We both come from traditional families. Tony’s father and grandparents immigrated from Spain, and Mary’s grandparents immigrated from Greece. We both love our heritage but have also come to enjoy all the diverse traditions that have been brought into our family when our siblings and cousins married into other traditional or non traditional families.
Mary’s Extended Family
Growing up, we both lived in NJ, where our aunts, uncles and cousins all lived within a few miles, if not closer. Thanksgiving and Christmas were both a struggle for us when we got married as both sides of the family had "ownership" over those holidays, and it was always a little tricky being in two places at one time. We always managed to have 2 Thanksgiving dinners, at least 4 desserts as we went from relative house to relative house on the holidays. You can't say we weren't in high demand! Now living out here in Arizona, the winter holidays are a little quieter, a lot less filling, and we get to try some new foods (ssshh don't tell) and make some new traditions of our own. We do miss the big crowd and the running around, but not to worry, parts of the big crowd are looking at making plans to come out to the warmer weather for holidays! Uh oh.
One of our favorite parts of our family are our wonderful nieces and nephews that we shower with affection whenever we are together. Board games, riding bikes, watching movies, building forts, cheering them on in their endeavors; those are things that give us our greatest enjoyment. We can only imagine how incredible it would be if we had a child of our own.
Family vacations, and we mean family; uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews, family friends, their families, the whole crowd, have been tradition since we were children and they are continued today. We, along with our siblings and their families, travel to the east coast quite a few times throughout the summer to go on these vacations, as we wouldn't miss them for the world. There is such a large group of children as the immediate family and extended families continue to grow, and it is truly wonderful to see them, laughing and playing together and enjoying the same great experiences we had as kids on our summer vacations at the lake and at the shore.
We are also really excited about starting a few new traditions of our own, as there is so much to see out here in the west.
Our House and Neighborhood
Our Home
We live in a brand new home in a gated community. Our home was designed with comfort in mind and is fairly large with plenty of bedrooms and a large loft area that is empty with the exception of a TV, and chair where Tony battles his Play Station. We are hoping that this area can become a kids' room that will be their playroom and will then evolve into their personal space as they grow older. We also have a play pool in the backyard that is fenced in. Tony designed the pool so that it had a large shallow area for our nephew who is quite young to feel secure playing in; it has slots for umbrellas to protect the kids from the Arizona sun. There is also a deeper area for the "big kids" to play basketball and volley ball in.
Our Backyard and Pool
Our neighborhood has several parks and playgrounds to enjoy. The playgrounds are huge, well lit and state of the art (nothing like we had growing up), and we enjoy "playing" there with our nephew that lives two blocks from us. We are lucky that we have some great families living on our block and in our neighborhood. They all have kids, of all ages, and some are still in the process of having kids.
Halloween is great here in Arizona (we are from the east so we never experienced this before), but all the kids come out at night and walk from house to house trick or treating. Each home on the block decorated (some going all out) for Halloween and we all set our selves up with tables and chairs outside to greet the trick or treaters. It was a great way to meet our neighbors.
There is also a large town park complete with fishing ponds, aquatic park, tennis courts, ramadas, playgrounds and library. Our town hosts great events for the kids, Easter egg hunts, a pretty spectacular Christmas show, complete with hot air balloons and fireworks, fairs, and the list can go on and on. We are very happy here and love that the town builds a sense of community, by hosting all these events.
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