A Direct Ticket to Heaven

Or maybe she said an express ticket.  Regardless of the wording a dear family friend…. I mean maybe my aunt…no that’s not it… aunt in law… aunt by marriage.  With big Irish families it’s sometimes hard to know who is who.  Regardless, she is a lovely lady who has know me since I was a babe  playing in the very same back yard that my two babes played in this afternoon.

She has watched me as I have navigated through this journey into motherhood.  As I said she is twice removed so not in on the everyday life and sees us only a handful of times a year.  Of course she always asks how Katy is and tells me how great she looks…(even though personally I think Miss Katy is looking a little pale, and I wonder if something is brewing, but then again when am I not wondering that)  She tells me how Patrick is my mini me.  We chat we talk small talk.
Today though, she took it a step past our usually chit chat and told me that she was amazed by my strength and my ability to smile and enjoy everything in spite of all that I am up against. Her comment took me by surprise.  I do have an interesting and complex situation and I do my best to face it gracefully.   The reason it surprised me is what little I really know about this pseudo aunt I know that she has faced her share of heart ache.  Lost her husband has physical limitations things that  I think I could never handle.  Yet, she always has a smile and kind words for me.   She went as far to tell me that I had a fast pass to heaven. 
Why do I have a fast pass to heaven?! Is it for loving this sweet blue eyed Irish Princess?

Because loving her is easy… it’s the fear of not having her here to love that is unbearable at times.  That is the reason that I find it hard to get out of bed some mornings. or fall asleep some nights, or find myself with tears streaming down my face as I braid her hair.
I don’t know what the reason is or if there is such a thing as a fast pass… but I do know that I am doing a good enough job keeping it together the best I can to give these two miracles the best life I can.

She also told me to thank god for Mike… she gets what a wonderful and awesome man he is.  Not only as their daddy, but as my husband.  She recognizes that he may very well be the glue that is keeping us together.

I think he is the one getting the fast pass to heaven and hopefully I  will be able to slide in on his coat tails.

The love he has for the three of us is immeasurable and the strength he gives me daily is noticeable to those around us.
Look who finally let us get him a hair cut…




Peace Out

The Christmas that almost wasn’t…

WAS one of our best Christmas’ to date.  Only tied with the Christmas of 1999 the Christmas Mike & I got engaged, and 2007 the year Christmas came 5 days early with the birth of our baby girl.
Christmas eve is all about the build up… the new Christmas jammies… the writing  a note to Santa leaving cookies and milk for the big guy and carrots for Rudolph.  Daddy reads ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas from the same book my dad read to me and my siblings when we were little. It’s all about the traditions.

I know that Christmas is not only about the gifts. However for a family with two little ones Santa has a lot to do with it. There are very few things as wonderful to see then the sparkle in you babes eyes when they see that Santa came and all the fun pretty packages under the tree for the, Thankfully with the help of a lot of elves, Santa was able to ROCK this Christmas.


For Mike and I the best part of this Christmas was both our babies coming down the stairs to find presents under our tree and not in a room at Children’s Hospital.  One Christmas spent at Children’s was enough for us.  We both knew it was a very real possibility, and we would have made the best of it.  It was nice not to have to.
Instead this is what we were greeted with as Katy & Patrick entered the living room…

Then they both went straight for the bikes…

I won’t bore you with the 300 pictures I took over the 3 hours that it took to open presents… but I will say it was awesome!! AWESOME!



Now the question is where the heck are we going to put all this?!

A Night With The Rockettes

I was so excited when our family was invited to see The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular.  We were invited by Children’s Hospital and The Boston Celtics Shamrock Fund.


I knew it would be a fun night for our little dancer.  Especially since after she saw the Rockettes perform in the Thanksgiving Day Parade she told us she wanted to be a dancer.
We met up with another amazing heart family, The Kaiser Family.  They just so happened to be sitting in the same box as us which made for a fun time for the kids and gave Shannon & I a chance to chat.  Sometimes it is so nice to talk to someone who gets it.

Katy & Bridget got along so well.  Katy later told me her favorite part of the night was playing with her friend.

Patrick was memorized the entire time…