Grandma's Funeral

After falling off cloud nine last week into the hormonal abyss, I was able to pull myself together and head out to Maine for a little break from my life as a Mom. Dave stayed home for 4 days without any help and took awesome care of the kids. My Dad and I flew out to the Boston Airport on Thursday and drove up to Maine that night. Friday was the funeral for my wonderful Grandma who passed away on June 29th. A lot happened in those 4 days, and this will be a LONG post. For those of you who aren't Biada relatives, this may be pretty boring. Remember, this is MY blog, and I can write whatever I want!

The funeral was beautiful. All of the people there TRULY loved her. We all could remember how great she was, and how much she loved Grandpa. She has lived without him for a long time, and although we will miss her, we realize how wonderful it is for them to be reunited. Truly theirs was one of the great love stories. They were the cutest old couple, and they ALWAYS made us laugh. The funeral was conducted by a Catholic priest, and as I explain it, I'm sure to use a lot of words improperly. I apologize for that. It was a VERY religious ceremony that included communion, scriptures, incense, and prayers. The priest sprinkled water on her casket in remembrance of her baptism. It was very unfamiliar to me, but absolutely fascinating. I was embarrassed as I didn't have the Lord's Prayer memorized, but reciting prayers isn't part of our religion. They did the sign of the cross? and repeated many phrases so fast I could never catch on to them. Things like "The Lord be with you... and with you." and "Lord have mercy". It was neat, so different than any other funeral I've been to. Luckily I was sitting next to my Uncle Bob, a VERY religious man of the Christian faith, and he answered my questions and made me feel better when he didn't repeat those phrases either.

I had an opportunity to talk to my great Aunt Mary (Grandma's sister) who I found out reads this blog from time to time. **Hi Aunt Mary!** She is great! I had so much fun talking to her. She gave me some precious Italian recipes, and promised to email me some more. (ericabase@hotmail.com). I enjoyed this opportunity to talk with her, and get to know her better.

After the funeral we gathered at my Aunt Mamie's house for FOOD. I mean, we're Italian, eating is what we do best right? The food was delicious all weekend. My Uncle Don and Aunt Mamie are INCREDIBLE gourmet chefs, so naturally I gained 5 pounds this weekend. I also was able to stay at their house, they have a very nice camper parked outside that my Dad and I stayed in. It was very nice, thank you for letting us stay there!

All 5 of my cousins were there- and my cousin Lauri's 3 darling children. My cousin Heather (who is 4 months older than me) and I were always very close growing up, it was really fun to see her and to meet her cute friend Becky. They live down in Florida and have invited us to come down and visit them. I don't think that should be a problem ;). My little cousins Ryan and Elizabeth were not so little anymore. I was SHOCKED to find out that Ryan is in college. Wow! And Lauri and Jeff are my older cousins- I don't know if anyone makes me laugh more than Jeff. Lauri and her wonderful husband Greg (Who was up in the middle of the night rocking their little guy. What a man!) have 3 kids- Amanda 10, Kayla turning 9 on Friday, and Brandon who is 18 months old. Those girls have doubled in size since the last time I saw them (Up, not out) and are SO cute! And Brandon is SO charming, probably the third cutest boy I've ever known (Soon to be knocked down to fourth in November, I'm sure) He has a squinty eyed, toothy grin that will absolutely melt your heart. I tried the whole trip to catch it on film, but he wouldn't do it for the camera! I loved the opportunity to be with my cousins, they are so special to me. (I wish we lived closer) Lauri told me not to come back without my kids, so I guess we'll have to plan a family trip out there.

I also loved being with my Aunts- Mamie and June. They are so fun. Aunt June helped me make the cheesecake for Aunt Mamie's birthday. We call it Erica and June's best Cheesecake Recipe. Here it is:

1-1/2 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs 3 Tbsp. sugar 1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted 4 pkg. (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese, softened 1 cup sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 4 eggs

Preparation

MIX crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar and butter; press firmly onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan. BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust. BAKE at 325°F for 55 minutes or until center is almost set if using a silver springform pan. (Or, bake at 300°F if using a dark nonstick springform pan.) Loosen cake from side of pan; cool before removing side of pan. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator. Add sour cream topping and fresh blueberries. Sour cream topping: 1 pt. sour cream 2/3 c. sugar 1 tbsp. vanilla

Okay, so really I plagiarized this from the Philadelphia Cheesecake site, but it was really good when WE made it, so now it's OUR recipe.

My cousin Heather brought her Nintendo Wii up with her, and I think we pretty much played it the whole time. It was way fun, but it can be dangerous (especially if you're standing next to Aunt June.... she WILL hit you ;)) By the way, I bowled a 206. I rarely bowl over 1oo in real life. Wii boosts your self-esteem.

Here is the Wii playing station. Jeff, Aunt June, Aunt Mamie, and Greg playing tennis
Lauri, Greg, Jeff, and Aunt Mamie in ACTION!
Here we are at Drake's Island Beach. One of the best beaches ever! It wasn't real warm, so we sat close to the wall to keep warm.
The Hood blimp flew by. Why did I take a picture? I don't really know.
Cutie little Brandon. I was trying to catch his best smile, but this one will have to do. You have to see it in real life to really understand how cute he is!
Our beautiful cheesecake with New Jersey blueberries on it. ($0.99 a pint. WOW!)
Happy Birthday Aunt Mamie!
P-A-R-T-Y!We had a lobster night in honor of Aunt Mamie's birthday. My Dad was nice enough to buy me my own lobster. There was so much other good food that I shared my lobster with my Aunt and Uncle. But I enjoyed the process, this was my first WHOLE lobster. I've only ever had pieces before. Here he is! Notice the instructions underneath him on the plate. I didn't notice them until he was almost gone.

Here is Lauri with her lobster. I had to keep asking her what to do with mine. More lobster eating
Brandon with his glasses. Isn't he cute? He's sporting his Wee-ooo wee-oo jammies (firetruck)
I hitched a ride with Heather and Becky to the Boston airport. Their flight was before mine, so I had a few hours to go into the city. It was a beautiful day, and I really enjoyed myself walking around the city. I love Boston. The last thing I did was stop in the North End and treat myself to some real Italian food. I got caprese (Fresh mozzerella, basil, and tomatoes) and gnocci as shown below. I even got Pellegrino with a lime. As I sat and ate (alone) I wrote down the recipes that my Aunt Mary had told me. After all this writing and taking a picture of my food, my waiter said, "Oh no, she's reviewing us!" I assured him I wasn't, but I'm not sure they believed me. This meal was so yummy! I just wanted to stay there all day and eat.

This was a great trip, and I really enjoyed the break from my kids, but I was also very homesick. I was so excited to come home to my family and give them all a hug! Dawson wouldn't come to me for an hour or so, but then he forgave me for leaving him and we're best friends again. I loved seeing my family, and it's always fun to go from one side of the country to the other in the same month.