We are home after spending ten days in the U.K. with our family. Can it really be just a few days ago that we were winging our way back to Newark? After an eight and a half hour drive back home to Charlottesville, minus one missing suitcase, we collapsed into our beds and dreamt of all the places we had been and the family we had just left…

I love this photo, because it brings together my family and my husband’s family through my sister’s novel Tiger Pelt. My vision-impaired mother-in-law is trying to read the back cover between stitches!

Playing for Granny

One of the things we had planned to do was to go to the British Open, which was being held not too far from where we were staying. We decided not to buy tickets when we realized we would have to stand around for hours in the cold and driving rain if we went. We consoled ourselves by holding our own British Open.

We divided ourselves into teams of two. Team “My Dude” (our 17 year old) and “Granddude” easily outperformed the other teams to win the tournament.

“But that’s OK,” I consoled my partner after our third place showing, “The third place finisher in the British Open got $684,000 this year!”

We rounded out the day with a quick detour to pay homage to our kids’ favorite sports team:

Old Trafford, “Theatre of Dreams”

This Man U fan was delighted to get a photo with some of her heroes.