Every August, my whole family on my mom’s side comes together to make tomato sauce. It is a tradition that my mother’s family has had since before I was born. When I was younger we used to go to my mom’s Aunt Frances’s house to jar tomato sauce for the year. After my Aunt Frances moved to Florida, my family moved Sauce Day to my house. Sauce day is like a holiday and I love having another day of the year that I can look forward to and see my family. This tradition has shaped me in so many ways. I see the determination of all my relatives making the sauce and it shows me what is most important in my life, family. Family is such an important thing in my life and will always be. My grandpa immigrated from Italy so it is so amazing seeing his American dream come true and live through my family. He had to face the challenges of moving to a new country when he was a little kid. I admire all the challenges he has overcome and it has really made an impact on my life. I hope in the future I can do Sauce day with my children and make it as special as my family did for me. My whole family has influenced the way I think, act, and work based on their actions and how they see Sauce day. 

  Sauce day is one of the few days that the entire family is together. I love getting to see my cousins because we always have a great time together. In my family I am the youngest of the older cousins and the oldest of the younger cousins. I love having so many cousins because there is always so one to hang out with. During the day I mostly hang out with Grace and we catch up on all the new things that are happening in our lives. When I was little I never really did anything, now that I am older I help out more. The week before sauce day is very stressful because we have to get all of the tomatoes, basil, pots, and the jars in order. On Sauce day we put hours of hard work to make amazing and fresh sauce for the year. 

To make sauce my mom buys about eight hundred pounds of tomatoes. My dad sets up a tent in our backyard and I help him put tables and get all of the materials we need. On the big day, my grandma comes over around 6:30 AM to begin. The first thing we do is wash all of the tomatoes. Then, all of the tomatoes get boiled in huge pots and then put through a machine that grinds the tomatoes. I am not going to lie, I usually sleep through this part of the process. Next,  they are grinded, the tomatoes get put back in the huge pots to boil with the basil my cousins and I had to clean. After, the sauce has to be cooked for a while in a huge pot. My whole backyard smells like fresh tomato sauce that you can smell from miles away. 

Next, we have to sanitize and heat the mason jars that we will put the sauce in. Everyone in the family brings jars to Sauce Day, but we always wind up needing more. My sister and I usually have to go to the store to buy the lids and jars. Once the sauce is ready to be jarred, everyone has to help. We have an assembly line to fill the jars, tighten the lids, and store the jars. This assembly line would go on for hours until every jar was full. The jars are stored in  my garage with a whole bunch of blankets to keep them warm. This helps to seal the jars and prevents them from cracking. I can't go into my garage for like a few weeks. 

The best part of the day is the big dinner after where we cook with the sauce we just made. We have pasta, meatballs, sausage, and braciole all in our delicious sauce. My grandma makes these amazing tricolor cookies. Sitting around the table laughing, listening to stories, and eating is the best part because we are all together. Even though it is called sauce day, the true meaning is just being there as a family and spending time with one another. That is what Sauce day is truly about, it did not matter if we made three cases of sauce or five hundred. I know that even when I get older I will make sauce with my kids and grandkids. My sister and I were talking about doing it together and I thought that was a great idea. It is a very special tradition to me and I will make sure that this tradition goes on for a long time.