Going home
We are back now from our little Christmas vacation. It was such a great trip. I am going to try to blog each day because so much happened and there is so much to tell. It’s all good and it was all in all a wonderful trip. We started out on Friday after Thomas got out of school. Graham had the day off so he and i ran last minute errands and got us all packed up and ready to go. The first night we made it to Medford and then stopped off at a Motel 6 for the night. The next day we got up early and started the drive to the Bay Area to visit my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. It had been 3 years since I’d been back ‘home’. I was so ready to be back in California. As soon as I saw the first ‘Bay Area’ sign i felt butterflies in my stomach. When we pulled off the highway to Central Lafayette, I was beside myself. When we pulled into my aunt and uncles house I could barely control myself from leaping from the moving car. It was so good to walk in the front door and see my aunt, uncle and cousin and his wife. Hugs and kisses all around. My uncle immediately put out great food for us. We spent the evening catching up and opening gifts. It was perfect. After dinner we went for a walk on a trail that i’ve walked on many, many times. This trail has been a very good friend to me and it was so good to be walking there and looking at all the beautiful houses with Christmas lights. When we got back to their house we all just sat around and reminisced and laughed and had a good time. Several times i just sat back and looked at my family- all together. I felt so loved it was amazing. We talked about old times and we talked about Isamu. I talked about how he died and the last time I saw him living. We talked about Bob Marley and my cousin and his wonderful wife knew the words to my favorite song. I loved every minute of it. I wanted time to stop and I wanted to spend so much more time in this moment- with my family. But the night came to an end and we all had to go to sleep. The next morning we woke up to Uncle Ralph making a yummy breakfast. After breakfast we had to get on our way to our part of the trip. Leaving was so hard. I dragged my feet getting packed up- and saying good-bye. I hugged my family several times and fought back tears. When we finally pulled out I took one last look at my family, smiled and waved and my heart just broke. I didn’t want to leave, but I knew i had too. I so wanted to go back to being just a girl and living the simple life that I lived there. As our car pulled away I was just so sad. Sad because I had to say goodbye, sad because I knew I could never go back to being just that girl. I was sad to leave my aunt and uncle behind - sadder than when I moved away from California. I was sad that my aunt and uncle were sad. Sad because for one more day i got to be just that girl when I was just so tried of being just the girl i am right now. It was just what I needed. We drove for several hours- heading down towards our next stop. We stopped at In and Out Burger and the boys enjoyed that. It was at that point that I was able to just be happy.
T