Celebrating in the Rain

This has quite possible been one of nicest summers I can remember in New Jersey. We have had very little rain, and those few times were in the evening. There has been very little humidity – which NJ is famous for! There was only one week where there were more than three days in a row that were over 90 degrees!  The definition of perfect summer weather in my opinion!

We couldn’t have asked for better weather and having a summer job that is mostly outdoors, I couldn’t have been happier! Truthfully, we only needed ONE day to be perfect. Tuesday, August 11th. Today. The day we are celebrating Grammy’s 100th birthday. Outside.

All week long, the weather channels have been predicting rain for today.  We kept hoping that it would change, summer is so unpredictable, but it only seemed to get worse. If you looked at the 7 day forecasts, it displayed cute little suns on everyday EXCEPT Tuesday, where wind, clouds and rain icons replaced that sun! A day with no breaks of sun. “Higher than average gusts of wind expected….”

There is nothing we can do. The tents are already set up in her yard. The relatives have arrived from all over the US  and, although there is some disappointment that the party will have to move indoors, no one really cares so much anymore now that everyone is together.  Our family has been arriving all week long. Despite being thousands of miles away, stretching all the way to Alaska, these kids get along like they’ve been together forever. Having the party stretch out over nearly two weeks has made it so that the big event today isn’t really ruined because of a little rain!

If there isn’t any thunder and lightening, it just might be outside for the kids! The rain isn’t going to stop them! They were together until after 9pm last night running through the tents in the dark playing old games like “Ghost in the Graveyard” not caring that no one could see a thing, so I doubt rain will stop them!

Gram’s actual birthday is not until September 3rd but in order to get everyone here with school and sport schedules, we had to do it a little early. The party is going on, rain or shine. If it has to move indoors, it will. It isn’t very often that someone turns 100 and we cannot wait to celebrate her today!

99 and Counting!

 

99 years ago, this lady came into the world!

!

September 3 is her birthday and as she enters her 100th year of life, we celebrated her tonight.  Mostly family, but also some of her dearest friends gathered at her home and we made a big potluck feast of her favorite Italian foods.  Cheeses, salamis, ziti, meatballs…all of the things she loved and she gobbled them down along with several birthday cakes! 

As always happens in our family, we overloaded on the food and made too much and had tons of leftovers – so all of us have food for the next few days. 

The grandkids gave her a new tablet which will be loaded with audio books for her to listen to.  She always loved reading but her eyesight isn’t so great anymore and we know that she misses that.  She got new hearing aids recently and her hearing has really improved so we think this will be something she will love! 

We have already begun to talk about next year’s celebration – when she turns 100!  I can’t even imagine what the festivities will be like for that!

 

Happy Birthday Grammy

Today is my grandmother’s 98th birthday.  You would never it know by looking at her though.  It is my hope that I have inherited her youthful genes!! Considering her age, she is doing quite well! Earlier in the year, I wrote about her starting to slow down a bit. Perhaps it had something to do with the weather we had been having, because this summer she has really been a lot more like her old self.  A few weeks ago she had us over for a visit after family dinner.  Something she has always loved but hasn’t been up to recently.  She has been going to her weekly hair and nail appointments.  The cold Spring and miserable Winter we had, kept her housebound for awhile.  It is good to see her out and doing more.  She laughs at some of her weaknesses and knows she has trouble hearing us all of the time. She hates her hearing aids but needs to wear them.  She doesn’t like her walker and she calls it her “damn walker”.  That is probably the only curse word I have heard her say!  I know that she is feeling old and some days she can get cranky but her great-grand-kids help her to stay young!  She has three sons, ten grandchildren, fourteen great-grandchildren and one on the way.  She is the matriarch of our family and we don’t let her forget it.

She was born in Italy and spent her childhood in New York. She raised her boys in Maplewood, New Jersey and moved to Short Hills a one town away, over 50 years ago.  She is still living in that same house with her caretaker it is where she hopes to spend the rest of her years!

Tonight her East Coast family will get together and celebrate her.  We are hoping that during the Christmas holidays, we can get our West Coast family all here to celebrate as well.  She certainly deserves it!