Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

As the title suggests, the Anatagonist family is back from our trip North.

Saying good-bye was hard. Damn hard. And it gets harder every time I have to do it.

But although I love my family like crazy, and I miss them every single day when I am apart from them, twelve days crammed into a small-ish house with one bathroom and two other adults who are used to a rather sedate life, (one of whom is thoroughly unaccustomed to and wholly disinclined toward compromise of any kind) is a mixed bag of nuts.

So we are glad to be home.

We did have a great time though.

Fortuitously, there was an abundance of snow, which thrilled my boys to no end. My brother-in-law suggested to Husband that they take our boys and oldest nephew on a trip to Navarino Mountain which was my boys' first experience with snow sports of any kind, since there has been no snow on previous Christmas visits since the boys were very small.

They stuck to tubing, since the skiing and snow boarding required some instruction courses, and because I did not relish the thought of ending up in the emergency room, or having to travel 900 miles home with a kid in a cast.

Nevertheless, they were amazed and impressed and had the time of their lives. They have refused to remove the lift tickets from their zippers, and are anxious to show them off when they return to school.

There is more to tell, of course, but we are all exhausted and a little slap happy from 15 hours of interstate travel.

I will say this...Indiana is one looooooooong ass state with nothing much interesting to look at, with the exception of two large gas tanks lying side by side which are painted convincingly, if rather predictably, like twin ears of corn.

Husband and I are particularly worn out as we have spent 12 nights sleeping together in a teeny tiny little bed that curiously, slopes downward on either side from a peak in the middle. Normally we sleep separately due to Husband's snoring, on beds that are deliciously expansive and satisfyingly flat.

The last two hundred miles always seem like two thousand, and this trip was no exception. The boys were remarkably well behaved, but not surprisingly, around that two hundred mile mark, things began to deteriorate rapidly as fatigue, irritability and boredom reached their pinnacle.

The trip was probably the most difficult for Pre-Pubescent One, who was not allowed to play video games during the 900 mile journey.

Apparently, he did a lot of thinking during the ride, becase at one point, just when we were all at the very height of irascibility, he said,

"Hey Mom, did you know that mules can't have babies?"

"Uhhhh, what? Of course they can. If they couldn't, there wouldn't be any more mules."

Husband interjected, "No, babe, it's true. A horse and a donkey can make a mule, but mules are sterile."

In my already rather disgruntled state of mind, that really irritated me. What a stupid thing to do. And for what purpose?

"Well what the hell is the point of that??" I asked.

There was a moment of silence and then Pre-Pubescent One said,

"Well you see Mom, when a horse and a donkey love each other very very much....."

I didn't want to laugh, I really didn't. But I just couldn't help it. And punchy as we all were, everyone else cracked up as well. Then the mood was lightened enough to get us the last 200 miles in peace. Thank God.

And when at last we pulled into our own driveway and laid our heads upon our own pillows, it was very, very good.

I hope everyone out there in blogland had a wonderful holiday and a peaceful, happy New Year.