Hives!!!

Hollie

Roy’s Uncle Jimmy is allergic to shellfish.  There is a running joke in his family, “If you want to kill Uncle Jimmy, just sneak some lobster into his food!”

My grandparents lived on the Chesapeake Bay.  I grew up going out on the boat early in the morning, catching a cooler load of fish, and coming home and eating them for breakfast.  Just about every weekend during the summer, some distant cousin would show up and we would have a picnic at Nanny and Pap Pap Olie’s house.  We would eat crabs and shrimp cooked in Old Bay seasoning, corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes or zucchini picked from the garden.  The kids would beg the parents to take us swimming off the dock, then the parents would stay up all night playing pinochle while the cousins ran around outside catching lightnin’ bugs.  These are cherished childhood memories.

Therefore the first time Mary Anne complained that her throat hurt after eating shrimp, I was in total denial.  No kid of mine could have a shellfish allergy.  It wasn’t possible.  When she ate shrimp the second time and she complained of a sore throat and her tongue tingling, and maybe it was a bit harder to breathe, I had to let the reality seep it.  Curse you Uncle Jimmy!

Now back to Monday.  One of the things on mine and Roy’s Boston bucket list was to take the kids to Legal Sea Foods.  Roy grew up in the desert.  He told me he hated fish.  I took him to Legal Sea Foods to eat some fresh caught pan seared rainbow trout, and made a seafood lover out of him.  Turns out, the only fish he had ever had was frozen out of a box.

The waitress was amazing at taking down all of our allergies and making sure Mary Anne didn’t get any shellfish or dairy and Steven didn’t get any wheat.  Roy, MA, and J all ordered rainbow trout, Steven ordered lobster, the rest of the kids ordered popcorn shrimp and I ordered a bowl of clam chowder and shrimp.  Everyone loved their food and all was well. Ok, MA was wheezing a bit, which she does whenever we eat at a seafood restaurant, but other than that, all was well.  We left and went around the corner and had ice cream.  A very special treat indeed. We ended the day walking down by the water and watching the sun set. It was a good ending to a very stressful beginning of a day.

That is until about 10 pm when Ruthie broke out into hives and threw up!  Really Uncle Jimmy, you passed on your shellfish allergy to two of my kids???!!!  I am of course still in denial that it was the shellfish that made her break out. Maybe it was the ice cream.

Steven convinced Roy to eat the eyeballs off of his lobster.  This made Steven's day!

 The boys chose to match today wearing their new dino shirts and Boston hats.

 The girls in our new Boston sweat shirts.

 We bought a tripod for this trip to capture all of our family memories together.  Um, didn't figure in traffic.

That is much better!