Taking One for the Team

So I'm pretty sure this goes for ALL mothers, but the Italian Mamma might have it a little bit harder than any other mother. I say this because of the RICH heritage they have to live up to.

I'm talking about our role in the family. I've written on this a few times before, but I was reminded of it YET AGAIN this Easter. We have to live up to the precedents that our mothers and grandmothers before us have set. We have to stay loving in times of anger and compassionate in times of serious frustration - you know, times like EASTER was for me this year.

This year, I took one for the team.

After taking four little ones to Easter Midnight Mass, my husband and I were tired to say the least. The LAST thing we wanted to do was cook up an entire Easter meal.

Yet what did I do?

• I gave up on sleeping.
• I cooked, cooked, and cooked some more.
• I slaved over a sauce that ended up being too thin (Note to self: A special occasion is NOT a good time to try a new brand of canned tomatoes)
• I burned one whole batch of braciole. (...had to make another one WITHOUT ham, as I had used it all on the first *burned* batch)
• I slaved over two homemade Easter pies (pizza gaina) only to serve them to guests and find that the dough was severely undercooked. aaaaaahhhhh

Sound pretty much like a disaster, huh? For our first Easter away from family, (we moved out of state last August) it was kind of a nightmare! Good thing my family missed it!

So after all my efforts, I pretty much finished at a miserable loss. But I can look at this one of two ways:

1.) I failed miserably, Easter was a disaster, I ruined any chance of Family Tradition, and no one ate good (bad food=bad moods).

OR

2.) I learned valuable lessons (like sticking to brands I know, and NOT using store bought pie crust for the legendary family recipe of Easter Pie. That is like blasphemy to our family traditions. Wow, am I really posting it here? This is surely for the benefit of the readers, right?)

Also, my kids are young enough (and my husband is patient enough) that this won't really affect their memory of Easter dinner at this point. I.e., I still have time to make up for it in future years.

It's all about how you look at it. I've got to stay positive, right? It takes a real woman to admit such shortcomings...I just keep telling myself that.

So really the disaster of a meal that was Easter means nothing in the grand scheme of things. After all, we are all happy and healthy, and rejoicing in the true spirit of the season.

And hey - Lent is over so who can really complain? Time for a Buona Festa!!!!!