saying goodbyes

Since last writing the internet has been a nightmare! I finally gave up trying so it was such a surprise to get on finally today!

We have had such fun over Christmas and I meant to fill you in as it went on ... however, I now start with the goodbye!

My sister, husband, daughter and son flew over from Boston for a traditional Christmas and we have done everything and been everywhere!!! Last time she came over we parted at a bus stop in Oxford, outside Debenhams. I have brought up my kids with a certain sort of originality which meant the dining table stayed upside-down most of the time as we played 'sharks'. We invented our own version of snakes and ladders with real ladders up stairs and over settees and the snakes were knotted ropes dangling from attics and haylofts.

Me and my sister boarded the 'park and ride' bus almost in tears and left eldest son and daughter at the bus stop outside the bus. The automatic doors closed but the bus didn't go anywhere. Quick as a flash Luke started playing charades - we were yelling the answers through the window and people moved across the bus to join in. The bus driver had never seen anything like it.

This time it was a final meal of fish and chips (apparantly they don't taste quite like it on Cape Cod (?!). I wrote down the directions to the Airport as best I could and we parted on the roundabout on the Skipton bypass! Arms waving out of windows, tears and huge cheers as our car headed up the Keighley road and they turned up the Clitheroe road ...