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So she stayed , and we're all at home together this summer and very much enjoying a family Christmas . With Peggy , Graham and his daughter and girlfriend , and Anna and Nikki with their respective boyfriends , we had 17 people here for about five days over Christmas . After Ian helped him through it , getting him out of the river and into a cup of hot soup , John commented to Nikki that I was just like a real dad ! In Germany we parted : Pam to London to visit her parents , Ian to Rome to visit the Food and Agriculture Organization , a UN agency that he is doing digital library work for. ( He came away with a cheque for US $ 50K for the research project , so it was worth it . They played again just before Christmas . Ian has taken Beulah as far as Coromandel harbour ( east , on the Coromandel peninsula ) , Kawau island ( north ) , and Auckland ( north and west ) , and has sailed with many different friends in various combinations . We had to take our own wood , for Alberta Parks Service no longer provides firewood . It 's the biggest family time in the calendar , and being " home for Thanksgiving " is even more important than being home for Christmas . In November Ian went to Lubeck , Germany , for a conference , then to London to give a seminar and a one-day workshop at University College , London , then back home to N. Ireland for a week to see how his Mum was getting on ( just fine !