Italian Festival?

We packed the mini van and headed up north to New York for some business and my home town's annual Italian Festival. Just to give you a little background on the festival, it has been going on since I can remember. I recall playing games with my brother and sister under the kid's tent, watching my grandfather play bocce ball, eating great food that the older Italian ladies slaved over (including my grandmother) and getting so hopped up on soda that it would keep me awake for days.

Since the glory days of the festival, the churches in the area have gone through a type of merger, cutting back on personnel and combining parishes. A move that hasn't been taken lightly by some parishioners, but nonetheless, economically a good move by the diocese. Well, the church I grew up in has always been at least 95% Italian, that's no joke. Ever since I was a child, everybody had a last name that ended in a vowel and we were very proud of that.

See, Italians have a strong sense of pride for who we are, the rights our relatives before us fought for and banning together as family even if we are not related by blood. The other churches that were involved in the merger are mainly what we call "Amedicanni" or of mixed nationalities. Well, they wanted to contribute to the festival and had very good intentions, I'm sure. So they sent cookies over, but chocolate chip and peanut butter don't go over very well with the older Italian ladies who are baking a recipe that has been in their family for hundreds of years. They are slaving over ovens and the "Amedicannis" are buying Keebler Soft Chews and Oreos! But we are also very accommodating people and they included them in the sale (they just decided to separate them out and sell them at a cheaper price).

BUT, the icing on the cake is when my mother, who also contributed to the festival with her wonderful cookies and hard work as she does every year, walked into the basement of the church where the cafe was to see this:

Ladies and gentlemen, that sound you just heard was the wheels coming off the wagon...and that one there, yeah, that was the ?#$%! hitting the fan.

Needless to say, it set off some tempers and the rumor mill started. It never did come down, but the old Italian ladies were burning holes through it with their evil-eyes and a look that will put a curse on you for years to come.

Anyway, Em had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma, Uncle Paul and Aunt Kara. Here are a bunch of pictures from the long weekend...Enjoy!

More posts to come about the great weekend. Em has been reaching some pretty big milestones lately...exciting stuff!