Family W / All The Trimmings

Friday, Nov. 24, 2006 - 5:12 a.m.

This Thanksgiving was like no other that I've ever spent at the Espinosa household.

I'd been sure that nothing could top last year, but I was wrong.

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We left our place at noon and got over to Livermore in around 90 minutes. There was the usual traffic slowdown at the Dublin interchange, but everything else went really smoothly. The weather was unbelievably beautiful, owing to the rain the day before, and the wind on Turkey Day itself. Everything was beautiful.

When we arrived and disembarked and went inside, the first people we headed for were John's younger brother Joey Espinosa, and his wife Una, and their babies, Gemma and Leo. They were here from the UK, where they've been living for several years, as Una's family lives there.

Joey now speaks with a slight British accent. And the kids! Oh my gosh, they're breath-taking. I'm not posting their pictures here because they're minors and I forgot to ask their folks if it was okay.

Then we found out that Nadine had a lung cancer scare earlier in the year, but apparently it was localized and completely removed.

Nadine's sister Linda had a new hairstyle, and I complimented her on it and she told me it was a wig -- which she was utilizing to hide her hairless head until the hair had returned after *her* chemotherapy. Nobody had said anything to us, so it was then that I found out that Aunt Linda had been recuperating from breast cancer. But she, too, seemed to have dodged the bullet that has claimed so many lives -- including that of my own mother.

I gave Joey the 'galley proof' for the slimline version of the artwork for the Submit To Evolution CD for his approval and or suggestions We were trying to figure out how to integrate my name into the actual artwork, then he said I could reduce the art by five or ten percent and free up some space across the bottom for my name.

Yes! Perfect.

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Joe and Nadine have a great big fridge in the main corner of the kitchen. Upon this fridge exists a prominent collection of magnetic picture frames, and the frames contain baby pictures. The evening before my visit, I scanned a picture in of myself from first grade and put it in a magnetic picture frame. I sneaked it on to the fridge within about ten minutes of arriving there.

Nadine found it in less than an hour -- I had the pleasure of seeing her double-take -- but Joe, despite opening the refrigerator about a half dozen times that afternoon, didn't find me until seven that night.

Uncle Mark was also there; I think as far as humor and cynicism goes, within the various ramifications of my in-laws, he is probably my closest match. I entrusted to him the Extremely Off Color Thanksgiving Joke. No, I am not going to repeat it here. Send me a private email with an age statement if you want me to tell it to you.

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Here are my two favorite pictures from Turkey Day, 2006.

First, the uncarved birdie:

And second, Joey and John doing the Yin /Yang thang. Notice the postures and the dimples in their elbows.

For various and sundry reasons, they spent a lot of their lives being raised by separate branches of the family, and yet when I see them in the same room, they are unmistakably brothers.

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Dessert was literally stunning; Joey's wife made a pound cake and a carrot cake. I think they'll serve this in Heaven.

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Shaina is now fifteen. She's turned into a lovely young woman, graceful and intelligent and capable of displaying the Espinosa Humor Streak -- I think the world will be hers for the asking.

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The drive home was fast and pretty, and when John and I got home, we each confessed that we'd only taken one serving of food at the family gathering due to not wanting to inconvenience the entire row of people sitting on our side of the table if we got up to get anything else.

Pancakes at around eleven pm, along with the DVD "Miracle On 34th Street".

I hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful.

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