Tomorrow is the annual family tradition--Christmas Ravioli Day

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For generations the Italian side of my family has been making homemade spinach-meat-ricotta ravioli for holiday meals. I remember even as a young child taking my turn at the hand-cranked pasta machine. The process became so much easier after the invention of the KitchenAid pasta roller set. The men do the pasta sheets and the women make the ravioli by hand. It is always a fun day with good food, drinks, and lots of laughs. I am not participating tomorrow. My dad was always the center of Ravioli Day. His personality was always larger than life but somehow the day always seemed to center around him. He passed away just 3 months ago and I can't imagine having to spend hours making ravioli without him there. I just can't. I told my mother that I wasn't going a couple of days ago. She said the fact that Dad was such a huge part of the day might be a reason to go. I was surprised that she didn't flip out on me honestly. Today my sister asked me if I was going and I told her no. She just said "okay" and didn't comment. Again I was surprised. So I will be here tomorrow instead of at my sister's. My downstairs neighbor talked about maybe getting together to make pierogi. We did that together once before and agreed that we need more practice. She even offered to make ravioli but I'd rather work on the pierogi technique. I have 40 years of experience in making ravioli.