Winter-ish Weekend: With a Wedding and some Wild Weather!

Wasn't that some attractive alliteration? :))

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The Wedding

Saturday evening found Mommy and Daddy at Willistead Manor, for Uncle Pook (Al) and Lori's wedding. The snow was just starting to fall, and the Manor was lovely with all its Christmas decorations. Rod's reaction to the old-fashioned grandeur: "This place is kind of weird. Do you think there are any ghosts here?" (By the way, I'm sure he was totally making fun of me, because he knew I was in my element.)

For some odd reason, I have few good pictures of the bride and groom, but lots of the rest of us making fools of ourselves at the reception. :))

Beautiful Bride

Bride and Groom

The Fun Begins: Despite the classical elegance of the setting (or maybe in reaction to it?), our table (among others) soon realized there was endless fun to be had with the table centerpieces. The men discovered that the small bulbs in the vase bounced (and the error of a few taught them that the big ones smashed!). They started with contests to see who could bounce their bulb off the table, and back into the vase; but it soon extended to: Who else's table can I hit with the bulb? Who else's head can I hit with a bulb? Who can I trick into to lifting the vase (which has no bottom) and spill the bulbs? Can we get the bulbs into the vase on Tony's head? What can we make out of the bulbs? Where can we put them on our bodies?

get the bulb in the vase on Tony's head

Mitch's jingle balls

Then there was our fun with the cameras. Not too many nice pictures were taken at our table. (We left that up to our parents!) Except for poor Bevin--he would soon be called into work, because of the storm (landscaping company--snow removal), so he had to stay sober; we had never seen him so depressed!

His wife Pauline (our cousin) had a good time, though. No alcohol--she's 7 months pregnant--but a great sugar high!

Then there's Tricia, Pauline's sister, back from Hawaii for the holidays with her boyfriend, Mitch. She provided great laughs, between her "famous face" and her accidentally-smashed snowglobe!

She's sopping wet from a smashed snowglobe and she still manages to look good!

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Rod loves to get the kids to do crazy things. Uncle Pook has three kids from a previous marriage (two boys and a girl, who stood in the wedding). Rod got the youngest boy, A.J., to take his new step-mom's white fur wrap and shove it in his pants like a tail!

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And here's what several drinks can do to a woman who hasn't been able to drink in about a year:

Oh, I could go into lots more about the wedding. Briefly, I must mention for those in the know: boiled grapes, yellow carrots, goat cream, and potato mushrooms. (By the way, these menu items, to people accustomed to elegant eats, are: pearl onions, parsnips, cream/goat cheese, and baby red-skin potatoes). The food was excellent, but our table was more burger-and-fries types. :))

Wild Weather

The wild weather began last evening, and intensified overnight and into this morning. I'm not sure what the final snowfall amounts were here, but we got a pretty good dumping for mid-December.

Here's some pictures of our Christmas tree, with the snowy scenery outside:

Since it was so snowy outside, we had to amuse ourselves indoors.

Andrea's cozy in pj's on the couch

Kevin's bundled up in his swing, and Andrea's helping to rock him

I am "SO CUTE!" (she was actually saying this!)

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Well, not all of us were bundled up inside. As soon as it stopped snowing, Rod said, "Let's barbecue for supper!" I said, "Seriously?!" And he said, "Sure, I like barbecuing in the snow!" (He always has to be unique.)

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In closing, here's a picture of Kevin that I took yesterday. He really likes his play mat from the perspective of the Bumbo chair, because he can grab everything easily. He yells with excitement!