Becky's photoblog

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!!

Our second stop on New Year’s Eve was at our cousins’ house. It was great to catch up with our cousins and see the babies! They are ridiculously adorable, and always squirming around, so I got a bunch of blurry photos.

After that, our third and final stop for the evening was a party at Aaron’s house. We rang in the near year, with a great group of friends, and then we realized we’re all way too old to spend the evening party-hopping and staying out so late.

I love the little story that goes with a family’s Christmas tree ornaments, and Brian’s family has many lovely ornaments. Here’s a few of the photogenic ones.

Please click here for more photos from Thanksgiving and Hanukah

Please click here for more photos from Thanksgiving and Hanukah

My family has been combining Hanukah and Thanksgiving for decades, so when the calendars actually aligned to bring these two holidays together, it was a very special occasion. Arriving from four different states, our family traveled on the day before Thanksgiving and arrived at my uncle’s house to light candles together for the first night of Hanukah.

Please click here for more photos from Thanksgiving and Hanukah

When three of your cousins have all moved far away from home, and they’re all home at the same time, it’s a reason to throw a party! We drove out to State College, PA for a weekend filled with family, food, farm animals, fire … and bagels! We also got an architecture tour of Penn State from my cousin, an architect who graduated a few years ago.

Click here for more family photos (password protected)

Alex is learning how to make bagels and she’s gotten really good at it!

Brian’s aunt’s family is Greek, so our relatives on his side get together every year to celebrate Greek Easter. This year, we weren’t able to get everyone together, so instead it was just the cousins. Six couples doting on a four-year-old and two infants while eating smoked lamb. In other words – perfect.

This was our first time meeting one little infant cousin, and our second time meeting the other. I might be a little biased, but I’m telling you, those are two very special little people.

Family, please click here for more (password protected)

Passover 2013:

Click here for my photoblog entries from

• Passover 2012
• Passover 2011
• Passover 2010
• Passover 2009
• Passover 2008 1st night and 2nd night

[Not a valid template]A year after our wedding, we can look back and honestly say that we would not have done anything differently. Our wedding weekend was truly joyful, and we returned to the Hyatt Harborside to celebrate our first anniversary and enjoy those wonderful memories. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and breakfast at the Harborside Grill, and we still can’t get enough of that spectacular view! Brian’s family surprised us with a delicious antipasto platter and a bottle of champagne, which was a really sweet treat.

Brian planned a wonderful surprise of his own. He ordered a mini-version of our wedding cake from the bakery where our wedding cake was from, and we picked it up on our way to my parents’ house. He tried to get the bakery to decorate our cake with the same leafy design as our wedding cake, but it didn’t work out quite as he had planned. Instead, it was even better. They frosted the cake with the leaves of two full trees meeting in the middle. We had lunch with my family, and shared the cake with them.

Click here to see Maureen’s wonderful video slide-show from our wedding.

[Not a valid template]To surprise my father for his 60th birthday, mom flew my brother and his girlfriend from LA to Boston. Dad thought he was having dinner with mom and his east coast children, but 6 of us showed up for dinner instead of 4. Dad was very surprised, and the 7 of us sat down to an incredible meal with an incredible view!

Top of the Hub is a restaurant on the 52nd floor of the Prudential Tower, and this was my first time partaking of one of Boston’s most precious gems. The food was amazing. The view was amazing. The sunset was breaktaking, and it was wonderful to have my whole family together.

Flying my brother and his girlfriend to Boston was just the beginning of the surprise. The following day, they kept dad out of the house while the rest of us set up for a backyard BBQ. Dad was expecting just few friends, but a few relatives and a few other friends joined the party to surprise dad for a big all-out end-of-summer festive summer bbq.

For pictures from the entire weekend, please click here — the password is dad’s middle name

The view from Top of the Hub

My cousins, after stuffing our faces at Zaftigs. Where else would you take a former BU student to brunch when she’s in town from Australia?

My cousin married this handsome fella, and we got to spend an evening at a funky bar in Brooklyn!

Cannolli Nachos!! In celebration of our wedding, Brian’s parents hosted a wonderful party, featuring cannolli nachos and a phenomenal assortment of handmade desserts.