Ginger Convention

This is a novella - seriously, but I just wanted to make sure I captured every magical moment...

I arrived on Sunday afternoon to Sea-Tac airport with the graceful fall of delicate snowflakes upon my airplane window. "how delightful!" I thought. As I went to step out of the plane from my first row seat, I saw a blur to my right, an 80+year old man was racing up the aisle from who knows which row and jammed right out as the first one off the plane. I figure if you are that focused and determined, then by all means you deserve to be first off. And when you gotta go, you gotta go. It's just a fact. So, I deplaned and got my bag (no ridiculously stupid mishaps with luggage this year)and I look around for the beloved family members that I am coming to visit, just knowing that in high anticipation of my visit they must have arrived hours early, just waiting for a glimpse of me. I saw no one, so I stood cold and lonely near the door to the outside world which was frickin' freezing (which my husband was so kind to point out that it tends to be that when it's snowing)! After what felt like hours, I went out to the curb and there was the car that I had been waiting for, with the family I had been looking for. My Auntie Nora and my little 1st cousin Avery were there to greet me and get us on our way. Nora of course greeted me with excitement and affection (most everyone does) but Avery was a little wary of me. I wasn't sure why, we had met when she was about 6 weeks old, and had some good times as far as I could remember, but I suppose not good enough because she wasn't sure about my presence on the outset. After a little while she did warm up and gave me a gorgeous smile. She has the biggest eyes and looks just like her momma and Aunt Caroline did when they were babies. I love it. I searched (mostly in vain) for any sign of the blessing that is red hair, maybe as she gets older.

Here she is smilin' for the camera.

We then went to the Calvin Casa and Nora and I got a chance to start our catchups of our lives and we were shortly joined by my (creepy) Uncle Ben. Unkie Benny inherited me as his niece when he married Nora, and what a bonus for him! He is a superb uncle, and quite alot of fun actually. He was a bit unkempt and stinky upon our first contact, apparently cause he played a long, hot and sweaty game of soccer...the day before. um, gross.

Here he is, Uncle Ben...

More talking, more catching up and more laughing. Seriously, whenever I visit these wonderful members of my family, we are essentially laughing from beginning to end. But I digress. We then went out to dinner with Ben's parents along with Zoie (Ben's daughter who is 12, and just delightful, also my cousin!). So, for those of you who know me, know good and well that I am an extremely...let's say...picky eater. So Nora was thrilled with the fact that they got to introduce me to Indian food for the first time in my life. I, on the other hand was a bit apprehensive. Indian food had neither quesadillas nor cereal. But I was pleasantly surprised, I enjoyed myself and the company, and I will even admit, the food. And they had bottomless chai, which was absolutely delicious! Zoie had basically gotten about 4 hours of sleep over the previous 24hrs, so she was a little groggy upon our mealtime. Nora asked her if she remembered me (she's 12, Nora, not 3 jk :) and of course she did, but I more or less received a grunt of welcome. Which is fine, as Jeff is more than willing to share, that's all he gets in the mornings when I don't get much sleep. Wait...scratch that, he gets that every morning, no matter how much I sleep. So, her grunt was no skin off my back. Accepted. At dinner I thought I would try again and asked her what she liked to eat at this particular restaurant. "Stuff" was the answer I got. Which amused me actually, she's 12, no biggie. But then, oh glory me, I remembered I saw her holding a Twilight book in the car. I realized I had the biggest weapon in my arsenal, the love of the book series that most of the tween population considers their Bible. So, I asked her one question about Twilight, and basically for the next hour we discussed the ins and outs and who my first, second, third, and fourth favorite characters were in the book and the movie. I believe our close cousinship has been sealed forever. Thank you Edward and Jacob.

Then it was home to drop off the baby, Benny boy and Zoie, and Nora and I went and met with Auntie Caroline (the third and final redhead in our family currently unless Avery decides to see the light). We met at this great coffee shop that had pages of desserts, and we chose two most wisely and enjoyed them together. The three of us then proceeded to regale each other with tales of our life, leading to more talking and most importantly of all, much laughter, much to the chagrin of the other patrons in the restaurant. Our night drawing to a close, we got up to leave, and I excused myself to go to the restroom and went in and as I was...ahem...using it saw written on the stall "I Love Shannon" so I of course proceeded to take a picture of it, verifying, that yes, I am beloved everywhere. Caroline had also told me that someone wrote "Real Vampires Sparkle" on a stall as an homage of course to Twilight. So I wanted to take a picture of that as well, so basically I creepily hung out in the bathroom waiting for the person in that stall to get out so I could go in (despite the fact that they knew I had already been in there and gone) and take a picture of said scrawl. This of course prolonged my bathroom time, thus leaving Nora and Caroline to assume that I chose to use a public restroom for a more significant bathroom experience. I did assure them however, that was the not the case and I was just taking pictures of the stalls, a much less weird action...maybe...okay, not. Then it was off to the Calvin Casa again so that we could sleep.

The three of us redheads

Normally that is where the story of the day would end, but not on this trip. Nora laid out the air mattress for me to blow up with the electric motor while she got me blankets. So I stand there holding down the button, no biggie right? For a normal person maybe, but I was standing there and I noticed the bed wasn't filling up despite my amazing button pressing. So I asked Nora about it and she discovered that I am, in fact, retarded because the hole at the other end of the bed was still open. Once closed, it filled right up. I have my Masters people, this shouldn't be happening! Then Nora and I wrestled her old backpacking sheet onto the mattress, and then she took great pains and care to make my bed up for me, even tucking under the covers and then dousing, yes dousing and not lightly misting, my bed with linen spray. My bed now not only smells delightful, but is also soaking wet. We are both of course hysterically laughing, so no harm no foul. Off to dreamland I go...

The amazing turn down service I received

The delightful linen spray

The next day held a morning that began with me kicking Nora's butt at boxing on the Wii. I played a Mii character that looked like grandpa Jon (her dad) so I believe that she was able to relieve some childhood anger during the game. But she was still no match for me, who randomly flails my arms and hopes I win. Turns out, that works. A little Mario Kart action and we decide to head to Pike's Place Market, a Seattle tourist favorite. Also a great spot for locals to buy fresh seafood, produce and all the possible accoutrement you may need. Such as the belt buckle I bought for Jeff that says "Open for Business" Clearly a necessity. But first it was a stop at the very first Starbucks. I was home. We got ourselves some delightful drinks and I a commemorative photo so I can one day tell my grandchildren where their grandma's addiction came from.

Here I am. Sad they didn't know my name though.

We then proceeded to enjoy the market, bought some flavored honey - which really, is pretty awesome. Should someone walk around with a jar of honey in their hand with a spoon, we would think they were weird. However, if you put some honey in a plastic stick then you just look like you are enjoying a finer part of life while walking through public places. Zoie had a good time buying various items she deemed as pretty and cool and all the fun 12 year old lingo. All was pretty enjoyable and uneventful, until Zoie bought two pieces of jewelry from one of the local vendors. She came up to me after having made her purchase and I asked her what she bought and she said, "a piece of jade and a leaf" hmmm, a leaf? So I then asked to see said leaf, and she pulled out a delightful, tiny little marijuana charm on a silver chain. Ah, that kind of leaf, just what I suspected. So I then of course proceeded to tell her what it was, and called Nora over to us to confirm (because for some reason Nora is in my mind a consummate professional when it comes to identifying marijuana paraphernalia I suppose). She confirmed it and then took it back to the vendor to explain that Zoie had no idea what she was buying. Luckily, he took it back and let her pick something else out. From there we went and bought some lunch, we went a place that served Pho. Nora was excited to learn I had never had it and that she got to introduce me to yet another food item I had never tried. I actually quite enjoyed it, so she was 2 for 2 at this point. We also stopped and got some super delicious cupcakes for dessert that night. Basically my days had revolved around going from one food or drink item to the next, essentially - the best kind of days! Headed home from there, took a little nap while the baby played in the kitchen with various cleaning fluids...wait, I mean while she also took a nap. Took it easy the rest of the afternoon, which was quite nice. I love getting to go up there and after all the catch up is done, the fun and enjoyment doesn't stop, but we are able to slip into the mode where we can just chill and hang out with each other, which is something I most definitely wish could happen so much more.

Nap Time

Our evening then began as Uncle Jere arrived from Oregon, then Caroline, Grandpa Jon, and Uncle Ben came home and the party started. Nora made us a fabulous meal that would rival Rachel Ray's best, and we all helped her by standing around and talking to each other and playing with the baby of course. We took our jobs as helpers very seriously. It was great having everyone that I never get to see all in one place, just enjoying each others company, making fun of each other (some families hug as a sign of affection, we mock) and generally having a good time. Dinner was enjoyed and cleared and then the night's entertainment truly began. Avery wanted to crawl on the table, and whatever baby wants, baby gets of course (parents and future parents take note). Avery loves to dance and we obliged her by providing her a beat by slapping our hands on the table and she proceeded to dance, and dance, and dance. It was so ridiculously cute and funny that this little 13month old baby had 6 adults in tears and beating a table continuously so she could carry on. I got lots of fun video, which I will include, one even with my Uncle Jere (who is not known to just bust out in random dancing) doing his best to keep up with Avery's grooves.
Avery dancing for us

Letting her do whatever she wants
Helping in the kitchen, obviously

Avery and Uncle Jere

My final evening in Seattle wrapped up with Jelly Belly candy, cheetos puffs, Simpsons, a goodbye to Caroline which included several pictures. One in which I appear to be molesting her, but don't worry, no redheads were harmed in the taking of said pictures. Caroline's boy toy went to take our picture and we all posed as we have all been trained to do, but instead of a flash and a click, it turns out he was taking a little video. So basically we just looked really stupid on the video, but nothing new there. The three of us (and Amy as well) have been looking silly on videos since we were little. Ask me about the jacuzzi video sometime, it's a doozy!

This is being submitted for the Parents of the Year Award. I think they have a good chance

Tuesday morning brought a beautiful dusting of snow on everything and us back to another Starbucks; because Nora really knows how to take care of her guests and we discovered a talent in Avery for eating bananas. It will be a talent that will not be cultivated I am quite sure. We had a delightful time shopping for baby type foods. It was something that had to be very carefully chosen by Nora as apparently Ben tends to enjoy the same foods that Avery does. So we found baby sized options that will deter even Uncle Ben and headed back home. Avery went down for a nappie poo, and we settled into watch the movie Persopolis. Uncle Ben came home early because he used the excuse "I have to see my niece before she leaves for home" I don't believe anyone bothered to ask him just how old his niece was, which I think is for the better. Ben then sent me off with an original song on his guitar. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although from the look on Avery's face in the picture, I don't know if she did...

Basically, I had a super fabulous wonderful awesome amazing time, and I really really really (infiniti) wished I lived closer to this fantastic part of my family. Thank you Auntie Nora, Uncle Ben, Cuz Zoie, and Cuz Avery for your hospitality!! I have so much fun with all of you!!