Faces

I’m back home now after a week in California. I went to southern California first, to visit Clarks and then northern California to see the rest of the family and have Thanksgiving. I miss everyone terribly now. I just have their faces floating through my mind now and thought I’d share the few close up shots I have of them.

While on the plane there and back I was reading “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith. I finished it today. The book talks about Africa and the narator expresses their love for Africa constantly throughout the book. I resonated with that aspect. I came back to Michigan and I can’t stop thinking about all the things I experienced in California that made me miss it.

Everything was so familiar. I have a fondness for the smell there. I can’t even explain it. But the air smells fragrant and fresh. In SF it smells like Eucalyptus trees and that’s tangible, but at home, it just has a smell about it. I have a fondness for cool evening air …. not cold air, but cool air. California is basically the desert and beach, so it gets warm during the day but you can always count on it to cool down in the evening and morning. That’s comforting.

And the people. I know Grandma, Aunt Sheri, Aunt Linette and mom will always be there. forever. Aunt Linette and Uncle Cliff will ALWAYS host Thanksgiving. They’ve hosted it for 23 years now … and counting My cousin Heather will always be the most positive person I’ve ever met in my life and Devan will always be antsy about people touching his hair. Playing games will always bring out the worst in my family members and the little kids will always attack mom’s fountains.

I think I kind of view Michigan like a terrible step father … trying to take the place of something that was really mine, something that I knew and loved so much and I resent Michigan for that. So I’m back and I’m a little sad. Mourning the loss of a brief reminder of home. Anyway, here are those lovely faces …

zac

aria

jellybean

jack

enzo

dom, liam and noah

dad