Family Festivities

We don't yet have a computer in the new house so I'm a little behind on uploading my pictures and getting to some new posts because I still have to do photos at my parent's house on their computer. You'll never know how much it bugged me that it's taken me this long...Oh well, I'll be ordering the computer soon enough!

We started the festivities out on the 23rd with a party at a friend's house. I got to hold a baby...squeal!!

Next up was Christmas Eve. I wanted to get house cleaning out of the way so I spent two hours doing just that while my husband and son were out shopping with the rest of the last-minuters. We went to church service and then over to my parent's house for dinner and gifts.


Eating chestnuts


Me & my honey

My mom, opening up snuggly pink jammies

This was the first year that the kids had bought gifts from the "Secret Shoppe" at school and they were incredibly excited about giving. It was so sweet to see them pass out their wrapped presents for each of us, practically giddy with the excitement.


My dad, just about to be gifted with a "lizard" in a bottle of goo



We picked up The Girl on the way home, set out milk and gingerbread men for Santa and put them into bed. I told them to close their eyes and listen for Jingle Bells and I tell you, that was the quickest they've EVER fallen asleep! Seriously, can I try that every night??

They woke us the next day at a quarter to seven and we staved them off for another fifteen minutes before heading downstairs. Santa had left Leapfrogs for each of them, with some games to share and each child has a set of headphones (Santa must just know we didn't want to hear all that racket...smart guy!)

I'd asked for some new clothes from Old Navy and a pair of New Balance Toning Shoes (both of which Danny took me out personally to choose myself) as well as a Shark Steam Pocket Mop (I'm practical, if nothing else). When they'd got back from the store on Christmas Eve, I was in the shower and my son shouted, "Don't come out!" (suspicious...). Over lunch, Danny told me that the store had been sold out of the mop which wouldn't have been a surprise to me, I've seen the infomercial on quite a bit. But then later when I was tidying up The Boy's room he yelled up the stairs, "Whatever you do, DON'T look under my bed!" (again, suspicious!).

So of course, the mop was sitting under the tree on Christmas morning and Danny took it for a spin on the kitchen floor, so that was a treat in itself! He loved telling everyone later how he'd briefed The Boy in the car not to spill the beans about the mop. We'll he certainly didn't let the secret out, but he wasn't particularly subtle either!




All smiles on Christmas morning

My mother-in-law came over to watch the kids open the rest of their gifts and a good time was had by all. I cooked up a big breakfast and we all sat around the kitchen table to eat after the wrapping paper had been cleared up. The kids played upstairs with their new toys until it was time to leave for our Christmas Day stops.


The Girl with her Lalaloopsy in front of my uncle's tree

We headed out first to my side of the family and visit with my dad's brothers and sisters. The kids had a great time running around in the front yard, my dad held the baby, Danny ate a huge plate of food, and I got to chat with all my aunts, uncles and cousins!


Dad and the baby


My nephew

The time moved so quickly and we needed to move onto the next stop, Danny's aunt & uncle's house. A wonderful spread, Danny ate another huge plate of food, his uncle took the kids for a long walk and I got to chat with his aunt & my mother-in-law.

Afterwards, we all headed out to another aunt's house for a bit more feasting, lots more chatting, and some whiskey and poker until after midnight. By the time we flopped into bed at 1:30am, I was absolutely wiped out. Happy...stuffed...and wiped out!


Danny and cousin Michael (obviously this hand wasn't going well for him!)


Still recovering... wishing everyone a Happy New Year. See you in 2011!!

A Little Corner of Christmas

This is my little corner of Christmas, my buffet server decorated with a few fun decorations. I've longed for this little area, my own corner that I can Martha Stewart to my heart's delight! It's humble by many opinions, but it's just right and simple and sweet to me (though I'm looking forward to getting the clock on the wall right there in that empty space...)



I dust it every few days, remove the random bag of brown rice that my husband set there, make sure the birds are straight and not perched too precariously on the faux branches, put the gigantic Yellow Page book that my husband placed there away into a closet, polish the wood top with some Murphy's Orange Oil spray, center the pieces again that my husband pushed over with brown rice bag & Yellow Pages (sensing a sabotaging trend yet? He thinks it's funny that I'm so careful about this display).



He really just doesn't get it. I mean, yes, we did get the tree together and he bought us a tree skirt and a tree stand and helped me string the new lights. But not one of the ornaments on the tree is from him, they were all ornaments that I'd bought or was given as a child. My grandma always gave us ornaments when I was a kid so I have the flocked teddy bears riding in a wagon and the wooden Clara from The Nutcracker hanging on our tree. And my kids have always picked out their Hallmark ornaments every year from the store. I intend to give them their ornaments when they have homes and Christmas trees of their own... Or do I?



This collection of birds from Hallmark have been purchased over the past four years for my stepson. He has always had an affinity for birds and for a long time that was all he would draw or sketch. So we picked out the first bird ornament together. And each year since I've bought him the next bird in the series. This year, I put the bird ornaments on this pretty faux white tree on my buffet and dreamed of the day when the collection is complete and the entire tree is full of these gorgeous birds.



Last week my stepson came to the house and seeing the birds on the tree, asked if he could take them home to put on his tree.



Uh, gulp...what do you mean take my gorgeous birds off the tree and take them away?! Where I'll maybe never see them again, never get to hang them just so and admire them each time I walk past the table? I've grown attached to these little birds (kind of like I never bought them for him, oops!) and now I wasn't expecting to part with them any time soon.



I wonder if my husband's mom has ornaments on her tree that were his but that she wasn't able to part with? Or is this just a girl-thing, this attachment to the annual decorations, the memory of seeing that wooden Clara ornament, the flocked teddy bears, and brass baby carriage with my son's name etched on it...and the bird collection? If I held off my stepson long enough, year after year, would he stop asking for them? When he's in his 20s, will he even care anymore? Because I for one, will miss any ornament that stops making an appearance on my tree, from those little papercrafts with the snapshot of the kids from kindergarten to the precious handpicked ornaments that they've carefully chosen from the Hallmark shop (although perhaps I think I can part with the one that plays I Want a Hippopotomus for Christmas...the one my son plays about 8 times a day?!).



I did stave him off this time, asked if I could keep the birds this year since I'd found them a lovely home on the tree that sits on my buffet? He said yes (whew!).



I'm going to ask my husband about the ornaments of his youth and see if he has anything he'd like to add to the tree. Or perhaps, I should ask his mother first... what she's willing to part with?

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

There is a special feeling you get at those homespun kid's school programs.


The Kindergarteners dressed like barn animals in front of the manger


The Boy and The Girl


An ornament my son made for the school tree

You know what songs they will sing already because you know most of them by heart.


Singing and clapping along to Feliz Navidad


Our sweet first graders

And you know that they'll end with We Wish You a Merry Christmas.


The Girl and The Boy in front of the tree

Christmas Past

Christmas tends to creep up on me. Every year I have visions of fanciful decorations throughout the house, 10 different types of Christmas cookies I'll bake, handmade gifts for everyone, and a Christmas Eve feast that everyone will remember.


My baby snowflake

Instead I generally end up with just the decorated tree and the rest of the house is spiritless, perhaps one single batch of cookies, no handmade gifts for anyone and a Christmas Eve feast that feels wildly rushed.


Reindeer jammies

This year, I'll admit that I did have high hopes for myself. I have my own home with Daniel now (instead of living with my parents) so I knew I wanted to have some holiday decorations instead of just the tree (which my parents don't ever buy until about 3 days before Christmas anyway). I wanted to bake a few batches of cookies from the 12 Days of Cookies off Food Network. I wanted to decorate and personalize sugar cookies for The Boy's classmates for Christmas since I didn't get to make them for his birthday. And I definitely wanted to sew something, it's been awhile!


On his 5th birthday at Disneyland

Unfortunately my job is crazy-wild-busy during the holidays so working late sucks up some of that time. My husband also works full time and goes to school twice a week so when he gets home at 9pm and has to wake up at 4am, we generally just chat a bit and then go to sleep early. I'm a night owl so this has taken some adjusting for sure!

Two weeks ago, we bought and decorated our Christmas tree. There is one section of lights that goes out randomly and we don't have very many ornaments but it's still lovely to see every day. I haven't taken pictures of anything in the house yet, but I'll do that this weekend and share next week.

I did create a Christmas display on my kitchen buffet that I adore. I haven't taken a picture of it yet but I used two of my vintage cake stands, a large hurricane glass that I filled with Target bought striped & polka dot glass balls in classic red and lime green. I have a mini white faux tree that I hung a collection of Hallmark bird ornaments from. I love the mix of vintage and new and my favorite things all together in one place. I realized that I don't need to have the entire house dolled up, having this lovely mix in one spot is all the decoration I needed.


Me & my boy, 2008

I have made two different batches of cookies so far and I do intend to continue with the baking this weekend. So far I have made these Lemon Ricotta Glazed cookies and these Chocolate Gooey Butter cookies. Of course you know that last one is from Paula Deen, it has the word BUTTER in the title! Both super-duper easy to make and yummy! I never did get to make those sugar cookies for The Boy's class...maybe for Valentine's Day?

And I am keeping my handmade to a minimum though I would still like to make some aprons, placemats, napkins and a buffet runner at some point! I have a load of my favorite fabrics that I've been stockpiling just for this reason. The kids are getting handmade stockings made out of Michael Miller's Lava Lamp print that is now out of print. Paired with lime green and red polka dots, I did a simple initial on the front of each. They are looking really darling...and very close to done! I'll show you soon.

As for that Christmas Eve feast, I won't be hosting that in our apartment this year for sure! Danny talked me out of it, even though we do now have a dining table & chairs.

We'll be going over to my mom & dad's for dinner. I'll bring a few dishes, she'll make a few dishes, my sister in law will bring something. We'll sit around, eat and open gifts from each other. And with the extra time that I'm not cooking the feast, that will allow me some time to finish those stockings! And maybe start on the apron...

5 Random Thoughts for Tuesday

1. Today I was going to get the stitches taken out of my finger today. I got myself all psyched up to do it and then my mom called to remind me that she & my dad are going to a church function tonight and need me to pick up my son & nephew at a certain time after work so they can get to dinner on time. Oh well, the psyched-up feeling will have to last until tomorrow!




2. This picture of my husband with the kids was taken the day we went to get our Christmas tree, the day of "the incident" that resulted in me having to get stitches!
They look so cute all bundled up. It was chilly that day and then it was 90 degrees this weekend! It's expected to rain by the end of the week, you just don't know what to expect from the weather lately.




3. I posted this picture of our dining room set last week, snagged off the company's website. My sweet sister-in-law laughed when she came over to our house for The Boy's birthday party and saw the table in person. She'd not been to our new place and thought that this photo was of our house! Nope, sorry, no fake ficus plants, no perfect lighting, no trio of lovely windows and definitely no lush and green view like that!

4. The Tale of the Two Cakes - If you were early enough to our wedding that you helped set up the tables, you would have seen this cake. This (minus the flower on top) is what was delivered...much different than the lush, handpiped floral design that I'd been led to believe I'd be getting when I placed my cake order! Instead we were given a sugar photocopy of my invitation stuck on two sides and a sloppy frosting job (with a fingerprint on the back!)



To say I was crushed was an understatement. I was brutally disappointed. The cake was pretty much the one big splurge for us. Everything else (besides the luncheon food) was being created by us from the floral arrangements to the table settings and all done on a budget. But the cake...We'd talked about the design at length. She'd even requested paint color samples and a copy of the invitation so she could match the colors that she was going to handpipe onto the draping.

Fortunately Danny's aunt is a florist and was able to salvage the look with clever hydrangea clusters and it came out so pretty.



I did however write a rather nasty little email to the bakery about two weeks ago (well, it was nasty for me...business-like but got my point across that I was displeased). I've not heard a response from them.

5. I haven't taken a gosh darned picture of my new place yet! I need to work on that...

Our Special Person

A week before The Boy's 7th birthday, we received a note in his backpack from his teacher explaining that he'd been chosen as "Special Person" for the week. This entailed him making a poster of photos of the people in his life, his classmates drawing portaits of him, and a small party in the classroom. The party fell on his actual birthday.

I emailed the teacher to let her know that day was his birthday and that I'd been planning on coming in with cupcakes anyway. She was so surprised to hear that as apparantly "Special Person" is just a random draw and no students had ever had this fall on their actual birthday before.

The Boy and I baked cupcakes the night before and assembled the treat bags. He chose lollipops, a package of jacks and happy face stickers, an eraser and pencil to put in each bag. I'd intended to make & decorate sugar cookies but with this finger injury, I'm just not up to rolling out dough and squeezing a piping bag yet!

I met Grandma, Grandpa and my nephew at the school for the party. The kids were WOUND UP!! The teacher explained that with the holidays fast approaching, the students' excitement is building and their focus is dwindling!


A list of his favorite things

Mrs. Gegax had the children sing one of the Christmas songs they are practicing for their show. Then she had my son talk about the poster we'd made over the weekend. Each child had something sweet to say to him that ranged from "You're the best friend I could ever have" to "You have the prettiest brown eyes". So sweet!!!


The "Love Walk" gauntlet

Finally they did a "Love Walk" and he lined up at the end of the double row of students and each of the kids whispered something kind into his ear about how special he is to them. The look on his face as he leaned over to hear each whisper was just precious.

Afterwards we had Happy Face carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. The design idea was all his and it was just perfect (and thankfully, easy for me to execute with my bandaged finger!).


Happy Face cupcakes

Grandma, the boys and I went to see Tangled in 3-D and then later back to the house for dinner. I'd made the lasagna the night before so I just popped it into the oven. The crock pot was full of The Boy's requested food, chicken legs. Actually, he'd requested frog legs, but I wasn't going there!


Opening gifts

He received a wonderful assortment of gifts, from a telescope from his aunt and uncle, a new board game from Grandma & Grandpa, Bionicles from his brother, a Lego Star Wars book & Wii game from me and his favorite...his very own fishing pole from Danny.


Opening gifts


Happy Face cake

They went out fishing on Saturday and he cast out himself and caught two good sized fish! I think he had a pretty special birthday week.


Getting ready...


Blowing out the candles with Danny

Wild Wild Week - Hot Links

The day that the kitchen table got scratched, Danny & I had prepared a great big Sunday breakfast. My friend had mentioned how she baked her bacon in the oven and how crisp & unmessy it came out so we did that too...yum!! Then Danny pulled out a big bag of sausage links from Costco and put those on the baking pan and put them in the oven to bake too. I made some scrambled eggs and waffles on the new waffle iron and we sat down to eat. The sausage wasn't done cooking so we just left it in the oven and Danny said he'd eat it for breakfast during the week.

After eating and getting dressed, we realized that we were actually early enough to make it for the first church service, so we hurried to the car and drove the 20 minutes to church.

Why was the parking lot so full? Oh, because we weren't actually 10 minutes early, we were 20 minutes late...service started at 9am, not 9:30. Oops...We got the kids into their classes and found a seat towards the back (we are usually right in the front row).

The Worship (singing) part of the service was just ending and the Pastor made his way up. There was a video showing on the screen about keeping the "spirit" in Christmas and showed how all good intentions can go awry when you try and do everything during the holidays. In one scene, it showed a pan of sugar cookies burnt to a crisp.

"HONEY!", Danny whispered sharply to me. "I forgot to take out the sausage".

We sat for about half a minute just staring ahead in silence.

"Did you turn off the oven?", I finally asked.

"No, it was on about 400. I turned it up to cook the sausage faster".

Another half minute pause and then he said, "I'll be back!" and bolted out of his chair.

About a half-hour later, he was back. Burnt to a crisp, but not a disaster. The smoke alarm wasn't going off or anything. But he laughed about sausages which looked like linked charcoal dog poop. *whew* At least it wasn't me this time!

Wild Wild Week - The Rookie Mistake

Last week it was my first day toting two kids to and from school for the day. I woke them at 5:45am. The Boy is accustomed to waking that early and rolled out of bed easily and went into the bathroom to get dressed. The Girl isn't quite so used to being awakened before the sun is up and she squinted at me, blurry-eyed. Without a word she scooted off the bed and shuffled to the window where she pulled over the blinds to look out into the dark. She looked back at me and her expression was priceless, a sort of, "Woman?! Why are we up this danged early?!"

But the morning went smoothly enough. The kids got dressed, went downstairs for cereal (which I served to them at the kitchen counter because we'd not received our table yet). We still didn't have our gas turned on, so we couldn't use the stove or oven, but I'd prepared a vegetable beef stew in the crock pot the night before. All the stew meat, veggies and potatoes were cut and sitting in the pot so I just placed it on the cooker, added the seasoning packet & water, turned it on and we left for the day.

The Boy went to his school (10 mins in the opposite direction) and then I dropped The Girl at her school, which is on my way (sort of, with a detour) to work. I was even early clocking in! This was working out great...I was good at this! I told my office mate at lunchtime that I couldn't wait to get home to that yummy stew for dinner.

5:30pm - Picked up The Girl from school, picked up The Boy from Grandma & Grandpa's house and headed back to the house. Danny was at school for the evening and wouldn't be home until after 9pm but I told him that the stew would be ready for his dinner.

I unlocked the front door, expecting the strong smell of the simmering beef stew and veggies to hit me when I walked in and was met with...nothing. I dropped my bags and went to the kitchen. The beef chunks, potatoes & veggies were there just like I'd left them that morning. Exactly like I'd left them...completely raw and uncooked. The cooker was set to low and the plug was just as I left it too, laying out of the socket, on the counter.

I took a few turkey corn dogs out of the freezer and popped them into the toaster oven. Add a bag of frozen veggies in the microwave and voila, dinner was served!

Wild Wild Week - The Pinky

I'm not going to gross anyone out with any gory details of what happened next in our Wild Wild Week but let me start off by saying I'm not a fan of knives. Never have been terribly comfortable with using very large knives, so I generally use a much smaller knife than is required for the job.

Saturday evening we were planning our own mini-Thanksgiving dinner. We'd just finished cooking the turkey and it was on the stove cooling. The sweet potatoes were baking in the oven and I was sauteing onions, carrots, and celery in broth on the stovetop. I had a box of Stove Top stuffing but Danny had thought we could add some extra veggies and dried bread to the mix to round it out a little more.

Cutting dried bread proved to be a bad idea for me and resulted in an accident that caused me to pass out on the kitchen floor (with Danny climbing over me to clean the blood off the tile before the kids ran inside), with us driving to the Emergency Room (both kids in tow because neither of the grandparents answered their phones), 2.5 hours in the ER, and culminated with me getting 6 stitches in the top of my left pinky finger (did I evertell you that I'm left handed?!).

I've mentioned before that my husband is a no-nonsense sort-of guy. Very "keep it simple". I've talked to him before about how lousy he is in comforting when someone gets hurt. The kids might stub their toe and he'll grab it roughly and rub it, slap them playfully on the backside and tell them to "walk it off". It's not that I don't think he doesn't care but maybe he's just uncomfortable seeing people in pain, or maybe he just doesn't know how to act in a comforting way, I really don't know?

In any case, the entire time my finger was bleeding, he held my hand over the sink rinsing it off and saying, "It's okay honey, it's not that bad, you're okay!" He was trying to stay positive and was his usual calm self. When I came to on the kitchen floor, he leaned over me and said, "Honey, I think we'd better go to the emergency room". That's when I knew...it was bad. If he thought it was something that couldn't be fixed by "rubbing a little mud into it", then it was pretty bad, indeed. I could see it in his face...worry.

Monday night we changed he changed the gauze, applied ointment gently and carefully wrapped and rewrapped the bandage until it was just right. It was a different side of him, one that was able to show how gentle and comforting he could be.

You know, you don't really realize how much you use your pinky finger! Taking heavy pans out of the oven is impossible. Writing and typing have been a challenge, I've had to shift and compensate with my other fingers. Of course the entire hand is achy from holding that one finger straight inside the bulky bandage.

Pinky fingers, they're not just for lifting when you sip out of a teacup, I guess...

Wild Wild Week - The Boomerang Table

It's been a wild one. Yes, the first full week and a half since we've all been living under the same roof. For one, we had (quite a few) unexpected things pop up related to our new home. Second, the kids have been much better behaved than I thought they would be (oh, sheesh, I said that outloud...knock wood, knock wood!!). But all in all, married life so far has been pretty sweet, despite all the near disasters.

Example #1
The Boomerang Table:

Friday -Dec 3rd, we were expecting the furniture shop to deliver our table, chairs and buffet set. As I came home from work, the furniture was coming...out the front door? Apparantly only one table out of the set wasn't dinged up or scratched. Danny got on the phone to the supervisor, explained the problem (a nick in the front of the buffet & wood grain pieces going in two different directions and a snagged piece in the center of the table). They said they'd send over another set the next day.

Saturday -Dec 4th, waiting at home for new set to arrive. Gotta love delivery windows that say noon to 6pm or 2pm to midnight?! Finally comes at 4pm and if you can believe it...they bring us the exact same set! They also brought us only 1 more chair because they had mistakenly wrote down that they had dropped off 3 the first time but had really only left us one. Danny called the supervisor again, explained it AGAIN, and they said they'd put a new set on the truck that would be bringing the rest of our chairs.

We waited...and waited...and at 9:15pm the truck drove up again...carrying (you won't believe this!) the SAME damaged set!!!!! Well, Danny lost it, he got on the phone with the supervisor again, talked about how unprofessional this was, etc. They told us they would refund our $89 delivery charge and deliver a new set the next day. We did end up with an extra chair out of it because they'd originally messed up on how many they'll left and brought 3 chairs the third trip.


Sunday - Dec 5th, waiting at home...again! I can't believe we spent the entire weekend at home (without our cable tv hooked up yet either) to get these pieces delivered. We receive a call in the late afternoon from the supervisor. Our table is out of stock until Friday the 10th! The buffet was available though and would be coming to our house that day.

They did deliver a new buffet but I couldn't understand why they strung us along for 3DAYS, when the only table in stock was the damaged one we kept refusing! Why didn't they just say that on the first day?!


Week of Dec 6th, eating at the countertop in the kitchen, setting the kids up at the buffet, and on the one little side table in the living room. Grrr...I want our kitchen table!


Friday - Dec 10th, table delivered. It's definitely brand new, they took it out of the box & assembled it in front of us. I decorate the buffet with a little Christmas tree and a vintage cake stand and some pretty polka dotted red and green ornaments. It's soooo Martha!



Our table set, but with 5 chairs and no bench.


Saturday - Dec 11th, breakfast, lunch and dinner at our new table...love it!! It's bar height and such a pretty dark wood. I'm already plotting the placemats & napkins I'm going to sew up.


Sunday - Dec 12th, it's breakfast time and Daddy discovers on the table that The Girl has scratched two deep marks with the backside of her fork. *sigh*

The Wedding that Was - Part V

I've been off setting up house, working like crazy during our holiday response at my full time job, being "mom-taxi" to TWO kids everyday and unfortunately I've been computer-less at the new home.

Here is my (very late) final chapter in The Wedding that Was.

This is a bit of a shout out to everyone who helped out!

To my parents, who helped in paying for this lovely wedding dress, who spent the night before creating all the gorgeous flower arrangements and then toting all the flowers and accessories to the venue and who are always there to jump in and babysit their grandson when needed!

My parents


To my new mother-in-law, who didn't flinch when she found out how old I was (the week before the wedding! I can't believe that my dear husband didn't break it earlier that I'm nine years older than her son). For my sweet new Nana-in-law, who came over to help escort me in the rain over to the ceremony and held up my dress on one side so it wouldn't get soaked. And for my lovely new sister-in-law, who sang us a beautiful song for our first dance. Despite experiencing some microphone/speaker feedback, she trooped right though the song like the pro that she is.


My new in-laws


Aly, our singing sensation, serenading us during our dance


For my cousin and Matron of Honor, Marianne, my official dresser for the day and lacer-up of that corset, the woman who carried the other half of my dress, bestest bachelorette party thrower and owner of the inflatable man (who is now deflated and STILL in the trunk of my car!). Thank you so much for all your help, that day and everytime I've ever needed to call on you!


Best man, Michael and Matron of Honor, Marianne. We all look silly because the rain was starting to come down pretty hard at that point!

For my good friend Brenda, with Tamra in tow, who showed up early to help set up the flower arrangements, light candles, and ultimately made the call to nix the garden ceremony and told the coordinator that they'd need to start setting up inside. She was there when I couldn't be and made the decision she just knew I'd make (we're wired alike in that way!)


B and Me


For my stepson (in blue), who escorted our guest book around the room and made sure everyone had a chance to sign it. I just knew he was the right man for the job. He was happy to be paid in decaf coffee, apparantly he drank quite a few cups at the reception!

And for my new stepdaughter who (I have heard) did a nice job with the flower petal tossing. My nephew is also in this photo, but you may notice my son is absent. Unfortunately each time the photographers came in for a shot, he ran in the opposite direction!




Ha!! Caught him in this one!
He did a noble job of holding the rings and stood wonderfully straight next to the best man during the entire ceremony. The reception was another thing all together, where he ditched his coat and ran around with the other kids until his head was a sweaty mess and he was guzzling lemonade by the pitcher.




For my brother, who took quite a few of the photos I've featured, including all of the shots from the ceremony. And for Vivi (my cousin's wife), who took the rest of the photos. I can't ever thank you two enough for all of these irreplaceable memories!


Me & Eric


Vivi, caught in action

Thanks to everyone for making the start of our new life together something so fantastic... from my "board mamas" for purchasing the wedding cake, to everyone who gave us gifts and cards that have really made our new house together a home and for everyone who continues to send us all the positive energy as we work together in being a family.