Tales from home

As you know, I've just returned from visiting family in my home state. I am still processing all that a visit of this kind entails, this could take several entries. One thing that always bothers me about traveling with a large family is the unwillingness of those we are visiting (at their invitation and intense desire) to do any work whatsoever to accomplish a happy visit. For example, some family members who are single but live a couple of hours further from our destination spot refuse to travel to see us, insisting that we add the extra hours to our already 16 hour journey with 4 kids. Some will come only if we go in on their timeshare with them which is located in a different town and is not convenient. Plus, the thought of meshing these particular families sounds like one of the levels of hell. Some will join us only for meals and only if somebody else pays (I'm not kidding). My parents, however idiosyncratic they may be, were wonderful. They devoted themselves to us and the grandkids, I was really proud of them. They are getting old and are in pretty poor health and I'm sure they are still recovering from the couple of days we were there. Seriously, Mom has had her knees replaced 3 times and was picking up kids and bouncing them on her lap, all no-nos. True to form, though, the first words out of my Mom's mouth to me were, "What have you done to your hair?" This sends my daughters into fits of laughter to which my Mom responds, "Well, I didn't say I don't like it!" I just smirked and said, "I don't like your tone, Young Lady!"