Nags Head NC doesn't have much to do.  There's a beautiful beach and sound, fishing piers, restaurants, and a little shopping.  For decades, my family has rented a big house and we all trek down there to hang out together for a week in the summer.

Family now consists of Grandma, (my mom) who is 82, myself, my two brothers, my three nieces,  the nephew, my brother's wife and my niece's significant other.  Plus an assortment of friends.  The nieces/nephew and their friends are in their early 20's, so they're out and about all day.  Grandma stays inside. She's afraid of sun after a small skin melanoma was removed a few years ago.  The guys fish all day.  I really do like long walks on the beach plus I passed through three rather fluffy books during the week.  We all did a little shopping. 

At about 6 pm, the group converged in the big room at the top of the house.   For some reason, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy were on the TV every day.  Everyone watched and participated -- I'd forgotten how much fun that could be. There was a ping-pong tournament one nigtht, with my niece's SO the absolute master.  

But the big bonding thing of the week was the jigsaw puzzle.  We always have a puzzle, and this one was really good.  It was a Thomas Kincade painting, three little houses, pretty sky, stream, boat, trees, flowers and lots of cute little animals.  1000 pieces.   Grandma and the girls, myself included, spent much time with it.  The color palate of the different sections was much the same. The color of the trees matched the color of the bushes on the ground, the houses matched each other plus the rocks in the stream were the same as the stones on the houses.  Usually, a puzzle takes a day or two to complete. This one was painfully slow, but so addicting!  Everyone who passed by had to try to find a piece, and if you found one, well, you just had to find another.  There would be 2, 3, sometimes 4 persons converging over this puzzle at a time. Every piece found got a cheer. 

First came the outline - easiest because of the straight edge on those pieces.  Then the most easily defined parts - the boat, the grass, which had streaks of yellow through it plus a puppy.  We spent a day and a half figuring out the houses and the silo.  Then we moved to the water and the trees.  By Thursday, we had everything done but the sky.  There were probably 200 pieces of sky, in shades of grey, blue, pink, and yellow. So painful - be we were determined.  My brothers sat down with it Thursday night. They had a more methodical approach. They would simply try each puzzle piece, regardless of color.  They completed a large chunk.

I had to leave early on Saturday instead of Sunday, and the puzzle still had a large hole in the sky. I found a couple more pieces before I took leave.   I'm sure it was finished.

So there you have it.  Bonding at the beach over a jigsaw puzzle.  And a good time was had by all.