Life has finally slowed down enough for me to finally get back to blogging. It’s been a while and I found the longer I didn’t blog the harder it was to start again…hopefully it’s like riding a bike and will come back easily.
We had a very rushed Christmas this year. The week before, 3 of us came down with the stomach virus that was going around. Oh what joy that brought. I have not felt that sick in years and I was down for a good 4 days and didn’t really eat anything I wanted for another week or so after that. Fortunately Maureen didn’t get it and the kids bounced back in 24 hours. Everyone I have talked with who got it had the same experience, the kids bounced back quickly and the adults took a good 4 days or so.
Since Maureen was working, our ability to tag team on Christmas tasks was limited this year so we did a little scrambling at the end but came in just under the wire. The added stress this year was we were leaving on Dec. 26 to go to Ft. Wayne, IN for my nephew’s wedding.
Although it sounds good, I will say there are probably easier times throughout the year to get married. That said, we had a great time. A lot of family friends drove in from Rochester, NY for the wedding. It was wonderful seeing all of them and since we were all staying at the same hotel and all of the activities (other than the ceremony) were at the hotel, we had a lot of time to visit and catch up. My sister did an amazing job to make it tremendously easy for those that traveled in. Everyone was invited to the rehearsal dinner, she had cars picking people up at the airport and taking people to the church. She made it all so easy and I know it was a lot of work on her part.
Marisa and Matthew were in the wedding and did a fabulous job. Marisa was the flower girl and Matthew was the ring bearer. Due to problems in Chicago, we were late getting in so the kids missed the rehearsal but that didn’t seem to faze them a bit because they did the ceremony perfectly. Marisa was beautiful and looked like she was 16 and I had a lot of friends coming up to comment. I was proud and a little nervous. She’s still my “little” girl and this is the first time she looked so grown-up! Matthew, at the request of the Bride, wore a Purdue hat down the aisle. He looked very cute and was a little nervous but had fun doing it.

The reception was a fantastic party. Since my nephew is in the Army, they did the crossed sabres when they were introduced and it was a wonderful entrance for the happy couple. Since the bride had graduated only a week before and my nephew graduated only 18 mos. ago, there were a lot of their college friends there which meant the dance floor was rarely empty. Although I will say it was the girls that kept it full, not the boys and the girls regularly had to go pull them onto the dance floor. It almost seemed like a middle school dance where, again, it’s the girls having to ask the boys. I’m not sure what was going on there.
Matthew ended up stealing the show at the reception. He was out dancing the whole night and doing moves I had never seen before. He was having so much fun and everyone loved it. The college girls were asking him to dance, the crowd would circle him as he did the robot or some break dancing, the adults watched in amazement as this 7 year old put on a show. Maureen and I were as surprised as everyone else. Like most 7 year olds, he can be shy in large groups, not this time though. My nephew and his wife thought it was great and kept encouraging him.
We were all tired the next day and had a leisurely breakfast and lunch before heading to the airport for the trip home. My parents and Aunt came with us and we were able to get them on an earlier flight. Our flight left on time from both Ft. Wayne and Chicago and we got home at 9pm. It was a long weekend but we have a lot of great memories, pictures and videos, got to catch up with friends and, most importantly, see my nephew start the next chapter of his life.