Tertia's Christmas visit went very well. She didn't get to meet the Redcoat's grandfather, who is apparently ill and deteriorating in an Alzheimerish way. Grandmother preferred to protect his dignity.

We had shopped for Christmas gifts for the family, which was a little tough because, like most boys I know, the Redcoat could tell us almost nothing about his mother except that she works in a bank and is, well, his mum. Tertia drew enough conclusions about her tastes from his remarks about ours to allow a suitable purchase of hand-quilted throw pillows from the little museum of American life in town, along with handmade lavender and thyme soaps. It was good: the one was small, and the other squished, so she could put them in her luggage.

Dad was easy. He enjoys his cocktail, and he really liked the World's Tackiest American Beer Mug from NYC, with so many symbols of Americana on it that one would not have been surprised if it had played "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". We got him a big bottle of Wild Turkey. Also a stars-and-stripes cockade Christmas tree ornament with a big pearl button in the center, from the same history museum.

We got Grandmother sugar-free chocolates and toffees from American confectioners and put them in a collector-grade tin. (She's on a restricted diet.) She liked that very much.

After a little discussion, we got something to share with Grandfather: an original Broadway cast recording (1943) of "Oklahoma". I remembered hearing a story about "Oklahoma" being performed in a London theater just as WWII ended. Its score was well known, because recordings had come over with the GIs. At the end of one performance, the entire audience stood up, joined hands, and sang the whole score from memory, along with the cast. Relief, celebration, solidarity, community... I thought that maybe Grandfather, being of that age, might also remember "Oklahoma" the way my great aunt, when she was 100 years old, remembered the music from her youth better than ever she remembered any of us. And it, too, is American as all get-out.

Tertia also had the opportunity to meet the Redcoat's young cousins-once-removed. She is beloved of babies and young children generally, because she treats them as inexperienced equals. At work, when she checks out their books, she calls those she doesn't know by name "young sir" and "little miss", and one can watch them stand up a little taller when she does. So there were conversations about toys and cookies, which she thoroughly enjoyed and made her look just adorable to the family.

There were also day trips to London and elsewhere, for fun, but she had to come home before New Year's because she couldn't get New Year's Eve off.

Money is now, as you know, tight, so nobody has visited anybody since then, but they are both finishing up their undergraduate degrees. Being sensible people, they both want to do well at that, and then we'll see.

She has got a kind of cobbled-together living arrangement set up for after graduation, one that's fluid enough to allow her to a) go to grad school or b) move to England without c) moving back home, which she has said would, as a practical matter, drive her insane, something I understand. The people for whose children she babysat since the youngest was 18 months old (he's in school now) would like her to come live with them while she works on free-lance projects, of which she has a couple lined up. She could help with the kids -- they're considering home schooling the youngest -- and their two mastiffs, who think she's a member of the family.

They also live close enough to my library for her to, maybe, pick up a few hours a week there to start paying on her student loans, if the director will hire her. We have a hiring freeze, but we just lost a part-timer and another part-timer is inches away from leaving to go to UPenn. When I mentioned that Tertia was interested, one of my coworkers said that, if there isn't a position available, one should be created for her. I, of course, would not be her supervisor. We need someone with graphic design abilities, she would not need to be trained on any library operating system, and she's already laid down the law to some of the teens, who like her anyway. Again, we'll see.