We Went There In January

This has been a doozy of a month.  I just looked at my January calender, and shook my head, wondering how we fit all that stuff in.  Brandon did two weddings, former youth students who got married.  I was once (twice) again thankful that I got married 13 years ago, in the days before Pinterest, back when you could just have a nice, boring wedding where 400 of your closest friends signed the sign-in book, and ate cake and punch in the church reception hall before throwing birdseed on you as you ran to the rental car.  Those were simpler times.  Now everything is very cute and creative, with ice cream sundae bars and gourmet mini-cupcakes and themed guest favors.  For one of the evening weddings, the bar served Bloody Marys, Screwdrivers, and Mimosas before dinner.  Interesting choices, right?  Then the dinner started, and on the buffet?  Pancakes, bacon, eggs, buscuits and gravy with fresh fruit.  Breakfast for dinner at a wedding?  GENIUS.

For the second wedding, Brandon and I ditched the kids on unsuspecting friends and flew to Illinois for the weekend, spending a lovely three days in a hotel sans children, with friends.  It was heaven.  At this wedding, instead of a sign-in book, the guests wrote notes to the couple and put them in cute, color coordinating envelopes for the bride and groom to open later.  And the ring bearer rode into the room in a remote-controlled silver convertable to deliver the rings to the groom. 

Umm, yeah, same as my wedding.  Or not.  Look!  Us at the rehearsal dinner! 

And at the wedding!  Look!  It's us in a room full of grown-ups!  Don't we look well rested?

The weekend after that, Brandon had a retreat with our high school students, so I loaded up the kids and headed to Austin to see my GG for the weekend.  My parents came down and met us there, because Harper requires adult supervision because creativity+destructiveness+GG's house would not have gone well with just me and the four kids.  My parents got there ahead of me, and relocated some of GG's more breakable odds and ends into the closed-off dining room.  Since the beginning of time, GG's dining room is set up complete with tablecloth, high-backed chairs, centerpiece, chandilier, and multiple shiny tea sets on display at all times, with a large china cabinet and one of those giant "family Bibles".  Basically, a room Harper needs to be no where near at all times.  Fortunately, the room has a door and can be closed off and go largely unnoticed. 

Unless you're Harper.  Harper took one look inside the dining room, and was rendered speechless.  When she found her words again, it was only to talk about the "Beautiful Room".  She was pretty sure she had entered a princess castle.  She wanted to play in the Beautiful Room, and sit at the table, and drink from the beautiful cups, and pour tea from the beautiful tea sets.  Sunday lunch was a highlight for Harper, she got to eat lunch at the beautiful table, with a beautiful (china) plate, and eat her corn with the Magic Spoon (a little gold spoon from one of the tea sets).  She was in heaven, and we all got a kick out of someone appreciating the Beautiful Room so much.  We spent some much needed time with GG, and I set her up with an Amazon account so she can shop to her heart's content without having to drive in traffic.

We had a great time on our little Austin visit with GG and the dog.  I have a few more posts to cover Thanksgiving and December (you know, the busiest months of the year), and then I should be caught up by March :)