Brockton Holiday Parade

The 501st was once again invited to march in Brockton’s annual Holiday Parade. Aside from a little wind, the weather was great. Judy and the kids took the ride with me to watch the parade while I marched in it. Luke and Mary had a great time seeing all the “behind the scenes” action, and the costumes. The Parade Committee was kind enough to donate $500.00 to the Make A Wish Fondation in our name!

Mary lovin' the power of Empires trusty E-11 Blaster.

Santa deployed Scout Troopers this year to take childrens wish lists, instead of elves.

Following behind the "boss man."

What do you get a Wookie for Christmas, when he already owns a comb?

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

What am I thankful for? My top 10 list, in no particular order:

1.) Our new baby, due in June – Interesting story: Luke and Mary were both born five days late. This baby, the due date is June 5th. My mom, who passed away this March from pancreatic cancer, was born June 10th… what a great way that would be to celebrate my mom’s birthday!

2.) It goes without saying, but of course my wonderful wife, and children.

3.) I still have a job in this disgusting economy.

4.) I have a roof over my head.

5.) We are all healthy… keep away Mr. Swine-Flu!

6.) I have Bing Crosby crooning out White Christmas as I type.

7.) It’s the most wonderful time of year.

8.) We are all going over my mother-in-laws for turkey today… Mmmmmmm turkey.

9.) We are going over my aunts for desert… Mmmmmmm desert.

10.) The memory that I will always have of hosting my mom’s last Thanksgiving dinner here on earth. She always loved to cook, and made every Thanksgiving a wonderful memory for her family. I’m glad that I got the opportunity to cook Thanksgiving dinner for her. I hope that someone in heaven is cooking for her this year. God knows that she needs a rest from it all!

 

Please Pray For My Mom

My mother passed away in March of this year. Yesterday would have been her 67 birthday, and today is her wedding anniversary. My mom was so devoted to the rosary, and I thought that a great gift to her would be for everyone who reads this to take some time to pray the rosary for her, if at all possible. It would be one of the greatest gifts she could ever receive.

If your not sure how to say the rosary, or just need a refresher, here is a helpful link.

Thanks!

 

Dance Photos

This year I am shooting photos for Cheryl’s School of Dance in Melrose. I just did the individual shots last Sunday. Friday the 29th I will be shooting the group photos at the rehearsal. It just so happens that Mary is taking dance this year at Cheryl’s, so here are her photos from Sunday. I was really surprised at how well she did!

 

Episode I: The Phantom Menace – 10 Years Later

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I remember seeing it opening day in Burlington, MA (it was the first showing of the day.) The very same day, I went to see it again in the evening.

Two of my favorite characters in the Star Wars universe premiered in The Phantom Menace, and unfortunately, both were killed off; Qui Gon Jinn & Darth Maul. It’s funny, I never thought that my 3 year old daughter would also have a love for a character like Darth Maul, but she does. Mary loves… no wait… she is “obsessed” with Darth Maul to the point that she has created her own stories about the character. In her world Darth Maul is a pretty nice guy. He has a wife, two kids, a mommy and a daddy. Mary is, however, very concerned about his temper, and believes that his anger stems from the fact that he has a red face. I guess it’s as good a reason as any. She also believes that if he cuddles with his daddy more, he will be a much nicer person. It’s really fun to see her imagination at work. I love listening to her stories about Darth Maul.

It’s really hard to believe that 10 years have past by so quickly. So, in order to celebrate the films 10th anniversary, we popped some pop corn, and watched The Phantom Menace. As all things Star Wars to me, I can never get tired of it. It just gets better with age.

 

Early Start

It was pretty amazing to have the entire family up at 6:30am this morning. We ended up getting a nice early start to the day. We went to the 7:30am Mass at Most Blessed Sacrament Parish in Wakefield, then after Church we went to Market Basket to do our weekly grocery shopping, then we went to the Gingerbread Construction Company for some yummy muffins, and got home around 9:30am. A special bonus for Judy and I was that the kids were perfect at Mass!

We then headed to “40 Steps” in Nahant (beach) to scope it out for a photoshoot that I have on Wednesday. It’s funny, there were all these fancy houses, and nice cars (orange Lamborgini,) but Nahant kind of feels a little… “not so wealthy,” I guess… for lack of a better term. Anyway, we found it with my trusty GPS. I got the longitude & latitude off of a website, programed it into the GPS, and it took me right to the entrance. Unfortunately there is zero parking anywhere around the site unless you know a local and can use their driveway. I’ll have to re-think this one.

After all that, we ate lunch, went to Home Depot, I put a couple of air conditioners in the windows (bedroom & living room,) fixed a couple of things in the house, and then we brought all of the summer yard furniture out while the kids played in the yard. It was in the mid to high 80’s today, (only last week we were in the high 30’s, low 40’s;) so once again, we seemed to have missed spring, and shot right into summer… ah, New England.

 

Star Wars At The Museum

Today Judy, the kids and myself took a trip to Worcester, MA to see “Star Wars Day” at the Higgins Armory Museum. A friend of mine, who volunteers at the museum, told me about the event.

Getting there was half the fun because I got to try out my new GPS navigation system. I was pretty impressed that it got us there flawlessly! I had heard many people rave about them, so I finally decided to get one myself. I figured that all the ink and paper I have used in the past to print out directions from Yahoo! Maps could have paid for several GPS systems. Anyway… upon arrival, we found Darth Vader himself greeting fans at the door accompanied by an imperial officer. Upstairs my friend Chris, was putting on a lightsaber demo with another volunteer. Although Mary knows Chris, she wasn’t having anything to do with him dressed up as a sith lord. It was pretty awesome, and the kids were very impressed! Many members from the 501st Legion were present. If you’re a Star Wars fan you know all about them, if not, they are a group of people who do a lot of charitable work, but dress up in Star Wars garb to do it.

The kids were a bit hesitant to get their pictures taken with many of the Star Wars characters, but we got a few very non-expressive pictures of them. All-in-all, it was a great time. This Star Wars fanatic probably enjoyed the event more than the rest of the family!

 

Yum! Ice Cream

Today I had a serious craving for some REAL ice cream… and who doesn’t love ice cream? Mary can hear the word 10 miles away, Judy and I are addicted to it, and Luke had his first ice cream today. Were did we go? Meletharbs of course. Home of our favorite ice cream and hot fudge. It’s pretty safe to say that Luke is an ice cream addict now as well. Between almost every lick he would say “yum, ice cream!”

 

Beatle Juice Comes To Melrose

I wouldn’t consider myself a huge Beatles fan, but being a musician, I am a lover of live music. Last night, at Memorial Hall, in Melrose, Massachusetts, Judy, myself, friends and family were all treated to Beatle Juice; a New England based Beatles cover band. There is just something about live music that takes any studio recordings that you hear day in and day out on a CD, or on the radio, and transforms it into something a bit more personal, with a little more heart. It rejuvenates your love, or interest in a particular band’s music, when it has become stale. I think I took away a better appreciation for the Beatles music after this performance.

My brother-in-law was kind enough to get us a table right in front of the stage… he’s “in” with the band. Judy and I got to dance for the first time since my cousins wedding back in February, and I got to have a couple of beers!

Three lead singers took turns during the four hour set. All were great! One of them sounded exactly like Paul McCartney. If you closed your eyes, you would have thought he was on stage. I, however, loved the energy and flare of Jimmy Rogers, who is also the singer of “Velvet Elvis.” He tore up the first act, and his performance was a very tough act for anyone to follow. I did bring my camera along and shot quite a few photos of the band performing. If you have never seen these guys live, you have to check them out, whether you’re a Beatles fan, or not. They put on a stellar show. Their performance helped benefit the Melrose K of C Food for the Needy Fundraiser.

 

Happy Easter

It’s been exactly three weeks, today, since I lost my mother to pancreatic cancer. Life has been pretty different lately. Holidays can be difficult when you have lost someone so special, and who had a profound effect molding your holiday expectations. My mom always worked so hard to make every holiday special for her family, and Easter was no different.

Mom spent many Easters uniting family and relatives for brunch at our house after Easter Mass. My mother would always work so hard to make it a very special day. When we were younger, my mother use to help us make our own Easter baskets. We would get an old shoe box, wrap it in construction paper, or tin foil, and then decorate them with assorted arts and crafts. We would always watch the Easter specials with her, and help decorate the eggs. She loved to see the excitement on our faces on Easter morning when we saw the eggs, and gifts that the Easter bunny left for us in our baskets. My mom loved to see her children happy, and she worked hard to achieve that.

This year we will visit mom at Holy Cross cemetery… very different from the years past. We all miss her so much.

I had a dream the other night; Judy, Mary, Luke, my dad, and I, were in Church on Easter. My mother was in her wheel chair. I was looking at her and said: “Mom, I know that you are not physically here, but I want you to know that I love you.” She looked at me and said: “I know, I love you too.” My mother always felt that God communicated, and helped those who have passed, to communicate with loved ones through dreams. Perhaps she just wanted to share Easter in this way with me.