Day 18 A special gift

This is a photo of a gift my team gave to me a couple years ago. We were invited to a birthday party for Brian and Jeremy a couple years ago at the Zuniga's house. At that time I was really becoming close with the extended Mostacciuolo family (Diaz's, Lavey's Uemura's and Zuniga's) and so these gatherings were important to me and I was happy to be included. Hockey had brought us together and now we were really building something special. Anyway, At this party, it became time for the (what I thought) birthday part with the cake and singing, etc. and Joe Zuniga got everyone's attention and announced the real reason we were all there. It turns out that the party was in my honor! He made a real nice speech about how the family appreciated the time spent coaching the kids and caring about all of them. He then presented me with this helmet in the picture below. All of the players had signed it with their number next to their signature. It was one of the greatest gifts I had ever received. But it got better. Joe then told me that I was welcomed into the family. It brought a tear to my eye and I did not know what to say, so I basically said thank you and that I was thrilled and honored to be thought of so highly by everyone.

            f/4.5; ISO-125; 1/3 sec exposure; 34mm focal length