I like to be in America!

It was with a tear in the eye that we left Seymour and Nibbler at the cattery (in their deluxe heated chalet with yard), and headed off to (the U.S. of) America.

Our hosts for the trip were the Cotto's: Yoshi (Elena) and her parents Bob & Mary Ellen. Who, with the help of Lenie and Greg (Yoshi's Aunt and cousin), put up Adam & I, and Ev & Tracy, and a few days later Sophie & Nathan too, very comfortably.

I had been well and truly hassled by Adam on the flight over when he realised that there was only a 50% chance of precipitation on Christmas, and less chance of actual snow. He claimed I had promised him a white Christmas. But he changed his tune when he saw the amount of snow on the ground. We had both forgotten that snow doesn’t necessarily melt within 5 minutes, and had much to learn about icy-snow fights and walking on icy and snowy footpaths. And I think the beautiful Christmas decorations helped, especially compared to all the coloured flashing lights and the inflatable Homer Santa in our town.

For our first day out and about in Boston, Yoshi took us for a walking tour around the Copley and Back Bay areas: from the eccentric church of Christ, scientist, building, through the shopping centres on Huntington Ave (including a quick trip into Tiffany & Co to check out the diamonds), to Boston house of pizza for eggplant parmigiana subs, checking out the shops on Newbury St, into the library to check out patent indexes, sliding across the frozen park, games of iceball (like football, but with chunks of ice – quite painful), across the snow and ice covered public gardens to see the ducks, and across the Charles river for dinner at Red Bones where we experienced corn fritters with (real) maple syrup, and ribs were the order of the day. I had the mac & cheese. Very tasty.

By the second day we had our first casualty: Ev was stuck in bed with a tummy bug. Tracy, Adam and I made ourselves useful where possible: unpacking the ornaments in preparation for tree trimming, testing the fairy lights, eating the Christmas chocolates, trimming the tree. We also took a trip down to the local funky shops at Jamaica Plain for a browse and feed, and a long wait for the bus thanks to a church tower clock that didn’t work (of course being on holidays we had no watches and one mobile with us). Dinner was Mexican – real Mexican we are told, not like the Australian Mexican. And the arrival of Soph and Nath completed the party.

Christmas eve lunch was an Italian feast in the North End, followed by a half hour queue outside in the cold, profitably spent chatting to locals, to get the best cannoli. Mmm cannoli. Our afternoon stroll took us through the posh Beacon Hill area to see if anyone was breaking their heritage committee restrictions on garish Christmas decorations. The Australians found it all very impressively tasteful, although Yoshi was surprised that one tree visible through a window was allowed to remain. After a beer at Cheers, another visit to the ducks and a walk on the frozen pond, it was time for the traditional Christmas eve pizza, last minute wrapping, and preparation for the feast. By this time we had our second casualty: Adam had the flu.

Christmas day is a bit of a blur, possibly induced by the amount of sugar consumed before breakfast (each of the Australians got a stocking jam packed with peanut butter cups, Hershey’s kisses, tootsies rolls etc), compounded by the double helping of delicious French toast (with bacon for the carnivores) soaked in maple syrup. A few more hours of cooking and it was (dinnertime) back to the table for the feast of a thousand desserts. We had been warned that the apple pie was unlikely to make it to leftovers, but everything else we would have seconds of tomorrow. So with that in mind we feasted on bread and salad then pot roast, ham, turkey, eggplant parmigiana lasagne, carrots (roasted or stewed), potatoes (roasted or mashed), beans, corn then apple pie and ice cream. Which left us all that plus the cheesecake, fruit salad, pecan pie, Christmas cake, cookies and cannoli for leftovers. Mmm breakfast cheesecake and fruit salad. There wasn’t a lot of movement after dinner, just a lot of moaning. Boxing day was basically about eating leftovers, and watching the English football on telly.

From there it was on to NYC qnd New Hampshire, but I think this is enough to keep you going until I get back from Morocco and can post pictures. and dont have to deal zith a french/arabic keyboard anymore. off to the sahara tomorrow for camel riding, and watching the world change clour by the minute