Kathy, Lee, & Kai

I don't have much in the way of family, except three cousins who live in the Asian enclave (South Bay) where I grew up. I miss the cheap food, markets, and beach towns of that area and feel strangely out of town even while in Southern California. LA is so big and messy that it's hard to "own" the entire thing; even in high school, I realized that you only ever knew a local vicinity.

Back to family. Kathy, the oldest, married Lee, a Hawaiian, and introduced us to their newborn, Kai (means ocean).
Michael and Jack were enthused by having a baby in their midst - immediately pushed them up a few rungs in the human ladder. Kathy's father, Hitoshi (youngest sibling to my mom), moved from the village to live with us, as did his sister a few years earlier. They were on their own schedule - working in Japanese town, attending English school - while occupying our extra bedroom.

My folks ran a liquor store, where Hitoshi worked sometimes, and where Kathy spent some time as a toddler, running around the store, being treated royally by my father, who loved children.
Fastforward to a few years ago, when Carolyn, Michael, Jack, and I all traveled to Oahu for a spectacular wedding; Angelenos and Japanese all flew in for an extended vacation. It is the same area where our current president vacations and grew-up, apparently - really odd to think of him growing up potentially eating Japanese-style snowcones and riceballs with spam (a Hawaiian invention). I can and can't relate to him.

Kathy and Lee live in Seal Beach, home to the most mindblowingly delicious Japanese restaurant I have ever frequented.

We gave children's books as late Christmas presents and ate raclette - a Swiss cheese melted and served over potatoes. Easy and tasty company meal which our children love, as well. Given that I didn't really have a lot of children's books in my own house, it's interesting to have so much to share with others now.