Our little cousin is obsessed with Curious George, and his parents used to hang out in Harvard Square all the time back in the day, so of course they absolutely had to take him to the Curious George store in Harvard Square, and we were delighted to be invited along for the ride!
Five DiMattis on a mission.
so many books
On Christmas Eve, Brian took over the kitchen to make an incredible chicken pot pie for dinner, and a delicious bread pudding for dessert. He used to make his bread pudding all the time when he was younger, so his mom and sister were very pleasantly surprised to enjoy an old favorite dish!
We spent a long weekend in Colorado with LOTS of family to celebrate my cousin’s wedding, starting with an incredibly pleasant dinner at my aunt and uncle’s gorgeous new house.
My cousin and his wife had a baby several months ago, and we finally got to meet the newest member of our family! We also got to enjoy an incredible NYC skyline from their Brooklyn apartment.
Another lovely Memorial Day Weekend filled with family, great views and delicious food!
My parents hosted several friends on the fifth night of Hanukah. Mmmm mom’s latkes …
We spent the afternoon helping my mom make batch after batch after batch of delicious cookies!
We hosted a Fall Feast potluck so we could get a bunch of our friends together and eat delicious food!
My parents set a beautiful table (as always) for our first Rosh Hashanah in the new house.
My cousin Alex was in town from Australia! We hosted a little family gathering and served some of our local favorites: Legal Seafoods clam chowder, apples and cheddar with caramel, and pumpkin pie!
I had an all-day work meeting in the same town that our cousins live in, so we spent a lovely summer evening with them … sipping iced tea on the patio, playing guitar and swinging on the swings at a lake-side playground. So perfect!
Several months ago, when we booked our trip to San Jose for Sean and Clif’s wedding, we decided to make a whole week out of it by adding on  a few days in Los Angeles. Brian hadn’t been to LA since he lived there for a few months 10 years ago, and it would give us a chance to visit my brother and his girlfriend, and to see the house they bought last summer.
Those two crazy kids got married in private in April, so it turned out that this was also our first time seeing my brother and his wife since they got married! When we arrived in LA, we headed straight to their house. We got a tour of their beautiful new home, and caught up over take-out. I realize now that I forgot to take a picture of them (they probably don’t mind) … I was too busy taking pictures of my niece and nephew: their cats, Ivy and Mosby.
We left San Francisco, crossed the bay and headed over to Berkeley for dinner with our cousins. They treated us to an amazing backyard barbeque in their gorgeous backyard garden. They got married less than two months after we did, so the conversation naturally turned to how awesome our respective weddings were.
Same as that afternoon, our time together was over all too soon, but it was much better to spend three hours with them than none at all.
Our annual Greek Easter celebration … a great evening with family, especially our adorable little cousins! We were at a restaurant in Swampscott, which gave us a gorgeous view of the Boston skyline as the sun set.
We didn’t know it at the time, but last year was our last Passover in the house I grew up in. After 26 years of two consecutive nights of Passover seders in our dining room in the old house, we made our old traditions brand new again in my parents’ new dining room in the new house. Quite predictably, it was strangely new and yet utterly familiar.
On Monday (the day of the first seder), I took the day off so that we could spend the day helping mom. We let the breeze in because it was absolutely gorgeous out, and the bright sunshine made our platters look lovely!
As always, we sat down to a delicious meal with family and friends, some who had joined us before and some for the first time, and we retold the familiar story of freedom.
Check out my other posts tagged ‘Passover‘
I love this photo of my beautiful little cousins reading together after brunch this morning — what a treat to see them, and their parents, and their grandparents!!
