School auditorium. All the children at Pierce School have two music sessions a week, one of which is known as "Conservatory". During this session the children can join their grade's string orchestra, wind band or chorus (choir) or if they are completely non-musical, they can do music appreciation instead. Isabel chose to sing with the chorus rather than play in the string orchestra. The Winter Concert featured the chorus groups from grades 5 to 8 and the grade 6-8 wind band and was very enjoyable. The standard was variable - we felt that the West Park Primary School choir was better than most of the choirs in the concert - but it was fun nonetheless and Isabel enjoyed it. The 20-minute wait for the T (train) back home standing on the outside station platform in the snow was rather less enjoyable!

In the midst of Isabel's shows, Rachel had an audition for the school's grade 5 and 6 show, The Wizard of Oz. The children had to audition in groups of five so Rachel and her team of cronies arranged to go together. They were given some sections of script to practice and were told they would be asked to sing Over the Rainbow and a song of their choice. Rachel set her heart on the part of the Lion, which she performed hilariously whilst practicing at home. Luckily in the audition the section of script the group of five were asked to perform involved the Lion so Rachel had the opportunity to do her Lion thing. The parts were due to be revealed at the first rehearsal the following week and we had the tip off from the producer (who is the Dad of one of Rachel's friends and basketball team colleagues) that Rachel had done very well in the audition so excitement mounted as the rehearsal approached, only to be dashed when the rehearsal had to be postponed due to snow. However, the rehearsal was rearranged for two days later and Rachel was over the moon to be given the part of the Lion! As in Isabel's show there are two casts who will do two performances each in mid-March. Most of Rachel's friends are in her cast although she seems to be the only 5th grader to have a major part. Rehearsals proper start next week and Rachel can't wait to get started after lots of practice and learning lines over the Christmas break.

In the midst of all of these cultural pursuits the girls have started playing basketball with a local Brookline league. Rachel plays in the grade 4/5 league and Isabel is in the grade 6/7/8 league. They train once a week with their team and play matches on Saturdays. Both are doing really well although Isabel hasn't had a great start not managing to make any of her training sessions so far because of other commitments and only playing one full match, having to miss one match because of her show performance and then getting injured in another match (bruised finger - more sore than it sounds!). However, matches and training resume this Saturday so we're hoping Isabel will get the chance to fulfill the potential she showed during her one match. They are both really enjoying playing and Isabel is even talking about pursuing basketball rather than netball on our return to Porthcawl. We'll see!!

So, onto Christmas. It's been an interesting experience! Christmas is a word not heard very often around here - Thanksgiving to New Year is referred to as "the holidays" as it also includes Hanukkah, the Jewish festival, at the beginning of December and with the large Jewish population in Brookline it seems safest not to mention Christmas. Certainly, the school didn't seem to have any Christmas celebrations and it has been strange not to have any Christmas concerts to attend. Even the Chorus Winter Concert made no reference to Christmas. At least Christmas trees were readily available - the Elks Lodge opposite our apartment block sold Christmas trees which made it very easy for us with no car, although I was wondering about the sanity of getting the tree whilst Barry was away at a conference in Orlando as Isabel and I struggled across the road and up the stairs to our apartment with a 7ft tree! The bigger problem was finding a stand for the tree - I travelled around Boston without success visiting various shops which seemed likely to sell stands only to end up eventually at a hardware store in Brookline which the nice men at the Elks Lodge suggested. It's the most unlikely items which cause problems when you're away from home.

So how was Christmas in the US different from back in the UK? I've already mentioned the sensitivity towards referring to Christmas and this translated to Christmas cards as well as school and general conversation. However, the most noticeable difference to me centred around food. As the Yanks have turkey at Thanksgiving they tend to go for ham on Christmas Day. We stuck to turkey but had the ongoing gravy problem - no gravy browning to give colour to home made gravy and no gravy granules. The only gravy options seemed to be anaemic home made gravy which went down badly with the girls at Thanksgiving, buying it ready made or in a powdered form in packets. In actual fact the packet powder made very acceptable gravy but it needed a packet per person to make enough to go around so it wasn't the cheapest option! I missed many of the other foods which we associate with Christmas. Mince pies were virtually non-existant - some friends managed to track down a couple of packs in one of the supermarkets which has a small section of British food and very kindly donated a pack to us which we have gratefully consumed. Christmas cake and Christmas pudding are also conspicuous by their absence. I bought a "holiday fruit cake" which was the nearest I could find but it's not the same. No pickled onions or pickled red cabbage (usually provided by my Mum!) and no Stilton cheese. Shortbread biscuits can be found but are expensive. Non-food but essential for Christmas are crackers. These are not a US tradition but can be found if you look hard enough. Again, they are expensive and charmingly are labelled as "a British tradition" and come with instructions. The ones I bought did the job though. Christmas dinner wouldn't have been the same without the paper crowns, silly jokes and useless toys!