Thank you very much to those of you who left such kind comments during my husband's recent loss of his father.
When friends and family ask about our trip to England, I tell them that we were early to his father's funeral, and got good parking spaces twice at our hotel. Other than that, it was very surreal, very un-Christmasey, and extremely out-of-sync. Nothing catastrophic occurred, so please understand that I'm not being overly dramatic. It's just that a very exhausting, long series of inconveniences and unpleasantries both before, during and after the trip, made it an even sadder journey than we had anticipated.
Having said that, the healing has already begun for my husband, which is a very good thing.
I have a great story to share that perfectly describes the "out-of-sync" part of our trip. We had a brief layover on our return at Boston's Logan airport. I stepped over to the Starbucks to get us what turned out to be soggy turkey sandwiches and coffee -- it was clear that the employees there didn't want to spend their Christmas day at the airport any more than we did! As I was waiting through the fourth attempt to get one

of them to understand my coffee order, a lady approached the counter asking whether they had any "Boston Starbucks" coffee mugs. They said, "of course," and pointed to the set of shelves nearby.
She said, "But do you have any BOSTON ones."
"Yes," they said impatiently. "They're all there."
The lady smiled and said, "but those all say Toronto. It's not even the right country!"
It capsulizes the way our whole trip went, and made us both smile through the tears.
Here's hoping that all your 2008 days are full of blessings, light and laughter.
Melanie
font credits: VTKS Rock Garage Band, Miss Brooks, VTKS 36