From Louis

…………………….I presented this coat during my Tepper Fur exhibit showing. It was in forest green velvet with real gold bullion embroidery and Russian Sable trim. The minute the buyer from Neiman Marcus walked through the doors and saw the coat he informed us that he wanted it exclusively for the Neiman’s special Christmas catalog……………..The center photo is from the catalog…..I loved the photo, and thought the model was perfect……..so CHIC………….The coat was $20,000.00………….Hello Santa!!!!!!

…………………………First let me say….if you still take real photos or print photos out…PUT THE DATES ON THE BACK! I am so tired of guessing how old everyone is and what year it was? At the extreme left is my cousin Grace. Her mother and my father were brother and sister. We were, and still are very close even though she has lived in Mass her whole life. We’re holding hands…too cute! My family used to visit her family in Cape Cod where they had a house. They lived right across the street from the beach in Onset…..Maybe Grace has a better idea how old we were??  The middle picture is of me in the front [I think my father cut my hair…LOL]. The middle row, from left to right, my cousin Joey. His mother is my mother’s sister Angie, in the middle is my cousin Sal, his father was my Mom’s brother Vito….next is my cousin Mauro. His mother is my Mom’s sister Millie. In the back row from the left is my brother John, and next to him my cousin Pete. His mother is my Mom’s oldest sister Marie. They are all approx. the same age……and were great buddies!…This is a very special picture, because I can’t remember all of us being together at my house like this again…..They really look like the “Bowery Boys”, ot the “East Side Kids”…..Remember them?!……In the picture at the right I have a BIG GRIN…..I got a pool table and a chemistry set from Santa….I was soooo happy….except by then my brothers told me there was no such thing as Santa…..my world came crumbling down!!!! My mother was so mad!!! My father and brother Mauro used to go and buy the tree every year. They ALWAYS bought a tree that was too big and tall for the house and always had to cut from the bottom and the TOP which used to drive my mother crazy!!!! Every year she would say ‘you ruined the shape of the tree”, and every year she would tell them not tom buy such a big tree, but that request fell on deaf ears. In the end the trees were always beautiful, and magical. I hated to take them down……They were also in charge of putting the lights on the tree. That’s when my mother and I took over decorating the tree and putting the old fashioned metal tinsel on the tree….strand by strand. My brother John was always missing in action. He was at his girlfriends house around the corner…..My father would set up a bar in the dining room for family and friends that would drop in, and my mother would have trays of home made cookies…..I can still smell them!!!

……………………….It is with great sadness that I write this post. My darling Lily is no longer with me, and is now with Jac. I know Jac will show her all the love she needs. I realize this may come as a surprise to many of you, but I have been dealing with Lily’s health issues for a long time. Lily was the sweetest little girl, so well behaved and loving. She could look at you with her eyes and you would melt. Even though she was a year older than Samantha….Lily followed her everywhere. She even waited for Sam to pee before she would find the same spot and go. They had the same fathers, but different mothers. They were similar in so many ways, but also they had very different personalities, as sisters do….Lily, as her name implies, was a delicate little flower. Her little sister , Samantha, was and is a hellion….just as I like her!…..Severe allergies always  plagued Lily, and she would get terrible rashes on her belly and legs from grass that had to be treated with ointments….There was always something wrong with Lily….The pictures above were after a bath when she and Sammy had a run in with a groundhog…..She loved to be pampered…..Recently I had what I call the “Corn Cobb Incident”. She ate a piece of corn cob that she somehow found in the garden, and it got stuck in her intestine causing everything to back up. We didn’t know what was wrong with her. She kept losing weight and throwing up this vile liquid. Dr. Paul came to the house, and took her and operated on her finding the cobb. She recovered beautifully, and was back to her old self. This all happened towards the end of Sept when I got home from Africa. Everything was fine……She was very thin so my job was to fatten her up….which I happily did with many small meals during the day………..After a few weeks I noticed her belly was getting quite large, and even thought of cutting back on her food…..When she went to the groomer….the groomer told me she was a little concerned, because she felt Lily was bloated. I realized that what I thought was weight gain wasn’t that at all. I had Dr. Paul come over to look at her. He had told me that when he had opened her he found a large cyst that he drained. He also said he couldn’t remove it because it was embedded in her liver and her intestines, and it was inoperable. It now seemed the cyst had gotten big again, and with a sonogram discovered there were more cysts. He wanted to test them for cancer, but I said no. Jac and I already had two of our babies suffer from cancer and treatments, and I promised Jac I would never put another one through that for the inevitable end that would surely come after much suffering. We decided that we would do all we could with medications. I even gave her shots of tarantula venom in hopes it would shrink the cysts……nothing worked and Lily stopped eating and drinking…….She was sleeping all day and slowly wasting away. I would find Sammy sleeping with Lily, and sometimes just sitting near her watching her sleep. I called Dr. Paul and told him of Lily’s condition, and he said it was time. I made an appointment for him to come to the house when Lou was here…….I held Lily as he put her to sleep…..soon she was gone. I made sure Sam was out of the room, and in the gathering room sitting on the window seat watching the seagulls and the sun setting.  I went and sat with Sammy as Dr Dr. Paul took Lily away wrapped in a blanket. I already miss her sweet little presence so much….Our pets are so dear to us, but they have short lives, and the end comes all too soon…..She will be cremated, and on December 12th, the 4th year of Jac’s passing, I will throw Lily’s ashes into the sea so they will be together for eternity.

……………………….For dinner I made myself a grilled chicken breast, and I made another batch of wild rice as a side dish. While I was in a local family run supermarket I picked up some homemade cranberry sauce for the chicken…….I hated it!!!  All of the ingredients sounded good and they were fresh, but it also said “spices”. I don’t know what spices they added, but I didn’t like the smell or taste. I googled cranberry sauce receipts and a slew of them came up…..all variations of the same thing…..It seemed very simple to make! The next day I went to the store and bought fresh cranberries and oranges. I went home and boiled the water, sugar, and fresh orange juice. When it came to a boil I added the cranberries, the orange peel, a pinch of salt, a cinnamon stick and a small amount of  fresh lemon juice from my lemon tree [I have two left to be picked]. I turned down the heat to a simmer all the while stirring. Then I covered it and stirred occasionally….and viola delicious cranberry sauce! I let it cool and thicken in the frig, and last night I had it with another chicken breast I had made and the delicious rice. “Where there’s a will there’s a way”. I don’t know why anyone would buy the canned cranberry sauce that’s like jello and tasteless when this is so easy to make…..I also added a slash of Cointreau!!……Next I’m going to try cranberry/orange scones!!

……………………My grandfather Dell’Olio owned a four family house in Brooklyn with a large backyard and a finished basement. He had apple trees and fig trees. I don’t know what kind of apple trees they were, but I have never found an apple that tastes as good! My grandparents lived in the front apartment on the second floor and we lived in the back apartment. It had two bedrooms, a large kitchen with a huge window, a dining area, a good sized living room and one bathroom. My Aunt Mary, my father’s sister, lived in the front apartment on the first floor with her husband, my Uncle Vito. They had two daughters Phyllis, the oldest and Grace. I never met my Uncle Vito because he died in WW11 before I was born…..My Aunt Mary eventually remarried and had two more daughters, Angela and Barbara…….My oldest brother Mauro and my brother John played all the time with the girls. They were thick as thieves…..the four Musketeers. The photo at the lower right shows my mother and brothers and my Aunt Mary with my two cousins. The other pictures are of my brother Mauro’s Communion. My brother John had the best smile. He had the best dimples. It would be a few years before I made my appearance. Between me and my brother John my mother had a baby girl. She was full term but was still born. She had red hair like my mother, and they named her Grace. Grace is my grandmothers name and there would have been four girls named Grace in the family if my sister had lived……..My cousin Phyllis died at a young age from breast cancer. She left two young boys behind, Rickie and Jimmy who are now married with families of their own. My brother John passed away ta short time ago from Lymphoma. It was sudden. I know in my head that dying is part of the circle of life………but it doesn’t make it any easier……..They were beautiful children, and grew up to be beautiful adults.