We are a million zillion miles from home, in a place covered in snow and ice where they kill deer in the summer and eat home-made sausage all winter. We drove here from Minneapolis on Thursday, a nine hour trip, stopping for a run around in a giant mall in Fargo and dinner in Applebees in Jamestown. The sun dazzled us all day as it reflected off the frozen flooding in every direction to the horizon but we had no trouble from Alexa who was plugged into the portable DVD player we had bought for this very journey. It was a good investment.
We are staying with Shawn’s ex-stepfather’s girlfriend who has been incredibly hospitable and has a massive guest bed buried in a complex arrangement of cushions which I try to replace in the right order every morning. The day times we are mostly spending with my mother-in-law who is studying at the moment and managing to get her work done at night so we can spend time together. His sister and her daughter are also around, and his brother’s daughter, so the cousins are getting acquainted. Grandma is cooking a turkey as I type, and in a second I am going to help her make a potato casserole. Shawn was able to visit his brother in jail on short notice- they usually have a long process of authorising visitors- so that covers the whole family pretty much.
Back in Minneapolis we had a few days getting over jet lag staying with Shawn’s lovely aunt and uncle, and spent more time in shopping malls than I can usually tolerate. When it is somewhere indecently below freezing you need somewhere to stretch your legs I guess.
Off to cook the casserole. Back soon xx