From Humble Beginnings - Easter 2012

This year my family strayed from our Easter tradition and spent the day with my husbands family. Some of you might be gasping - the in-laws? all together in one place?! uh oh! - but no, our families are not like that.

My husband and I have been together for almost nine years now, and our families have grown together. My parents and his parents, my grandparents and his grandparents, my cousins and his cousins...in fact, I've never really thought of it as "his" family and "my family" but it's very much always been "our" family. And yes, I absolutely know how lucky I am to be able to say that I love my in-laws, and that my husband loves his in-laws as well!

We took a family portrait (good call, Emily!) and I'm glad we did! It captured the day, the crowd, the family I cannot wait to see what our family looks like next year (and the year after, and after, and after, and after).

After dinner my husbands grandparents and my grandparents shared stories of "the old country" (Italy and Argentina) and talked about where they grew up, where they came from. They came from humble beginnings, and I think they got a little sentimental talking about where the family is now.

"From Humble Beginnings Come Great Things" - I found this quote and think it's perfect. If you want to  purchase a print, head on over to Help Ink, who donates the proceeds to a fabulous cause. They have absolutely studding prints & are worth the small cost.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

This is my husband and my first Christmas together, and we've already spent lots of time baking cookies, decorating our home, eating said cookies, wrapping gifts, and listening to cheesy holiday music. Today and tomorrow we'll be spending time with our big ol' family, and we're darn happy to do so!

Merry Christmas to all! I hope you're surrounded by love and joy this holiday season!

Big Love

I have a pretty busy weekend planned, but I'm looking forward to spending time with my friends and family.

Tonight I am taking my dad to his first ever Dave Matthews Band concert, which we were originally supposed to go to a few weeks back at Governors Island. The original date was postponed, due to Hurricane Irene, and so tonight we will head off for Randall's Island instead. Between my husband and myself, I think we've seen DMB somewhere in the vicinity of 30+ times. Unfortunately we'll probably be seeing less and less as our responsibilities as adults grow more and more. That's ok, because I don't know that we have the stamina anymore for some of the all-day festivals, or for throwing elbows in general admission situations...oh, yes, we do feel old.

Tomorrow I've got some things going on with the family, and then I'm hoping to get into the city for a little Mintie Meetup. I'm looking forward to being able to finally meet some of the people from the Minted Design community that I've been able to talk to through emails and whatnot.

And then on Sunday I've got some more family fun in store. It seems that, for the most part, 2011 has been a year of celebration, which I couldn't be happier about. We've seen lots and lots of family, and it really has not been for any kind of sad events. Instead we've celebrated anniversaries, birthdays, weddings and holidays - there's been a lot of love going around and I hope it stays that way!

I hope you all have some good things planned for this weekend as well!

 

The Controversial Bridal Shower

I have my reasons for doing what I am doing, but I'm generating a bit of a stir anyway. It seems my wedding - and I am sure any bride has experienced this - is bringing out the diva in some people. My first major 'no-no', according to my old-fashioned family members, was to include comfort food at my cocktail hour. "Mac-n-cheese is for a kiddie birthday party, Jaclyn, not for a wedding" and "I don't care if it's in a martini glass, I will be seen eating mashed potatoes at a wedding" were some very, very common comments. Then I announced what they thought was the absolute worst thing ever - wait for it - wait for it......cupcakes!!!!! NOOOO!!! The uproar that ensued was, in my eyes, hilarious.

And then, when things finally calmed down, I gave them the big one. The most horrid thing that any old-fashioned, cannoli-eating, sambuca-drinking family could have ever heard of.

I'm planning my own bridal shower.

How dare I?!

Am I some sort of deranged control freak? Have I lost all sense of customs? What the heck* (note, heck wasn't the word my vino drinking family member used, but hey, this is a family blog) do I expect my bridesmaids to be doing? My generation, apparently, has no sense of tradition and honor. Hope. Is. Lost.

Seriously? Give me a break!

Let me make my case, and then you can make a decision on whether or not my actions are forgivable, or if I have undoubtedly cast doom onto the rest of my life.

My main reason for organizing my own bridal shower was money. I've been a bridesmaid, I've been a maid-of-honor, and I've been a guest - no matter what your role, these parties are expensive. Add in the fact that we live in New York/Long Island, and well, the regular idea of expensive has a few extra zeros at the end of it. Things where I live are shockingly expensive. Aside from the expensive, I have a rather large Italian family - way too many people to fit in a private home, and, unfortunately, the date of the shower isn't conducive to an outdoor fiesta. All of the above leads to one thing, a restaurant or catering hall shower, which ultimately equals even more $$$$$$.

And who, exactly, is supposed to front that mula? My bridesmaids? Well, let me put this out there - I'm relatively young. Right now in NY the average age for getting married is late 20's early 30's. I'm more along the lines of mid/early 20's, which means that my bridesmaids are along those lines as well. It's hard surviving as a newly working 20-something-year-old in a NYC economy. We are all surviving very well (in fact I think my group of girls deserve applause for being hard-working, super motivated gals with heads on their shoulders and lights in their tunnels!) but at the end of the day we don't have large sums of money sitting under our mattresses stashed away for expensive bridal showers.

So, what does a bride do? Ask her girls to hand over something they work their butts off for, or just organize and pay for the party herself?

Whether my peers like it or not, I've decided to meet in the middle. I'll pick a date, book a place, and pay the bill. My girls will plan all the activities, prizes, and so on. They don't have to take extra time off from work to do their bridal party duties, and I don't have to worry about walking into a restaurant in my pajamas, only to discover SURPRISE!

At the end of the day, I adore - no, love! - my girls. I know, without a doubt, that if I had asked them to foot the bill for the shower, they would have without batting an eyelash. But in my heart I can't do that. I love them too much to be putting that kind of pressure on them. Planning a wedding is stressful, planning a surprise party is also pretty stressful. I don't want my girls stressed, I want them to enjoy the journey, by my side. Their support means the world to me. I didn't ask them to be my bridesmaids because of their money, their party planning capabilities, or the way they'll look in a pretty dress standing next to me. I asked them to be my bridesmaid because they've been by my side since day one, and I know they will be for a long, long time coming.

I hope my family can come to terms with the fact that times, and traditions, are changing. Change happens, embrace it!

Fall Cleaning

I thought I would go through some of my old photos today and organize them. I found some real gems that you may enjoy....

This picture is a few years old - always reminded me of an 'Orbit' gum commercial. Don't I have a handsome hubby?

This is one of my favorite pictures ever! I was snapping the shot and my hubby was off camera aiming an apple - if you don't know what I'm talking about just look at the picture, our friends face, and then the upper right hand corner...

This picture of my mother single-handedly shows where I got my compulsive cleaning gene from...

^^ this is an awful picture of my mom, she happens to be a beautiful, beautiful women. But yes, she is indeed vacuuming the inside of the stove...


This picture was taken the night I got engaged - it's the only one I have and I'll always cherish it!

I love going through pictures!! I am sure I'll find more along my road to organization, but for now I'm perfectly content with what I've got!