Advanced level EFL resources: word games and crosswords

A winter holiday crossword

Complete Kathy's letter....

A "letter" is a thing that people used to use to communicate with each other, just a few years ago !
Some still do !
Instead of sending a text message, or an email, you write with a pen, on a piece of paper, which you then send through the post. Terribly old-fashioned, and slow, by today's standards; but sometimes it's nice to write, or receive a letter.....
Fill in the blanks in this letter, to complete the crossword puzzle.
This is a letter written by Kathy to her friend Maxine. Kathy and Simon, from London, are on a winter holiday in north America .
The numbers in the letter indicate the position of the missing word in the crossword grid; (a) after a number, such as 19a, indicates a word across, (d) after a number means a word down. For many words there is no choice. Start by reading the letter, and putting in the most obvious words, or the most logical words. They will help you to find the others, for which there is more choice.
Letter crossword

Dear Maxine,
I (19a) just about to (9) my 3-week tour of North America. I'm (17) a lovely time, and hope you are (24d).
We arrived just before (7), and spent three days in New York, (18d) going down to Texas, where I have some (3), cousins of my Dad's. They live at Corpus Christi, not (12d) from the Mexican (1a). It was very warm, and we went swimming in the Gulf once (2) twice.
We stayed (16) their house for a week, then flew north to Calgary, in (22), where Simon's elder (6) Caroline lives. We were quite lucky, as they had a special cheap mid-winter (12) on the plane.
Its pretty cold here in Canada after the (13) of Texas: about 15°C (27) zero at midday !!
They dont find it very cold, but I (21)! I've bought a lovely Indian leather (1d).
We spent New Year (14) Edmonton, then drove over to Banff, in the Rockies. That is where we all (8) the moment, as I (15) this letter.
Yesterday we went skiing. It was great, but today Im very (20d).
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and on Tuesday were (26) back on a (5) flight from Calgary to London, (25) the polar route. We reach Heathrow (23) at midday. Can you meet us please at Terminal 3! We'll be very tired, as we (10) eight hours on the way back! We have to leave here at 4 a.m., (11) (4) we'll miss the plane at 6! I'll (20) this letter off at once.
See you soon Love Kathy

Click here for the solution (but do the puzzle first!)

Reproduction is authorised exclusively for personal use by students, or for use by teachers with their classes. Multi-copying of this resource is permitted for classroom use. In schools declaring the source of copied materials to a national copyright agency, Linguapress advanced level resources should be attributed to "Spectrum" as the source and "Linguapresss France" as the publisher.