Author: Dackel Princess

Each year in the neighboring town, my next door neighbor’s church has a festival of food, fun and music. Aglaia is Greek and the festival has always been a favorite of ours because we both love Greek food and appreciate their heritage.

This year I offered Aglaia another worker for her food table, and in the end two of us worked for her. Emily came with me and we put her to work too! On Saturday we went down to the church and worked serving goodies. Here is a picture of me at my station on the dessert table, with Aglaia’s youngest daughter, Elena.

Emily and I were were in charge of the lemon squares, fig bars and apple turnovers. People would walk down the line filling up their take away box with treats.

Then they got into another line for lunch. Their were lamb shanks, pastichio, stuffed grape leaves, greek salads and more.

I love that people from the local nearby towns come and spend part of their day at the festival. I saw so many familiar faces and everyone was having fun, at the same time the money made from the festival will go into their outreach programs.

As the afternoon progressed, the children came out in traditional costumes and danced for the crowd. They were very good and I loved their costumes!

At the end of the day I was exhausted, and still had to run home make Fritz’s birthday cake, potato salad for his party today and tidy up the house. I finally sat down with Hubby at 8 o’clock and watched a documentary on the Transcontinental Railroad, before falling asleep!

Today is my sister’s birthday. What can you say about someone who has been such an important part of your life?

She was there in the beginning. I simply cannot remember a day when she wasn’t there for me.

As I grew she became even more important. Playing Barbie Dolls with me, fixing me snacks or telling me stories while we washed and dried the dishes.

We’ve shared our lives, enjoyed the good times together and held each other together through the bad.

Still, here we are, approaching middle age and not a day goes by that I don’t thank God for her love, her loyalty and her friendship.

Happy Birthday Mel!!!

My dear friend and neighbor had a big family party today. She is the type of person who is so loving and giving of her self that she tends to adopt people along the way, so Hubby and I as well as several other “non family” members were invited to the party. We all consider ourselves extended family.
We had wonderful Greek dishes of lamb shish kababs, spanakopita, stuffed grape leaves, tsatziki, and these delicious philo dough triangles stuffed with feta cheese! It was mouth watering good!!!

I can’t begin to tell you how much fun this was. The party started at noon and we left at about 7:30. Mostly we left the dachsies at home, but Fritz is so good at a party that he stayed all throughout the day.

Here I am with my neighbor Aglaia. I am so lucky that she lives next door!


Here’s Fritz with Hubby and I at the party.

Here is the whole gang enjoying the day.

We all caught up with stories from the last year or so. There were two worth sharing. One, because it is truly incredible and the other because it is just short of a miracle.

One of the kids (age 16) went on safari with his family in Kenya. During a break at one of the preserves that they visited he and his older brother were walking along when they were confronted by a group of baboons. Now, baboons are not nice. They attacked. The two boys fought back and finally were able to run for it, when S. fell. He got up quickly and continued to run, but when he fell he broke his hand. This poor kid had to fly all the way back to New Jersey to get hand surgery to correct the spiral fracture in his hand. It’s looking better, but just imagine the pain! Luckily, there shouldn’t be any permanent damage, just three pins in his hand to hold it in place.

Now here is the miracle. Two years ago some mutual friends adopted a little boy from China. He was a special needs child, as he was born with only one hand, but his adoptive parents didn’t care and loved him with all their hearts. Shortly after he arrived he began having seizures, along with a few strokes, and things became very grim. They predicted he would not be much more than a vegetable. Well his new parents brought him to Boston and found a doctor who operated on his brain, they refused to give up. Today he is a happy, healthy child!

Here he is with his Mommy and sister!

So the day was filled with goodness and happiness and I am content. There are days that are just plain good and uplifting and this was one of them!