Our Family Reunion

Usually family reunions are large families who are spread out over a few states and gather together in a random place (with homemade T-shirts and all) once a year or every few years to see each other. Well, in this case, my extended family is within a few mile radius of each other, and all originally from NYC (if not Italy) - the same borough even, Queens - and some of us still haven't ever really met. Though when we did, it was like we had always known each other. So we spent an evening at Piccolo's, another italian experience, and all got together to hang out and chill, and for some, meet for the first time.

These are my 3rd cousins, I think! Haha. It's pretty amazing how we are all around the same age. 3 of them are married (including my sister) - 2 of the weddings were just recently - and 2 more are engaged.





There are only 4 of us left single, myself included... :) The only one missing was my brother who didn't get home until a few weeks later!



i love tony's head sticking out in this one.....can't miss a picture...


How cute - the older generation :)



Here's the guys...lookin' slightly like a bunch of "how you doin's"...





Here's the girls...



Before I left NYC again, and being that my brother had gotten leave from the army and was home by now, we arranged another time to get together...and this time we all realized another very important fact about our family, we're all catlovers!

Radio City Music Hall...Thank you Aunt Beanie and Uncle Richie! Haha

Being a native NYer, this was ironically the first time I had seen the Radio City Show...the famous Rockettes. It was pretty incredible and a definite NYC holiday experience....















There's a beautiful 'nativity' scene at the end, which I completely did not expect, with live animals - camels and goats - and great costumes. The show talked about the real reason we celebrate. I just was shocked that in our day when everything is all politically correct, this show has gone under the radar so to speak and the story of Jesus' birth is still being shared.. (tho Nicole noticed that they never actually say the name "Jesus" throughout the whole monologue...hmmm...but still you can assume everyone knows the story)...





and then of course, not to be outdone, the real rockettes took to the streets!!! crazy NYers...





and to top it all off, we enjoyed dinner and (barely) dancing at a real city Cuban restaurant, complete with authentic Cuban cigar-making on premises.. Really good food and a great band!

Manhattan at it's finest...and coldest!

A Tribute to Starbucks

And what trip outside the country would be complete without numerous trips to Starbucks!










A reunion with my friend Sarah who lives in Minnesota!


...and Renee from Long Island

NYC during the HOLIDAYS...

SOOooo it came and went like a flash - but I was home in Queens NY for most of December and some of January. Of course you're living everyday trying to fit everything and everyone in because you know you'll be leaving soon and don't know when you'll be back again. This is how our visits home always turn out. Its so wonderful to see family and friends and cats and eat great food again :) Italians just have the market on pretty much everything - ok maybe not EVERYTHING, but cooking, beautiful land, personality, fashion, etc...and then NY Italians are a subculture of the real Italians...just displaced in another city :) LOL

So i really didn't mean to get into all things Italian, but this time for some reason, I realized more than ever how cultural my NYC family is. How more often than not, our conversations would revert to food, a recent dish we had, or what amazing homemade Italian restaurant we'd go to, or having my own Grandmother come over and make some seriously great stuff she hasn't even made in years. Until finally one day my dad finally admitted, "We really are food snobs aren't we..." hahah. We all heartily agreed.

So with all that said - i'm going to post tons of pics on this "BLOG" turned "PLOG" (sincs it's more pictures than written material)...i'd say I'm a more 'visual" person, because that sounds like a great excuse, and i'm not one for writing too much PLUS i just think pictures really say a lot more than i could. Tho i'll put in some explanations too...

First things first: our time at home, the wonderful family we have and the amazing family traditions we have during Christmas. Don't really know how or why they started, but they make the holidays what they are - fun times.

this was our first big shopping trip. We went the day after we arrived! Awes :)
















the fam...


















The famous Villa Mosconi's in Manhattan...they love us!!

































the one time we FINALLY got a chance to take my grandparents out to eat - and pay for them...we had a little battle but got in covered... :)
































Another random nite, nicole and tony were making their first ever Gingerbread House which almost turned into a disaster, but somehow turned out pretty nice...complete with a Menorah in the window and a paw print from one of our sneaky cats!




















My mom had a lot of help cooking the the kitchen...

The Nightwatch Team from Succat Hallel

This is Nicole, Ruben and Lindy. These 3 are the core team that hold down the hours from 12am to 6am at the house of prayer in Jerusalem...and they're not always sleeping... :)


this is me with the nitewatch team


In this one we were trying to do the "N" and "W" for nightwatch with our hands...not only was it backwards anyway, but we look a little ridiculous.


...looking Middle Eastern with our Old City scarves...Lindy, Melissa and me (we joke that the "old city scarf" look is the telltale sign of Jerusalem Syndrome...hehehe. and we ARE NOT there..)


....because we can look normal in our scarves also...right??


or you can just look like ZORO...