Family Style in New Jersey

On Saturday TD and I headed out to bucolic New Jersey, where everything is now green and lush. First stop, my brother Eric's house where we met up with my parents. Eric and his wife Tracy own the prettiest house surrounded by verdant gardens. There it was peaceful and quiet.

We had a delicious lunch

and went to a lacrosse game which my niece Jane was playing in. You remember Jane. Here we are a couple of weeks ago on the roof garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She likes art and she likes sports: well-rounded!

We walked two blocks under giant leafy trees to the lacrosse playing field and sat on the bleachers in the shade.

Jane scored a goal! Here she is, bottom row on the left. It was fun to see her in action.

Then it was on to the main event of the day at the home of my cousin Kathleen. My aunt Ellen, my mother's sister, age 73, just graduated with her B.A.! Her three daughters, my cousins, had a party. That's a good reason to celebrate, don't you think? It was a big party with a white tent in the backyard and a lot of family and friends. I took advantage of this garden party to wear my new Liberty tie. The white tent was accented with purple flowers and the setting was picturesque.

Do you think my cousins were influenced by my post on purple flowers?

It turns out that purple is my aunt's favorite color. In fact she was wearing a silk jacket the color of these petunias.

Little pots were arranged with a mix of flowers. My favorite detail was the little purple confetti shaped like graduation caps.

Even the desserts sparkled with purple.




Outside, my cousins Kathleen, Linda and Mary Ellen dressed in black and white gave a three-part toast to their mother. Chic, no? My grandmother would have been proud.

At age 65, Ellen decided to go back to college to pursue her Bachelor's degree. She enrolled at Montclair State College and worked hard at it for six years. A knee ailment made it difficult to walk around the campus plus the academics were challenging. She was always the oldest person in the room, including the professor. Ellen was tempted to give up but she persevered, and in a great example of determination at any age, she ended up graduating cum laude in Women's Studies. At her party she quoted Eleanor Roosevelt: "You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
Big congrats to my aunt Ellen.