Oh god. I've just got home. Well, got home about an hour ago, I think, but I wound up helping with prep for tomorrow's feast and checked my email. Now that's all done, I can settle down and work on the project I started last night.
Got woken up at oh God o'clock (okay, about 11:30am) to go out to Robin Hood's grandparents' place. That was rather low-key. We had breakfast turkey and then Robin Hood fell asleep on the sofa and I went back to go help try to put together the puzzle his grandmother's been working on. Apparently I did more today than she'd managed in a fortnight, so she sent me home with a bunch of puzzles she'd already done before. Woo!
We drove straight to my grandparents' place from there. The drive was surprisingly easy; almost no-one on the 5 the whole way between Camas and Castle Rock, which is a long-ass drive. MIA uncle was there again this year, and I only just today learned the circumstances of his divorce a few years ago. Turns out, his wife ran off... with his best friend. I'm both incredibly surprised, and yet can't really blame her, considering Uncle's paranoid behaviour.
Everything was pretty low-key up there, which is a brand new development. Since Uncle went MIA a few years ago and my mum and aunt divorced around the same time, the causes for all the drama have sort of dissolved. They don't do their big poker game anymore, which was always sort of chaotic. And the kids have their own bedroom with a huge television and a PS3, so it keeps all that noise away from the adults. Even though now I think there's only one left who's under 18. And she's seven. We've got some massive age gaps there, considering I was 27 today.
I think aunt's not!husband was starting to believe that Robin Hood was an urban legend. Not, you know, /that/ Robin Hood, but my husband who vanished as soon as we were married. There were very good reasons for it, and I vanished with him, but the not!husband had never met Robin Hood before. To give a bit of perspective, the last time he saw any of my side of the family, the seven-year-old cousin hadn't even been conceived yet. So, no wonder people were starting to think he'd been made up.
We left from that pretty early too, because we had to drive all the way back down to Clackamas to drop off my brother, and brought with us basically all the left-overs to take to my dad. My dad, who is not actually my father, nor even legally my step-dad (it's complicated) was never pushed out of the family the way all the other exes have been. He's always had a standing invitation to all the family holidays, and I think now that MIA Uncle has finally started showing up again, Dad has no more excuses for not dragging himself out of his hermit cave. I think there's a very good chance he'll actually be there for Christmas, instead of getting his traditional cardboard box full of Christmas Dinner. But it was good to see him again, too. It's a bit of a hike to get down there to his, so I do hope he's able to show up for Christmas.
And now we're back home. I took some turkey back to the boys, because I felt bad that we've had it three times now and they've had none. They'll probably get more tomorrow, because I'll probably feel bad again tomorrow. Also tomorrow, Mama Bear's going to the sock sale. Anyone who lives in an area where Fred Meyer exists has probably seen their Black Friday ads, with 50% off all socks being the thing that takes up the entire front page. So apparently it's known as the sock sale, which is sort of funny. Mama Bear gave us the ad today and told us to pick out anything we can't live without. We both actually did want socks (Robin Hood because he goes through them ridiculously quickly, and I just like ridiculous socks), and then he saw that they have footy-pyjamas in all sizes, and he decided he HAD to have a pair of those. I said I wanted Avengers toys. Mama Bear rolled her eyes at us, because apparently we are four.
She asked me if I wanted her to wake me in the morning to go with her. I told her only if she wanted to be sworn at. I don't think she'll be waking me up.
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