Juneau? Alaska.

The Girl and I had three separate Thanksgiving dinners this year, and managed for the first time in several years to attend my family's traditional Game Gatherings which occur on Turkey Weekend.  By the time we reached our third tableful of turkey and associated sides, I was just about spent.  I mean--one of those meals alone had three different turkeys.  I felt like I should fast for a week after we got home just to feel normal again.  I mean, I didn't, but I felt like it would be perfectly reasonable, and for me, that's saying something significant.  I don't skip meals.  Sometimes I invent new ones.

The nice thing about Thanksgiving with her family is that it's always been the last of our Great Turkey Stuffings (wordplay! ZING!), and it's also the most low-key.  For the past few years, the four "kids" have made the meal, and when I revealed last year that I make a passable pie, it became my job for this year.  Now that I know it means I can do my work in the morning and then get out of the way for the rest of the day, I will never relinquish that role.  Why would I?  While they were going crazy about some silly game, I slipped out and went for a walk.  When I got back to the yard, I still didn't feel like being inside, but I noticed that the snow was packing really well.  I started rolling a big snowball, while my internal soundtrack making me laugh a little, without any real idea of what I was going to do with it.  Maybe a snowman.

Nope.  Instead of a snowman, this happened.

It's more spacious than my posture would suggest.  But not by much,

It didn't get finished until the next morning, and The Girl's brother came out to help finish it, but I still had a lot of fun using up every bit of snow in the yard (think I'm kidding?  Look at the picture.) to build an igloo.  I hadn't built one of those in decades.  When this one melts, the front yard will have a swamp full of leaves, hickory shells, mushrooms, apples, and all the other lawn litter that got collected with the snow.  I made it for myself, because I just really wanted to, but the excuse was The Girl's nephew.  They told me he had been watching me build it and was very interested, but when we tried to get him to go inside, his emotions ran closer to "terrified."  I don't think he appreciates how cool igloos are.  Maybe next year.