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Family Moments Friday, Nov. 25, 2005 - 12:25 a.m. The visit with the Espinosa clan went as well as could be expected. It's always a pleasure to see everybody. My favorite moments were these: Below is my cousin, Robert. He has a scowl on his face because he promised to cut the bird up, but was asked to do so at around the two-minute warning of yesterday's Denver / Dallas game, and couldn't see the television from where he was standing: And down here is Aunt Carol. She was in the kitchen with me also taking pictures of Robert because he's her son, and she and I thought it would be really funny if we each took a picture of one another. Here is how that turned out: Finally, Robert couldn't stand it, and moved the bird over to a different part of the kitchen work island so he could see the game. The Denver Broncos won in overtime, 24-21. --- As for my concerns about how my tattoo news was going to be received, that was a complete surprise. You all made excellent suggestions for tattoo folklore, but when I rolled up my shirt sleeve and started to tell a story or two, then John's dad Joe rolled up his sleeve, and Robert's dad Uncle Bobby did, too. I didn't know either of those fellas had that much ink, but there it was. --- After we all sat down and started to eat, I saw Aunt Carol sort of push her food around on her plate. She had been the one who deployed the stuffing out of the turkey ass and into the serving dish, occasionally reaching into the bird with her fingers to dig around a little bit, and she'd planted adorable friendly kisses on everybody. "Sorry if I don't eat much," she said apologetically, "I've been sick since Monday." Oh, joy! Thank you so much for telling me after you kissed me. I love you, too! --- A subtle but nice thing happened to me personally: For the first time this year, I actually knew my way around the Espinosa kitchen. In the fifteen years of celebrating with John's father's family, I'd never actually pitched in to the extent I did this year. I set the table, and I dried most of the non-dishwasher dishes and learned where everything belonged. I thought about trying to ditch KP by suggesting that everybody who had a tattoo was excused, but I figured that wouldn't be too well-received. Joe's wife Nadine was heading for England the next afternoon for a two week visit with their son Joey and his family, so Aunt Carol and I stayed in the kitchen and helped her as best we could. Nadine has a quiet inner strength that I have always loved to be around. And in that kitchen, I absolutely reveled in it. --- The drive back home was relatively painless; we got home about an hour after we left and John went to bed immediately. I stayed up and wrote this post. --- I hope everybody who observes this holiday had a marvelous Thanksgiving. Yogi Berra said it best -- "Lord, thank you for making this day necessary." ---
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