kittenmmm's blog post - Happy New Year everyone!

What a fabulous day.

The day started with my harping at wolf to move his ass if he intended to go to church with us. He did. We all went to church together, me, my son, my wasband and old wolf. My wasband and I wished each other a Happy New Year, hugged and then he was off for parts unknown while the rest of us made a quick trip back home to change, a run to the store for my cousin and then the ride to RI.

The annual holiday celebration at my cousin's/mother's is always a much anticipated event. At least 50 people or so show up throughout the day to partake of the food and the company. All my cousins show up, some of the other family members like my RI sister and her family and then some of my cousin's close friends as well as other friends of the family.

I love these crazy get togethers. It's always total chaos...you can barely move, people are loud, there are hugs all around, kisses, more food than all of us can possibly consume, presents, and just general mayhem and glee. My family is loud, bawdy, welcoming, loving and crazy. It doesn't matter if we've never met you before, if you've come with someone we know you're automatically welcome and fussed over. It's also very multicultural. The food reflects the ethnicities of our population...we have french canadian dishes, dominican republic dishes, american cuisine, italian, some soul food...a little bit of everything in there. The American melting pot is represented right in my cousin's kitchen.

Old Wolf was welcomed right in and fawned over by all the little older ladies. Oh they just loved his accent and were tickled pink with his "yes ma'am's". He ate more than he believed he could and had his first exposure to "dynamites", a sort of sloppy joe type dish that's a pretty local food item.

We finally got home about 7pm and my son soon received his friend over for a sleep over. Wolf got busy feeding the animals and starting a fire while I put away all the goodies we came back with. I would say all in all a really great start to the New Year.

I wish all of you the same joy and fullness of feelings in the New Year. May everyone have health and happiness, good fortune and great friends and family.

New Year kisses,
kitt