My niece and nephew
Nov. 30th, 2002 06:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasMy niece and nephew and their parents were at my grandparents' ski cottage in Ludlow, Vermont today,so I got to visit them.
Lis wasn't feeling up to coming with, unfortunately, so I left at 8 am to drive up to Ludlow, and I got there at 10:30, which is reasonably good time. I'd intended to leave at 7, but I'd forgotten that, if I wake up too early, my body does all sorts of weird and unpleasant things to me for a while. Anyway, I got there just about when Tony was waking up.
Um, relationships. . . And is my mother's foster-daughter. She's my sister's sister, but decided that she'd rather have me as a friend than as a brother, so we're not siblings. Tony is And's husband. Winter Rose is And and Tony's four year old daughter, and Zandrew Xavier is their two year old son. They live in Vermont, which means that it's tricky to get to see them as much as we'd like. Fortunately, my grandparents, Grace and Ralph, own a little cottage in Ludlow, just next to Okemo Mountain, for skiing. Grace and Ralph decided to hold their Thanksgiving stuff up there, and spend the weekend, so that we could all meet up there. (Grace and Ralph are my father's parents; I spend T'giving with the Becker side of the family. The Beckers and the Osmonds are very good friends, but most years they each do their own Thanksgiving things.)
So, I walked in and Winter tackled me, and Drew piled on as best he can. And we wrassled for a bit, until I finally stood up, shedding toddlers as I went, and managed to get my hat, jacket, and shoes off, and say hi to folks. My parents and grandparents and And and Tony were there, which meant that there were seven adults to two toddlers, which is about the minimum workable ratio. Dad and Papa and I took Drew and Winter into the backyard for sledding, which was fun. The snow was a little sticky for sledding, so the sleds weren't going too fast or far, so Papa got some WD-40 out of his truck and sprayed the bottoms of the sleds, which helped quite a bit.
I commented to Dad, after pulling the kids up the little hill several times that sledding was a lot more work than I seemed to remember from my childhood.
Anyway, Papa and Nana and Dad and I took turns pulling the kids around on sleds, then we build a snowman, which ended up looking disturbingly like Freddy Kreuger, but, since Winter and Drew had never seen the Friday the Thirteenth movies, it didn't bother them anywhere near as much as it bothered me.
Drew has decided that he is a puppy, which is fine, as long as you're firm with him about not jumping up on people, and not licking people. The only problem is that, whenever you tell him to get off the sofa because dogs aren't allowed on the furniture, he says "Meow." But it was really cute to see Winter taking him for a walk with his leash.
Tony and I walked down to the downtown to cash the two dollars we'd won in lottery tickets (And and Tony bought lottery tickets for Hannukah presents for everyone, with the stipulation that, any winnings UNDER $20 would be used to buy more lottery tickets, and anything OVER $20 would be split with them 50/50. The reason for this is that they support public education in Vermont, which is what the profits from the Vermont Lottery go to. ) We also went across the street to the little craft fair that the church on the corner was holding, and I didn't buy anything, because I have enough junk. And did put a dollar into the raffle they were having, for a 19" TV. We put down my sister's name on the thing, because she's the luckiest in the family, and my mother's phone number, because we couldn't remember any other ones.
We had leftover Thanksgiving stuff for lunch, of course, which was wonderful, and then I went home at about 2, getting home at 5:30, because I took a different route home. Which did save me seventy-five cents in tolls, but took an extra hour.
Lis wasn't feeling up to coming with, unfortunately, so I left at 8 am to drive up to Ludlow, and I got there at 10:30, which is reasonably good time. I'd intended to leave at 7, but I'd forgotten that, if I wake up too early, my body does all sorts of weird and unpleasant things to me for a while. Anyway, I got there just about when Tony was waking up.
Um, relationships. . . And is my mother's foster-daughter. She's my sister's sister, but decided that she'd rather have me as a friend than as a brother, so we're not siblings. Tony is And's husband. Winter Rose is And and Tony's four year old daughter, and Zandrew Xavier is their two year old son. They live in Vermont, which means that it's tricky to get to see them as much as we'd like. Fortunately, my grandparents, Grace and Ralph, own a little cottage in Ludlow, just next to Okemo Mountain, for skiing. Grace and Ralph decided to hold their Thanksgiving stuff up there, and spend the weekend, so that we could all meet up there. (Grace and Ralph are my father's parents; I spend T'giving with the Becker side of the family. The Beckers and the Osmonds are very good friends, but most years they each do their own Thanksgiving things.)
So, I walked in and Winter tackled me, and Drew piled on as best he can. And we wrassled for a bit, until I finally stood up, shedding toddlers as I went, and managed to get my hat, jacket, and shoes off, and say hi to folks. My parents and grandparents and And and Tony were there, which meant that there were seven adults to two toddlers, which is about the minimum workable ratio. Dad and Papa and I took Drew and Winter into the backyard for sledding, which was fun. The snow was a little sticky for sledding, so the sleds weren't going too fast or far, so Papa got some WD-40 out of his truck and sprayed the bottoms of the sleds, which helped quite a bit.
I commented to Dad, after pulling the kids up the little hill several times that sledding was a lot more work than I seemed to remember from my childhood.
Anyway, Papa and Nana and Dad and I took turns pulling the kids around on sleds, then we build a snowman, which ended up looking disturbingly like Freddy Kreuger, but, since Winter and Drew had never seen the Friday the Thirteenth movies, it didn't bother them anywhere near as much as it bothered me.
Drew has decided that he is a puppy, which is fine, as long as you're firm with him about not jumping up on people, and not licking people. The only problem is that, whenever you tell him to get off the sofa because dogs aren't allowed on the furniture, he says "Meow." But it was really cute to see Winter taking him for a walk with his leash.
Tony and I walked down to the downtown to cash the two dollars we'd won in lottery tickets (And and Tony bought lottery tickets for Hannukah presents for everyone, with the stipulation that, any winnings UNDER $20 would be used to buy more lottery tickets, and anything OVER $20 would be split with them 50/50. The reason for this is that they support public education in Vermont, which is what the profits from the Vermont Lottery go to. ) We also went across the street to the little craft fair that the church on the corner was holding, and I didn't buy anything, because I have enough junk. And did put a dollar into the raffle they were having, for a 19" TV. We put down my sister's name on the thing, because she's the luckiest in the family, and my mother's phone number, because we couldn't remember any other ones.
We had leftover Thanksgiving stuff for lunch, of course, which was wonderful, and then I went home at about 2, getting home at 5:30, because I took a different route home. Which did save me seventy-five cents in tolls, but took an extra hour.
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Date: 2002-11-30 06:53 pm (UTC)sounds like a great time!