Dear Family,
I'm writing this because it's nigh on 10:00pm here, and as we're getting up for the bus at 6:00am tomorrow, we may not get a chance to greet all of you properly. The bus ride from Cappadocia to Bolu is quite long.
You came through, and you sent pictures! This was the one gift Mom didn't hold back for later. Friday was the first time I got to see the Alaska trip picture book! Our godmother even took the time to make me a family picture calendar for 2013. I can't tell you how marvelous it is to see pictures-- recent pictures (Aunt Nancy, is that your birthday party?!)-- of all of your smiles. I now have hold-able pictures of the extraordinary Norah K., as well. Thank you for letting me keep up with these times in your lives. I know I'm missing out, but the pictures help.
Mom also didn't hold out on the creme wafers. It's two hours to Christmas, and there's still one left. Mom, Dad, and Spencer are all convinced it will have gone stale, but I'm going to eat it. There's no way to be a snob about this cookie: it's going to fulfill all my Christmas hopes and dreams (especially if it magicks my boyfriend here!). At two-days-to-twenty-eight, I'm realizing even more emphatically that there's just some things about your mother's cooking that you never quite get over.
The following pictures are of the people who've known me longest and best. I'm not one to make outrageous claims, but I'll just say this: after sleeping in the same room with these people for the last three nights, I can say not only that I love them, but also that I like them.
Truthfully, I've re-learned some weird things about them, and I've learned some new things about them.
My younger brother has an incredible nose. As in, he smells everything. This is great when good food is sitting in front of him, but it's a real curse in a lot of other, more malodorous situations. Also, he doesn't know how to eat a meal without meat.
My father loves a chocolate pick-me-up, a good joke about his 401K, and taking photographs when he's happy. Don't keep him from his coffee, either.
Things Mom has said:
Mom: "I do not talk long. Dad talks long."
Jessica: "Keep going."
Mom: "Well, we used to visit Dairy Queen together..."
At 2:30am Saturday: "If I have to be awake right now, so does everyone else!"
She and I ripped a book in half, and she's already through the first half. So I'm giving her the second half because her reading's far outstripped mine. The best part of her waking us up in the middle of the night is the little lisp she gets.
It was Blondie's idea to go hot air ballooning.
I still talk in my sleep, I still notice certain things (secret pockets in jackets, certain subtle designs on Coca-Cola cans) slowly enough that Spencer gets to laugh at me, and I'm still that girl who's so obviously a dork that-- get this-- our hot air balloon pilot, Mustafa, whose first language is not English, when he was giving us our "flight certificates" at the end of the balloon trip, said to me, "You can add this to your C.V." What? Am I that appallingly dorky to strangers?
We've had some incredible adventures together: Turkish taxis, ordering hamsi, jet lag, Turkish buses, sarma, churches with snakes, underground cities, apple tea, gnome homes, and hot air balloon rides. But I think the greatest adventures come when the four of us sit down across a table from each other. We wait for a meal. We say things to each other. Or we don't. Or we laugh. Usually Spencer and I are laughing at our parents.
Everyone deserves to be loved and well-considered. At this time of year, and especially you, our friends and family, you deserve our love and consideration. You are in our thoughts! So, in all, dear family and friends, the Salvadors-- LennyBaby and Blondie (Sherry or White L0@7z if you're really trouble), Bug and Gus-- send you Our Christmas Love!
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