Winter road trip

I'm in the middle of my winter road trip. Rob doesn't come with me on this one because it's too much driving in too short a time
I drive up to central New Jersey, either in a day or after a two- or three-hour start the night before. This year I drove from Roanoke, Va. in the snow. It was harrowing at some points.
But it's worth it when I get there. The Jersey friends are very much like family. he men have know each other since grammar school, and we women were allowed in as we came along, I've watched the kids all grow up, and most of them still want to come around hen I come to visit. I'm a bit like the harmless, but daft auntie who comes into town once or twice a year. I love hanging ou with the kids.
I drove nort to Massachusetts this morning for my family's winter party. As always, we laughed and carried on and my stepfather slept through most of it. He's 90 and e has Alzheimer's, although he still remembers who we are if we tell him out names.
Faith found the best present this year, though -- flying screaming monkeys. They flew and screamed their way through the house for most of the afternoon. Someone -- it might have been my niece -- suggested we were being immarture, but we sisters like to think of it as still having a childlike sense of wonder