Family

September 27th, 2008, I’ve had this date circled on my calendar for more than three months. Each time I passed the refrigerator, Ok, each time I closed the refrigerator door after sneaking a goodie, I would look to see if this date was still circled. Why was I looking forward to September 27th? Did I have a big race scheduled? Did I have front row seats to the Red Sox vs. Yankees? Was the new model of Nike trail shoes being introduced? The answer was ‘no’ to all of the above. On September 27, 2008, my wife’s cousin was marrying his fiancé. Now you may be saying to yourself, “Has Anthony gone soft?” Well let me tell you, one; I haven’t gone soft, and two, read on for the explanation.

Now this wedding wasn’t going to be your ordinary, cookie-cutter wedding. This was going to be a wedding with two Italian families involved. My wife’s cousin is half Italian (the good half) and his fiancé is 100% Italian. Well she is technically Sicilian, but I don’t want to start a fight here. Her last name starts with a consonant, is loaded with virtually every vowel, and of course, her last name ends with a vowel. My wife laughs at me, but I knew it was going to be an incredible wedding the second I opened the invitation. My wife’s cousin’s wife’s last name is VERY Italian, actually Sicilian, and would a Sicilian throw a wedding for his only daughter, anything short of the wedding scene in the best movie of all time, The Godfather?

Enough background let me get on with the story. It was an evening wedding on the North Shore of Massachusetts. OK, insert North Shore/Big Hair/IROC/Italian joke here. For those of you not familiar with Massachusetts, the North Shore is not only home to one of the largest enclaves of 1st and 2nd generation Italian families, but some of the finest Italian food, cement contractors, and tuxedo rental shops that rent light blue and burnt rust ruffled tuxedos.

The wedding started promptly at 5:30pm. It was a beautiful ceremony, the groom looked handsome and his bride was beautiful. Other than a few jokes by the priest about threesomes and the groom looking like he wanted to unwrap the bride like a BB gun on Christmas morning, it was pretty uneventful. No time to explain the jokes, but I am sure the higher ups at the church will be keeping a closer tab on the wine. We were out the door and at the reception hall at 7:00pm. Now when I say reception hall, please do not envision your typical function hall at the VFW or American Legion Hall. I should not give the name of the function facility, but everything from the food, to the facility, to the service was amazing, so why not give a great place a plug. The reception location was Spinelli’s. The Irish folk out there must be scratching their heads right about now trying to figure out where Lynnfield is. “When did they rename Lynn?” hahaha

My wife and I drove to the wedding with two other family couples and my father-in-law. The gentlemen dropped the woman off at the front door and we proceeded to park. It was pouring rain that night, and we did not want the women to get too wet. Yea right, we wanted the women to go inside so we could walk around to the other side of the building were the function facility had a retail bakery. My brother-in-law and I bought 12 cannoli and a pound of amaretti (almond macaroon paste) cookies for the ride home. More about that later.

While the wedding party was busy smiling for pictures in the marble foyer, we met up with our wives in the Capri Room where guests were treated the most unbelievable Italian antipasto spread this side Palermo, Sicily. Somehow three plate full of cheeses, olives, roasted peppers, grilled eggplant, and focaccia disappeared. Unfortunately for my wife, I met a runner. That’s right, if you have read my earlier posts, you should be shouting out loud, “She lost you for at least an hour”. Now I have met this runner before, I just didn’t know he was a runner. He is engaged to my wife’s other cousin. He just started running earlier this year and already has a half marathon scheduled. He lives in Winthrop, Massachusetts and has been training with a few Merrimack Valley Striders. Great, training with MVS studs, I give him another two weeks and he’ll be faster than me. Hahaha.

Cocktail hour soon ended and the guests were ushered into the Tuscany Room. I had a smile from ear to ear and my wife kept asking how much I had to drink. I tried to explain to her that I was not drunk, I haven’t had a drink all night, why chance ruining the night ahead. I tried to explain that I was excited becasue I had just finish reading the menu and thought this could quite possibly be the best Italian Wedding Extravaganza ever. You guessed it; I got ‘The Look’. Here was the menu

Primo Course- Italian Escarole Wedding Soup
Primo (2) Course- Gemelli pasta in marinara sauce
Antipasto Course- . Caesar (get it, haha) Salad served in an edible tortilla bowl.
Secondo Course- Filet Mignon & Baked Stuffed shrimp served with contorni (veggies on the side)
Dolce Course- Wedding Cake, assorted Italian pastries
A bottle of Montepulciano and Chardonnay were also placed at each table.

I will not go into detail about how amazing each course was, please check my blog on The Food Network for the details. In short, the food was so good that if I thought it would’ve been appropriate, I would’ve licked each plate clean.

I would like to share some highlights:
There were amazing, heartfelt speeches by the best man (brother of the groom and all around great guy), the maid of honor (who’s speech had the alert single guys frothing), and the brother of the bride who delivered a wonderful speech about how when he sized up his future brother in-law, he immediately realized he was a good guy and was OK with his sister dating him. The older brother was just doing his Italian duty.
Having my family (technically my wife’s family, but I love them so much I call them ‘my family’) dancing between the two Primo courses. This party was starting early.
Now don’t take this the wrong way, but I must have kissed over 100 people that evening. Guys too. The Irish folk out there must really be scratching their heads now. By now you should realize I’m Italian. I’m proud to be Italian. We hug, we kiss, we laugh, and we show our emotions. When we see family members, we pull them in and give a big hug and kiss on the cheek to let them know we are happy to see, and be with them.
Realizing that when a DJ plays the Lou Monte’s, “Lazy Mary” at an Italian Wedding, he better turn up the volume if people want to hear the ‘artist’s words’. Everyone in the room, or at least the Italians, belted out the entire song.
Talking running with my brother in-law Anthony. Two runners at this wedding, awesome. Even the Irish folk know you get thrown out of the Italian Club if you don’t name one of your sons Anthony. Anthony and his wife will be running the BAA Half Marathon again this year. Now let me explain who Anthony is. Anthony is a great brother in-law, a jovial guy, and a legend at the dinner table. Anthony is quite familiar with receiving ‘The Look’ from his wife as well, is it the name? He not only holds the record for eating double cheeseburgers at now defunct Tastee greasy spoon in Cambridge, Massachusetts, (He woofed down seven double cheeseburgers at 2:00am one evening, the last one with bacon), he is famous for his “any leftovers in the fridge will make a great omelette’. He competes in the Clydesdale division. He is not fat, he is just big. When I say big, I mean solid. He played high school and college football. We're still not sure if he ‘played’ college football, but we know he practiced and has a photo of himself in uniform that until recently was proudly displayed in his downstairs bathroom, which is referred to as “Tony’s Throne”. I still have the coffee mug with his college football photo he gave me one Christmas. He is a 200+ lb eating, drinking, laughing, talking, and running machine. If you looked at him for the first time, you would never image he has two half marathons with very respectable times under his belt. He is the only person I know that trained for a half marathon and gained weight. He is type of guy you hope sits next to you on a long flight. You will still be laughing as you wait for your bags at the luggage carousel.

I will wrap this up soon, but I must share one last story from this wonderful evening. Every wedding I attend, I always make sure to seek out the bride and groom’s parents, introduce myself and thank them for inviting me to the wedding.. When I informed my Italian brother-in laws’ my about my intention to meet and thank the bride’s mother and father, on cue, they immediately broke into The Godfather script when Luca Brasi was practicing his speech before meeting Don Corleone at his daughter’s wedding. It went something like this, “Hey Anthony, you need to tell Mr. _ _ _ _ _ _ that you are honored and grateful that he has invited you to the wedding of his daughter and that you hope their first child be a masculine child”. After the wine came flying out of my nose and the entire table stopped laughing, I made my way across the room and introduced myself to the bride’s parents. Here is how it went:

Me: “Excuse me Mr.& Mrs._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, my name is Anthony Mavilia, I am married to your son in-law’s cousin. I want to thank you for inviting me and my wife to the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony, your daughter looks beautiful, and it has been wonderful to share this special night with your family.

Bride’s father: “Ah, Anthony, it is nice to meet you as well, thank you for sharing in this special day, I’m glad you are having such a nice time”. The bride’s father then said, “You are family now, come here”. He pulled me in and gave me a hug and kiss. I talked with him, his wife, and their son for a few moments and right before I left, his son leaned over and asked me, “Are you going to wish that his first grandson be a masculine child?” I could not contain my laughter. The three of them pulled me in for another hug and kiss and I was on my way back to my table to share my story.

What an amazing evening. Two great families, a beautiful ceremony, an amazing reception, and great conversation with new and old friends. And did I mention that there was running talk involved? Yeah!!!!!!!!!

Back to the cannoli, amaretti, and the long ride home. I was so stuffed when I left the reception that I was only able to eat two cannoli on the 1 ½ hour ride home. Sunday morning was going to come awfully early. Sunday mornings mean a 8:00am Group Run with the Squannacook River Runners. Although I was only able to force down two cannoli on the way home, the next morning before the group run, I woke up swinging. In honor of my brother in-law Anthony, I have two words for you “CANNOLI OMLETTE”.