How ‘Bout Them Packers!

One of the highlights of Mother’s Day for me was watching my brother in law Dorsey wear my Packers jersey around the house. Dorsey is a huge Steelers fan and when those two teams met in the Super Bowl he suggested a bet where the loser of the game had to wear the winning team’s jersey at the next family outing.

As you may have heard, the Packers won the Super Bowl so it was my day to gloat. Jake took the bet a step farther by bringing down his cheese head for Uncle Dorsey to wear. I felt bad for my nephew Lucas because he felt it was terrible the way his dad was being tormented.

Mother’s Day 2011

Mother’s Day around our house is dominated by the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure. It’s a yearly tradition for my Mom to take a busload of people down with her. It’s now closing in on two years since she was first diagnosed with breast cancer and she also lost her mom and her sister to it.

The past few years we have had everyone back to our house following the race for brunch/dinner. Jean and I ended up staying home from the race so we could get the house ready for the guests after the race. With the Communion party the night before, we figured we needed a little extra time to whip the house into shape before the guests arrived (again).

We had many of the same people from the Communion party along with the Gvodas, Glass, and Russo families. It was a nice laid back afternoon and it was great to sit around, stuff our faces, and catch up with everyone.

Brett’s 1st Holy Communion

This weekend we celebrated Brett’s 1st Holy Communion. It was a beautiful day (for most part) and everything went off without a hitch. We invited family back to the house but when all was said and done, we still had close to 40 people for dinner. My sister Erin and her family came up from Virginia Beach and Jean’s sister Kate and her family were able to make it from Jersey.

 My sister Kate came over and took some pictures after the service and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. She brought the Wiz kids over with her and she was able to get all six of the grandkids together for a photo shoot. She took communion pictures for us and also managed to get a few pictures of all of my Mom’s grandchildren.

My niece Emily also had a big day as St. Eleanor’s celebrated confirmation that afternoon. It was a busy day for Jean’s parents as they fit in Brett’s service at 10 and then Emily’s at 2. They also had a grandnephew’s Communion on their agenda but they just stopped by to drop off a gift. If it was up to me, I would haven given them a free pass from Sunday’s mass.

One of the highlights of Brett’s service was watching Jake come out of retirement to fill in as an alter server. He was quietly minding his own business when Mrs. Mooney (the school principal) came over to ask if he would help out. He did a great job as always although he looked a little out of place because he was a lot bigger than the other alter servers.

My sister Kate took some great pictures of the family back at our house.  I ended up grabbing them off of her website (hope you don’t mind Kate?).  If you’re looking for a photographer who does a great job, check out her site.

Mother’s Day 2010

The Mothers Day Weekend was a busy one for us. Jake had a couple of games on Saturday, Brett had a baseball game, and Abby had a soccer tournament out in Neshaminy (which included two games Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday morning).

As always, my Mom took a crew of people down to Center City with her to take part in the Komen Race for the Cure, which she has walked in every year in memory of her sister Jackie, who we lost to breast cancer back in 1996 at the young age of 40. This year’s race took on an added significance because of my mother being diagnosed with breast cancer a little over a year ago. It’s been an emotional year for all of us, and my mom has been amazing in coming back from her double mastectomy last June. She’s back as good as she was before surgery and it’s almost to the point where you’ve forgotten how much she’s gone through.

Being the not so wonderful son, I committed to having Abby play in the tournament earlier in the spring without thinking about how important the day was to my mom. To compound things, if Abby’s team had won on Sunday morning, they would have played for the championship of the tournament at 1 pm. Luckily, they lost 3-0 and Abby and I were able to get home at the same time as everyone got back from the race. It’s one of the few times I wasn’t upset watching the Cheetahs lose.

Jean stayed home with the boys to get the house ready for guests because we were hosting everyone for brunch. Her morning consisted of running around getting all the food, which my mom had order earlier in the week, along with last minute prep around the house. Our fare consisted of chips and burritos from California Tortilla along with bagels and sandwiches from Barrister’s Bagels, both of which are located in the Target shopping center.

Brunch was fun and the list of guest ended up being pretty extensive: Mom, Kate, Casey, Jack and Mary Kay Gvodas, John and Nicole Gvodas (who is insanely pregnant right now), Mike and Dottie, Judy and Joy Glass, Alexandra, Sue Krimmel, and Joe Palombit (with Adrianna, Megan, and Ryan). It’s the first time we’ve had Joe over to the house, and we just celebrated our fourth anniversary of moving in.

By the time everything wrapped up around 4:30, we were whupped. We cleaned up and vegged out as a group by watching the movie The Blind Side as a family. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It’s a nice real life story that leaves you feeling good about people.

Mother’s Day 2009

We normally start our Mother’s Day down in Philadelphia at the Race for the Cure.  Following the race we head over to my mom’s house for an extended brunch with a large group of friends and families.

This year things didn’t quite work out for us to get to the race, but we were able to keep the tradition of getting together.  We ended up hosting the brunch, which somehow managed to transition itself into dinner as well.

It was nice to have my sister Erin home from Tunisia with my niece Isa, and we enjoyed having the two of them home for a few weeks.  It was great to see them, and it’s always a bummer when they head home because we don’t get to visit with them too often.

Guests included: Nicole Caplin and Mary Watters, The Russo Clan (including Scott, Jackie, Rick and Sherri), Jack and Mary Kay Gvodas, Nicole and John Gvodas, Katie, Erin, Isa, Jeff, Casey, as well as a dinner time visit by Gram and Pop Wynne.

Needless to say, it was a long day, but we really enjoyed spending time with people that we don’t get to visit with as much as we’d like to.