We are a World Cup Family

I started to notice a trend over the last few weeks. A lot of things in my life have happened around World Cup time. Really. We got married 12 years ago on a very hot June day. During the picture taking at the park, my cousins were listening to the Italy game. I don't know who they were playing, but we did pose for a picture with all of my cousins and the Italian flag (and we all had to say "Forza Azzurri!" instead of "Cheese!"). Italy won that day.



We spent our honeymoon in Montreal, one street away from the famous Ste Catharine's Street. Every night during that week, cars drove up and down Ste Catharine blaring their horns. The only difference was the colour of the flag flying.

Flash ahead a few years now. In 2006, Italy was in the finals of World Cup. Hubby and I were planning to go over to my parents' house to watch the game with my brother (our parents were away) on Sunday. I was very pregnant at the time, but not due for a few more weeks. All day Saturday, I was complaining of Braxton-Hicks contractions. Hubby looked at me as I again winced from the uncomfortable feeling and looked at his watch. "You're getting those every five minutes, you know." Yep, I was in the beginning stages of labour. The game was on Sunday, and I was in the hospital for most of that day. Hubby called my brother to let him know we'd be missing the game. Italy won and the next morning, we had a beautiful second daughter.



Now that I think of it, our first daughter was born in a World Cup year as well. She was born before World Cup started that year and I was honestly too busy and too tired to care, much like any other first time mom.

This World Cup has been a little boring for me mostly because I really haven't had time to follow the games. Of course, it doesn't help that Italy was knocked out in the first round. The very first time I knew anything about World Cup, we were visiting our grandparents in a little city called Guelph. Italy had won, and Dad bought my brother and I Italian flags. We were thrilled to be walking up and down the sidewalk waving our flags. I still remember that this lady came up to my brother who was just a little guy at the time and asked him why he was waving an Italian flag when he was Canadian. My brother looked at her like she had two heads. Of course he was Canadian, but he was Italian too!