Bye Bye Boston

When I left Boston area three years ago, I had never planned to go back to the States even though I loved the city where I'd spent much of the first half of my adulthood.

It was my husband who thought spending Christmas with my daughter in Boston was a good idea. Time with my kid is always great, time with her and my husband is even better.

We leave for home tomorrow landing first at Heathrow, on to Toulouse and finally back to Geneva.

I take with me many joys of the trip.

• Visits with high school friends Dave, Jack and Barbara
• Trips past my old high school, homes and golf club
• Eating/drinking cider, egg nog, raisin bagels, Stouffer's Welsh Rarebit, Maine lobster -- foods next to impossible to get in France and Switzerland.
• Harvard Square
• Meeting up with Bruce, Nicole, Wendy, Richard, Rosana, Rossi from different stages of my life
• Seeing my grand nephews for the first time
• Chatting with my niece face to face
• Snow
• Cold weather
• Breakfasts at Dempsey's
• Dancing to Lord of the Dance at the Revels
• Laughing at a performance of Shear Madness, which I'd seen years before. It is coming up for its 40th year anniversary.
• Walking around Quincy Market
• Eating once again at the Union Oyster House, the country's oldest restaurant again
• Riding the T
• Smelling Llara's coffee in the morning
• Not having my Boston accent stand out but fitting in
• Hearing the Boston accent
• Visiting the campus of Lowell University where I earned my B.A.

There were many other people we could have seen had we had more time to travel a bit further away and/or another week.

I almost knew my way around, but buildings had disappeared and others had appeared.

At each encounter, I brought out a bit of my past, a memory of things done that have made me me.

Still, I am ready to head home to where I now belong to current friends, Sherlock my dog, places I love in Switzerland and France. I need to get back to my writing.

I appreciate my husband's suggestion that we spend Christmas as we did.

One of the Christmas gifts from my daughter was a decoration, a silver medal engraved with a tree with deep roots. It reads "Boston Roots."

I have Swiss and French roots, too, attached to the Boston ones.

Bye, bye Boston. Hello home.