Multi Generational

When my grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Italy, one of the many traditions they brought with them was The Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner on Christmas Eve. It was never popular with us grandkids, but there was always something we would eat and as each of us got older we appreciated the tradition and tweaked it a bit. We modernized and upgraded it, but always 7 different kinds of seafood. My mother's family had 5 girls and 1 boy. As each of their families grew larger and their parents passed away, they didn't all get together, they celebrated individually. Well, now there are 2 sisters and the uncle (and his wife) who remain. For the past 5 years, one of the cousins from my generation started having the "dinner" on the Sunday before Christmas and inviting all of us to her house. That was tonight. We often don't get to see each other, all together, more than a couple of times a year and so this is a big event. Tonight was that night. For me, it supersedes Christmas in many ways. The love, the familiarity, the camaraderie with cousins that I would see on a daily basis growing up.