Returned from couple of days in

the mountains with family. Big Bro all the way from eastern NC with kids from eastern NC, north FL, upper east TN. Saturday and Sunday the condo was hopping with adult kids and their kids. As Big Bro said at one point, "You can tell we're aging; we've got 3 generations on the sofa here."

Well, he has a good grasp of the obvious. His hair is quite gray; mine is catching up. So thankful to see that my 72-year-old bro is hale and hearty; as Rosey said to her dear uncle, "You look good." (I sorta wanted her to hide the surprise a little more.)

Dear sister-in-law A., the real organizer and implementer of this family event, slaves away in the kitchen and likes it. Now that's classic busman's holiday; she cooks for a living since she's the talent/skills behind the menu and prepartion at their restaurant and actually wants to do it on vacation. But we were eating well. Add to her yummy dinners Big Bro's well-loved breakfasts and we were packing away the food (and probably packing ON the calories).

Of course, others who dropped in contributed to the food. Great salad fixings from A.'s sister; I took homemade bread and apple pie. L. made a delish snack mix; I'm getting that recipe for sure.

'Twas good, though, to eat well and then head off for walks through Gatlinburg and the outlet mall (OF COURSE!). I had one goal, other than visiting with family; that was to find a b'day gift for next door neighbor's son. His b'day's same as Oliver's (who's about 35 years older than the neighbor kid) so I always remember it. Came away with a black bear backpack; have no idea if he'll like it. Couldn't find the black bear hand puppets I'd seen years before. Didn't know I would want one for another young man or I'd have bought extra.

Back home and ordinary life, I'm not grazing continuously from bags, dishes, pans of cookies, bread, chips, leftovers ........ walking back to the car in Gatlinburg was the hardest thing I did. Shoving snow off my car before leaving didn't even get on the work-meter; 2-3 inches of soft stuff was not hard to deal with. Loved watching it fall through the cloud surrounding the condo. Wish I could've stayed and watched it the rest of the day. Fireplace, hot tea, good book, good company--my idea of the perfect vacation.