Mario Callens and Father Craig Timmerman at St. Leo Catholic Church for First Holy Communion!

Today was Mario’s First Holy Communion Day.  It was a beautiful mass and it made me cry.  It was very touching and especially made me emotional since I knew this was our last child to have this sacrament.  Our  last one of nine.  I can’t believe how quickly the years go by.  It seemed odd sitting up in the front of our church because for years we have always been up in the choir.  The girls and Clayton sang up in the balcony and sounded angelic from up front.  We had a lovely celebration at our farm afterwards although the weather was miserably cold and damp, so very windy, that the pizza had to be cooked indoors!  Our family must be growing because the house was packed.

Mario and Father Craig Timmerman who is always a teaching and preaching, good example to everyone around. He’s a patient, loving and Good Shepherd!!

Our entire family plus, Nonna, Uncle Gino and my sister Anet. The more the merrier:)

Fred, Peter and my Uncle Gino tried their best to heat the stove but it was the wind that kept us from cooking out-of-doors.

We had a nice family gathering afterwards and it seemed as though our large house was about to burst at the seams.  We made 22 pizza’s and that was way too many.  I ended up freezing 6 and Anet took 1 over to Clayty’s place, so we know we don’t need that many pizza’s when the entire family and some good friends show up.  Fred’s home-made wine was exceptional and one of the best batches ever in my opinion.

Rhonda and Charlie Callens, godparents with Mario. Better known as “Uncle Tuna”.

It was a mass effort to finish all of the pizza’s. The one that most of the guests seemed to like the best is the sauceless, Focaccia pizza.

Mario with his home-made Chocolate Crazy Cake that Maggie made. Frenchy made chocolate cream cheese icing. Nonna informed us that it had to be white for First Communion……..no problem. We topped it with white coconut. It was divine tasting.

Aunts, cousins, sisters chilling out on the front porch……..brrrrrrrrrrrrr.

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On a another note……  The girls have been working very hard to get the barn cleaned up and decorated for the dance which is coming up on Friday night, the 31st of May.  It will be rain or shine…….or snow.  If you are coming bring jackets and blankets etc.  Don’t let the weather stop you from enjoying a fun evening!  The building is huge.

Decorating the barn for the dance.

Unloading the bales for seating.

Late night practice. We have to wait for babies to sleep and men to get off of work!

That’s all for today.  Time is precious since Nonna will be leaving next week.  Now to finish painting and wall-papering the outhouse:) ha