*
Tues Nov 25th Mary has done the ironing to day except
the fine clothes and they look much better than usual
Jane is rather better to day and has washed the dishes
and assisted some about the housework. I have made a
dickey for Mr Ames. Passed the afternoon at Father Ames
with Mr & Mrs Swain & Mrs Meader Mrs S Ames,
Fred & Helen came home to night
Family members began to gather in anticipation of Thanksgiving. Fred and Helen Ames came home from their respective schools in Cambridge and Boston, adding animation to the quieter house next door. Surely their parents, Sarah Lothrop and Oliver Ames, Jr., were pleased to see them. Oliver (3), away at school in Providence, was getting ready for his travel home.
No one was making merry yet, however. Everyone still had work to do. The new girl, Mary, did some ironing, evidently better than Jane McHanna usually did. Jane herself, still recovering from an illness that had laid her low for almost ten days, was able to wash dishes and help out a bit. Evelina, after supervising Mary and Jane, was finally freed up to sew and socialize. She was in a happier state of mind.
The men of the family were working as well. While Oakes, Oliver Jr, Oakes Angier, and Frank Morton were at the shovel shop, Old Oliver and some of his men began “a building an ice hous.”**
“About sunsett,” it began to snow.
*Image of a mid-19th century kitchen, Courtesy of http://www.victorianpassage.com
**Oliver Ames, Journal, Courtesy of Stonehill College Archives, Tofias Collection
evelinaames 
I wonder if the ice house was on the Great Pond. I have heard that there was an Ames ice house there, functioning into the Twentieth Century, but if I ever heard the location, it has slipped my mind.