Why?

This must be just about the Mouse's favourite word. Just in case you were asking it too, here are some questions and answers for you.

Why is your blog called 'Let's hope it snows'?
Well, for starters, snow is my favourite and my best. I mean - what's not to like about it? - and we get precious little of it, here in the sunny southern climes of the UK. Last time we went to America it snowed, right on Thanksgiving. This time we're all full of hope for a repeat performance. The Mouse is particularly keen on snow.

Why have you given your family such silly names? They're not your real names, right?
How very observant of you! Indeed, they are not our real names. Ruby is my user name in an online forum and I'm married to Mr Ruby so logically... The Mouse happened to look uncannily like a mouse when she was new-born and TR...well, to cut a long story short, it was his nickname when he was still a 'bump'. His dad and uncle (with whom we are going to spend the next two weeks) are big fans of Triumph sports cars, so his nickname is partly in homage to that.

Why are you bothering to record the tedium of your daily life?
Oh, come, come now - you don't mean that... do you? Well, I'm hardly the first to do so, am I? Normally, when we go on holiday I write a travel journal. Writing a blog seemed like the next logical step. Mr Ruby would like to point out that I never finish my travel journals, so you can expect this one to fizzle out after a few days.

Two more sleeps!

Yes, folks - in two more days (or 'sleeps' to use the unit of measurement favoured by my four year old daughter) we'll be leaving Dear Old Blighty and heading for America. 'We', in this instance, refers to our family of four: Mr and Mrs Ruby and the two Rubettes, otherwise known as the Mouse and TR.

Not much left to do now. Well, except maybe pack.