Yesterday we went back to NJ to spend the day with my family, and it was a blast.

We're a crew that celebrates bounty, especially in talk and food, and so when we got there they had bagels, and my sister had prepared two gorgeous food trays full of fresh raspberries, blackberries, pineapple, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, assorted fresh local vegetables, and she'd run down tot he Amish market and brought back breakfast rolls (bacon, egg & cheese, and pepperoni) and then stopped at Dunkin Donuts and brought us coffee and doughnuts.

She is also the best aunt ever to my cats, and bought them enough cases of food to make me wonder if it was Christmas.

Lord have mercy.

It was a gorgeous day and the chatter was that of a happy, excited group of folks who love and miss each other. I brought back some copper beech tree seeds because I love those giant, old matriarchs with their smooth gray trunks too wide for three people to put their arms around. We brought fresh milkweed for all my sister's 500 Monarch caterpillars in various stages of growth, chrysalis and release, and then me, Stew, Sue and Paul piled into Sue's car and headed down to Keyport to a fresh seafood take-out place and had delicious shirmp, scallops, lobster, smelts and haddock sitting out on pile-ons in the sun on the bay.

And then we headed back to my parents' house, and hung out and chattered nonstop some more, and had pizza (I'm trading my yearning for Vinnie's pizza to a love affair with Dusal's pizza, as it was really good) and cheesecake and german chocolate cake for dessert.

I love my family dearly, and always miss them when I don't see them, and feel golden when I do. There is never any weird or awkwardness slipping right back into home, only open arms and happiness, and that, I know, is priceless.

I am a lucky girl. Thanks, guys.