Love = Magic

It's been a nice long weekend for so many of us. My favorite holiday, Thanksgiving Day, a four day weekend and though I might be heading back to work today, the magic of this past weekend will keep me going for some time.

I remember after my surprise 40th birthday party. After I got home I took my Molly for a walk, I remember realizing that I had the biggest smile on my face and I just couldn't stop smiling. Pure magic! All my family and friends created a birthday that was so special, so filled with love that it was just magical.

This weekend was like that, especially for the kids.

I think this is the first Thanksgiving ever that I was not sitting in traffic at all. I could not believe it! We left Staten Island at 10am and the entire ride up was just clear sailing. I drove and instead of listening to the music the kids prefer (most of which I do not) Joey read a book to us. Joey is reading, well he finished reading The Zero Game by Brad Meltzer and was enjoying it so much had been telling the kids about it and eventually they just wanted to hear the story as he was reading it. It's an adult mystery but they got the gist of the story and Joey would remind them about things as he was reading. I had read the book and suggested it to Joey, loving that he loved it, and now loving that his love of something I suggested led to his kids loving it. Could there be a thing as too much love? I don't think so. For me it just keeps on coming, sometimes from people or things that surprise me.

My sister Linda and her husband Bob hosted a great dinner, all our favorite food and desserts and if you wanted to see the kids you had to go and find them, they just were off and running the second they got together. That's one of my most favorite sights, looking at all my nieces and nephews hanging out together, again I love watching them love each other. Reminds me how blessed I am, how I grew up like them, with cousins that were my friends, family. That's why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday too, it's all about family, no matter what "family" means to each of us.

We spent Friday morning/early afternoon upstate and then headed back down to the city as the girls (Ashley and Bella) were going to go to my niece Gracie's birthday party and the boys (Shane, Robert, Jojo and Luke) were going to do something, they didn't know what, but anything was great because they would be together.

They ended up going to Wagner College here on Staten Island for a basketball game, something my brother remembers doing with my parents when he was a kid, something he loved very much. You can't beat the spirit of a college game (high school and CYO, etc. too). That spirit, community, it just makes you feel at home. Now he's sharing that with his kids. Love. Magic!

On Saturday the girls, not only the little girls, a bunch of the "girls" in my family went into the city to see Mary Poppins on Broadway! The girls were my Aunt Libby, sister Debbie, cousin Chrissy and my nieces, Irene, Ashley, Gracie and Bella. And this was Bella's first Broadway show. She had been hemming and hawing about going for a number of reasons but had finally decided a few days before that yes she would go and yes she was very much looking forward to going. Like me I don't think she knew what she was in for. My first Broadway show was Irene starring my most favorite movie star Debbie Reynolds but even putting aside the fact that my favorite movie star was right in front of me, I could not believe what Broadway was like, outside in the streets and then inside the theatre. MAGIC. All my life all I ever wanted to do was go to Hollywood, which I did in my early 20s. I was disappointed, nothing like my dreams. But New York City, my own backyard, now that's something to see, something to show your kids, even if you can't afford tickets to a Broadway show, just go to the city during the holiday season. It won't matter even if it's cold, you will walk around in wonder and forget about being cold, broke or sad, there's so much to see. The best sight is watching the children seeing the sights, there's the real beauty, there's the magic, there's the love, you can feel it in the air you can see it. Love. Magic.

Aunt Libby bought the little girls Mary Poppins T-shirts that say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Bella asked me how to say the word again on Sunday and it reminded me how I tried to say it after I saw the movie and being so impressed that my older brothers could say it. I would practice and practice until I could say it. I was about 6 when I saw the movie and when I walked out of that theater I was looking up in the clouds for Mary Poppins, I believed she was real, that magic was real. I even got a Mary Poppins doll, I remembered just now, as I'm writing, which probably didn't last very long in my house, but I'm so happy that my nieces experienced the magical feeling of Mary Poppins up close like that, even my oldest niece Irene. I know she watched her younger cousins' faces, I know she remembered being their age and feeling what they were feeling. And then they went to the American Girl doll store for dinner.

I didn't get to see Gracie and Irene this weekend, but I did see Ashley and Bella and nothing could wipe the smiles off their faces. Even when my sister Debbie and her family were leaving to head back home to New Hampshire, there were no tears which there always are, the kids don't like saying goodbye. But this time they all said goodbye so easily, so happy and full of love, magic, that they just didn't want or need anything else.

And me? Well, I had a weekend off of helping out with the kids for my brother. I got two good naps in!!! And one night sat in a hot tub, drinking wine in the moonlight with a special man in my life.

The weekend could not have ended more perfect. I attended late mass with Bella. We never go to the late mass. It's best to go in the morning or late Saturday afternoon as there is just so much sports during the weekends, which is why I help my brother out with his kids. But during the mass I whispered to Bella that I really was enjoying the mass because of the music and Bella agreed. The singers make you get goose bumps all over, they have the most beautiful voices, so pure and they give their gift to us every Sunday (for free).

The mass itself was also great. It's funny, not funny ha ha, but funny strange, weird. Sometimes I feel like the priest is reading my mind and answering my questions. I'm not super religious, no holy roller here, but I believe in God and though I've prayed for lots of things I've needed and wanted and didn't get, there have been too many times to tell you that I get an answer, not only in church, but from a family member or friend, from a stranger or an enemy, because of a situation or just something, but I get an answer. There's some changes coming in my life, not sure of what will be, where I'll be, what tomorrow will bring. I'm fine, I'm healthy, it's just life brings changes everyday, I just happen to have quite a few going on at one time. Funny, but that's exactly what the sermon was about on Sunday. I was where I was suppose to be. I am where I'm supposed to be. Whatever tomorrow will bring.

I used to go to church every Sunday when I attended Catholic school and after that it became just holidays, then every once in a while and then I stopped going. I take Bella for a number of different reasons but the main one is because I love her and though it's not so easy to get her out of the house and to church, once we are there she's getting something out of it, I can tell. It's also "our" time every Sunday and I know it is special for her now but will be even more so when she grows up and remembers this time.

So whatever change or changes are coming in my life I know one thing, I have love, so much love, and love really does equal magic.