All Lit Up
Dec. 21st, 2008 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morrigirlYesterday was lovely. Me, Mom, Mike, Sara, Greg M., Greg C., and Giancarlo drove up to Crompond to visit my sister Maria. Maria and her husband Greg (Yeah, lotta Gregs in my family) have been living up there for three years and Mom, Mike, and I had never been up to see the house. Since we'd never been up, we'd never met their two year old daughter Lily either.
Oh my God, people, my niece is the most adorable child to ever grace the Earth, and that's really saying something considering the fact that I hate kids. She has these big blue eyes and blonde hair, so she obviously doesn't take after the Criscuolo side of the family. She has this big beautiful smile and is so sweet. She was quiet at first, but once she got used to all of us she became a little more chatty. Unlike most two year olds, you can actually understand what Lily says when she talks. Real words come out of her mouth, not just garbled toddler gibberish. Lily was well behaved, didn't cry or scream or demand any attention. She was content to play with the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls my mother bought for her. We were all completely charmed.
Lily really took to My Greg. At one point she took all the dolls she had in the living room and gave them to him. Greg just smiled and thanked her and talked to her. I'd never seen Greg around children before. He's good with them. I think it's because he's so laid back. He wasn't staring at her and gushing over her like the rest of us. I think he put her at ease, which I can understand because he works the very same snake charming mojo on me.
The house itself is nice. It's a three bedroom on a two acre plot. Very cozy. During the day we saw two deer run through the backyard.
About an hour into our visit we got a real surprise when my brother Neil and his wife Patty Ann showed up. I haven't seen Neil in fourteen years. Of all my siblings he's the one who's the most stand-offish, primarily because he has unresolved issues with my father. So, we were all delighted to see him. He said when Maria told him we'd all be up at her place he just HAD to come by and see us. He has been married to his wife Patty Ann for seventeen years and yesterday was the first time I'd ever met her.
There was a lot of that going around yesterday. I hadn't seen Maria and Her Greg since before Lily was born. They both looked fine. Very happy and content. I hadn't seen my nephew Giancarlo in about two years. He just finished his first term of college at Hunter. He says he's liking it so far which is weird because, like me, he got left back in high school and has never been much of a student. Neil brought news of his son, my nephew Neil John. The last time I saw Neil John, he was eight. That was twenty years ago. After serving in the armed forces, Neil John went to college and majored in journalism. Now he's living down in Florida, has a job writing sprots blogs for the CBS website, and has a long-term girlfriend who is orignally from Kentucky. Hearing that gave me a little thrill because it means I'm not the only writer in the family anymore. (Well, okay, there ARE other writers in my family, but they are all related by marriage. Neil John is the first writer in the family who is related to me by blood.)
It was wonderful to sit around Maria's living room with a fire going in the fire place and Yoda staring benificently down from the top of the Christmas tree, and just hang out with all my siblings and their significant others. It was the first time I can ever remember all five of us being together in the same place. Maria and I refused to waste the opportunity. We both whipped out our cameras and insisted on taking several all-sibling portraits.
At one point we were talking about my father and all of his brothers. Dad was the youngest of five and there was about a twenty year age difference between him and his oldest brother Freddy. As we were talking Maria realized for the first time ever that the same age difference exists between the five of us; Greg is fifty-three, Neil is fifty-two, Maria is forty-three, Michael is thirty-seven, and I'm twenty-nine. She said that was comforting to her because long after she and her husband are gone Lily will still have Aunt Carla to look out for her.
The Criscuolos don't usually have warm, fuzzy, familial gatherings of any kind, not even during the holidays which is what made yesterday's visit such a treat. It was a real get together full of smiles and storytelling and nostalgia. No one screamed or cried or accused anyone else of being a horrible human being. It was a good day all around :-)
Oh my God, people, my niece is the most adorable child to ever grace the Earth, and that's really saying something considering the fact that I hate kids. She has these big blue eyes and blonde hair, so she obviously doesn't take after the Criscuolo side of the family. She has this big beautiful smile and is so sweet. She was quiet at first, but once she got used to all of us she became a little more chatty. Unlike most two year olds, you can actually understand what Lily says when she talks. Real words come out of her mouth, not just garbled toddler gibberish. Lily was well behaved, didn't cry or scream or demand any attention. She was content to play with the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls my mother bought for her. We were all completely charmed.
Lily really took to My Greg. At one point she took all the dolls she had in the living room and gave them to him. Greg just smiled and thanked her and talked to her. I'd never seen Greg around children before. He's good with them. I think it's because he's so laid back. He wasn't staring at her and gushing over her like the rest of us. I think he put her at ease, which I can understand because he works the very same snake charming mojo on me.
The house itself is nice. It's a three bedroom on a two acre plot. Very cozy. During the day we saw two deer run through the backyard.
About an hour into our visit we got a real surprise when my brother Neil and his wife Patty Ann showed up. I haven't seen Neil in fourteen years. Of all my siblings he's the one who's the most stand-offish, primarily because he has unresolved issues with my father. So, we were all delighted to see him. He said when Maria told him we'd all be up at her place he just HAD to come by and see us. He has been married to his wife Patty Ann for seventeen years and yesterday was the first time I'd ever met her.
There was a lot of that going around yesterday. I hadn't seen Maria and Her Greg since before Lily was born. They both looked fine. Very happy and content. I hadn't seen my nephew Giancarlo in about two years. He just finished his first term of college at Hunter. He says he's liking it so far which is weird because, like me, he got left back in high school and has never been much of a student. Neil brought news of his son, my nephew Neil John. The last time I saw Neil John, he was eight. That was twenty years ago. After serving in the armed forces, Neil John went to college and majored in journalism. Now he's living down in Florida, has a job writing sprots blogs for the CBS website, and has a long-term girlfriend who is orignally from Kentucky. Hearing that gave me a little thrill because it means I'm not the only writer in the family anymore. (Well, okay, there ARE other writers in my family, but they are all related by marriage. Neil John is the first writer in the family who is related to me by blood.)
It was wonderful to sit around Maria's living room with a fire going in the fire place and Yoda staring benificently down from the top of the Christmas tree, and just hang out with all my siblings and their significant others. It was the first time I can ever remember all five of us being together in the same place. Maria and I refused to waste the opportunity. We both whipped out our cameras and insisted on taking several all-sibling portraits.
At one point we were talking about my father and all of his brothers. Dad was the youngest of five and there was about a twenty year age difference between him and his oldest brother Freddy. As we were talking Maria realized for the first time ever that the same age difference exists between the five of us; Greg is fifty-three, Neil is fifty-two, Maria is forty-three, Michael is thirty-seven, and I'm twenty-nine. She said that was comforting to her because long after she and her husband are gone Lily will still have Aunt Carla to look out for her.
The Criscuolos don't usually have warm, fuzzy, familial gatherings of any kind, not even during the holidays which is what made yesterday's visit such a treat. It was a real get together full of smiles and storytelling and nostalgia. No one screamed or cried or accused anyone else of being a horrible human being. It was a good day all around :-)
