When I was growing up, we always celebrated special occasions with food, and sometimes we made occasions special by adding food. For me, the best celebrations always included ice cream. And I’ve always loved the idea that with a little creativity, you can turn an ordinary day into something memorable. Some of my best memories from both being a kid and as an adult were those “found” occasions, where you might not have expected the day to be anything more than just ordinary, and then somehow we stole a few moments away and made them something we wouldn’t soon forget.

When I look back on my childhood, one of my favorite memories with my mom was when it was in the middle of winter and super cold (I grew up in upstate NY, remember), we’d drive down to this place in Red Hook for ice cream. They were the only place open year-round that was easy to get to, and we’d blast the heat in the car, sing along to summery music, and pretend it was hot out while we ate our sundaes. We didn’t do this for any special occasion, none of us have winter birthdays or anything, it was just something we did to turn ordinary into extraordinary, and it was for sure one of the highlights of the winter.

When I was a little older, my dad, a paramedic, transferred to Kingston and introduced us to this great ice cream place near his station. (side note: if you want to know where the good food is, the really good food, not the fancy food or the trendy food, ask a first responder.) We immediately fell in love with their ice cream cakes and not only were they a staple at our “real” celebrations, we sometimes made up an occasion just to get a cake. Most of us are Yankees fans and one year we had a cake for Derek Jeter’s birthday. We even sang “happy birthday” to Derek and my sister Nicole, the biggest Jeter fan in the household, blew out the candles. That is a true story and I’d be surprised if my mom doesn’t have a picture of the cake.

Or how about the time we were at my Aunt Jean’s house, celebrating someone’s birthday, and my dad and Uncle Phil were sitting on a homemade bench and fell through it? That was a good one. The memory, not the bench. We had just finished serving up the slices of cake and through it they went with a crash. I don’t think either one of them lost their ice cream cake though!

Speaking of my Aunt Jean, the picture at the top of this post is me, sitting on a cement cow, outside of that ice cream stand, back about 13 years ago. I had seen her a week or so before she passed away, and when we were visiting I told her how when we go there I always think it would be fun to sit on one of the cows but I’m an adult so I feel silly sitting on a cow (usually there are kids climbing on them) and I just sit at one of the benches. She told me it’s silly not to sit on the cow if that’s what I want to do and next time I go, I need to sit on the cow. It wasn’t until after she passed that I made it down there, but a couple of weeks later, in her memory, I went and sat on that cow.

I can sit here and think of so many memorable times in my life, punctuated by delicious food, and specifically delicious ice cream. In fact, I’m pretty sure every dinner we have done as Elevated Gatherings has included ice cream as a part of the dessert. I don’t think I even realized it until now. I just think it really ties the meal together, the way the Dude’s rug tied the room together. And a way for me to make sure I include a piece of what has brought me so much joy into your events that I’m sure also bring you joy.

These memories are one of the reasons I’m so happy to be an owner of this cool and fun business. Sure, you can hire us for a special occasion, like someone’s birthday or your company’s annual holiday party, and we love doing those for you. But you can turn any occasion into a special one with the right food and the right people, so I hope you never feel limited by the lack of an occasion. Plus, with a little Googling, you can find any holiday anywhere. As I’m typing this, it is National Catfish Day, National Strawberry Parfait Day, Global Beatles Day, and World Vitiligo Day, to name a few. My point is, there’s always a reason to celebrate. And we’ll be here, with the ice cream, when you do!