Cowboy wanted to go to his family’s, and I wanted to go to mine, so that’s exactly what we did; no fuss, no fighting. My mom had brought my grandparents down, since we’re all getting a little twisty about them driving, especially in holiday traffic, and I really wanted to see them. Grampa’s not doing so well with his heart lately, and I’d hate to miss him.

So Wednesday night I fixed up some of the Artichoke Stuffing that my sister hates, with her antipathy of “A” vegetables. Since she was safely in Colorado, and I didn’t know she hated it anyway, it was fine. Even my dad choked some down, but I think that was just to be polite. Dad doesn’t much like stuffing.

We headed up there yesterday, and found surprisingly little traffic to deal with. It was almost like it wasn’t a holiday, and I started to wonder if I had the wrong day until the usual clog in Jamestown.

Right when we got there, my mom told us to go look off the back deck. The local deer herd was right there, and the big four point buck was sniffing around and chasing off the lesser bucks. We watched and admired for a while, and I sneaked downstairs to take some pictures. It didn’t take much sneaking; these deer are used to people. It was a little frustrating to be within bow distance of the first buck I’ve seen all year, and to have season closed and no bow in sight. Mom won’t let me hunt her deer anyway (and especially not in a subdivision, I know) even though they wreak havoc on her landscaping.

We kept an eye on the deer, and later noticed the big buck sniffing around a doe that seemed to be in the mood. Grampa thought it very funny that we all trooped out to the deck to watch them getting it on. We called it “the floor show” for the rest of the evening. Yes, we had four generations of family out back watching deer p0rn!

We also convoyed up to Mom and Dad’s new house to admire the progress. It was a little funny getting Gramma up into my truck, but that was easier than shoehorning either of them into the back seat on Mom’s car.

They have the floor poured on the Lego house, with the tubes for the heating set in the concrete. The walls have the forms in place, but are yet to be poured. I forgot to ask Dad how they pour around the windows. The construction details are fascinating; I guess they use this technology back East a lot, but not much out here. I took some pictures, but they’re still in the film camera, sorry!

On the way back, the kids and I made a tiny detour across the road to Diestel Turkey Ranch, but the gate wasn’t open. Mom says you can walk up to the fence and the turkeys come rushing up to you. I imagine they’re probably pretty low on turkeys this time of year; we ate one ourselves, and it was very good. You can see Mom and Dad’s house from their gate, but they’re not quite next-door neighbors. Some cattle have that privilege. What a nice place to live!

The rest of the day was just remarkably low key. The kids were extraordinarily good—I kept wondering what got into them. They ate their dinners without complaining, and even tried new things. Seamus doesn’t much care for cranberry sauce, but he was polite about it. I didn’t force the issue; I don’t like it myself, and he was eating plenty of other things. Well, mostly turkey and three helping of stuffing, but that’s OK.

We took off when I was so stuffed that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stay awake. The kids zonked for most of the ride home. We should have turkey more often, if it will put kids to sleep. I did miss the other family, and I called Cowboy, but he’d already left. He had a good holiday too; it was much easier to split up than to worry about who was bored or who really wanted to be elsewhere. Since I have to juggle the kids for Christmas, I’ll stay down here, and I really wanted to see my family for at least one of the holidays.

Now, it’s off to the dump! I hope, anyway. I may not get it in gear, but that’s OK, there’s no law that says I have to do it today. And loading some of the stuff with only a ten-year old to help might be tricky. Marci, we’ll bring those dog houses by this afternoon. I’m on a yard-cleaning kick!