Mom's Birthday, Trees and the Two Mimis

Saturday we drove down to Fairfield, CT to celebrate Mom's birthday.  Evan drove us in his car since our car is in California and we didn't want to take the van.  I have taken this trip hundreds of times, but rarely as a passenger.  Being a passenger afforded me the opportunity to view the sights as they passed by on the highway.  The thing the struck me the most was the "Wall of  Green Trees" that each highway road in New England seems to me surrounded by.  It's like each highway was cut though a forest.

"Walls of Trees"on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut

 When traveling the highways in California, you get to see much more of the surrounding countryside because the hills and mountains are everywhere and there are no trees blocking your view.  The highways climb up the mountains or hills affording you a fantastic view of the area.  You often can  see the highway up in the distance, but it may take you another 10 minutes to get there.  In New England, you are lucky if you can see even 1 or 2 miles ahead.

This is about as far as you can see.  More "Walls of Trees"

 When passing through towns on the highway, all you see is the exit signs, nothing of the town is visible from the road.  It was enjoyable ride, seeing all the "green" as opposed to "brown" that is Southern California.

We got to Mom and Dad's early and had a nice quiet visit before everyone else arrived.  Leah and Josh can down from Ludlow, MA and surprised Mom because we didn't mention that they were coming.   It was nice to see them again since we have been in California since January. A little later on, Sue, Troy, Ali, Brook, Fran and Ed arrived in time for dinner.

L to R: Elly, Leah, Ali, Brook

Dinner was great, everyone made something. Sue made appetizers and a salad, Fran made eggplant parmesan and Elly made mac & cheese.  I never did like eggplant in my youth, but Fran's eggplant parmesan was delicous!  She said my taste buds probably changed.

For dessert, Francine made white chocolate cookies and this outrageous cake called  "OUR LADY OF (Drown your) SORROWS CAKE WITH HEAVENLY FROSTING" from a book that she was reading:  Rococo by Andriana Trigiani.  I won't post the recipe here, but someone else did on their blog. You can check it out here.  After looking at the ingredients, I had thought that it would be extremely sweet, but it wasn't.  It was actually very good and we all took some home.  Thanks Fran!

After dinner, Mom opened her presents.

Mom looking surprised as she opens her presents

Mom surprised again with Sue helping

Fran also surprised me and Sue with an enlarged photo of us siblings taken (we think) in 1958 B.F. (that's Before Francine).  It shows the two Mimis, Mom, me, Sue & John. This would make Mom about 32 years old, I would be 6, Sue would be 4 and John would be 10.

We called our grandmothers Mimi because, as children, we had a hard time saying the french "Ma Mere".  So they just became mimi.  We had two mimis, our great grandmother we called "little mimi" because she was shorter than our grandmother: "big mimi". The photo doesn't bear this out though.

L to R: Little Mimi, Big Mimi, Mom; me, Sue & John

The day was very enjoyable and it was nice to see everyone again!  Oh yeah, I almost forgot to say that it was also my and Elly's 39th wedding anniversary on Saturday.  Happy Anniversary to us!