A Series of Mini Stories

   November has been crazy. We flew to Disney World, I flew to Minnesota and then drove to Minot North Dakota for my sister's wedding. I then drove back home with my sister and new brother-in-law because they were joining us for Thanksgiving. We spent two days cooking for the big day and had a wonderful time. Kids went back to school today and I am finally getting a chance to sit down here and write something. With so much having happened I have no idea where to start. So, I am going to tell a series of mini stories. Here goes.

The Long Walk 
I am in Milwaukee on a layover. All I have with me is a carry-on bag and my purse. I am wearing these ridiculously gorgeous and impractical boots because they won't fit into my bag.  I'm starving but I figure if I can at least get a coffee I will be okay. So, dragging my bag I start trekking up the ramp in these high heeled boots. I walk down two corridors before I finally find a place that sells coffee. I order, I wait, I pick up my steaming cup and walk back to my gate.  This entire process has taken me twenty minutes. I put the cup to my mouth and take a satisfying sip.............this is not what I ordered.

The Boot Exchange
There are six girls in my family and none of us share a shoe size. My youngest sister did not have a pair of boots to match her dress for the wedding so I had brought along an extra pair of boots (a big reason why I got stuck wearing mine through the airport). These boots were too big for me but too small for her so another sister wore my boots and gave hers to our baby sister.  It worked out great for the big day but there was quite a scramble to get all the boots back to their owners after the reception.  Having sisters is fun!

The Wedding Cake 
As with most things, when information passes through multiple hands it tends to get distorted. This must have been the case with the wedding cake because I can think of no other reason why, when the cake arrived, we were looking at a bright yellow cake with baby blue ribbons and black dots. Our initial response was to try to make it work and take cake pictures in black and white. But with one look at my sister's face I knew we had to take more drastic action. Thankfully, five phone calls later we were heading off to the ceremony with the understanding that a cake would be ready for us on time.  As soon as the ceremony was over the step-father of the groom rushed to the store to pick up the cake and I rushed to the reception hall to hide the old cake and have the place unlocked and ready for the new cake.  Luckily the new cake was all the right colors, a soft cream with teal ribbing and silver beads. And the rest of the evening went off without a hitch.

The Ceremony
We are not catholic. My sister's fiance's family is Catholic Orthodox. So throughout the service there is all this chant and response going on and we have no idea what to say or when to say it.  My sister and I are about to fall over in our high heels (I was the Maid of Honor) if the service took much longer when suddenly the Priest starts off on a rant about marriage in the news. The look of alarm on my sisters face was almost enough to make me stuff a doily in the old guys mouth but thankfully he stopped after a few painful minutes.  There are a lot (and I do mean A LOT) of symbolic steps that go into a Catholic Orthodox wedding. I do not recommend ever going to one.  My poor sister looked like she wished she wasn't there either. But, when one side takes it that seriously I guess you just need to comply. 

Road Trip 
I love road trips so I was looking forward to this one with my sister and new brother-in-law.  We had great conversations and debates, my sister and I napped frequently.  We drove through Chicago and Cleveland. All in all it was a really good trip. Except for one thing......My Husband is a speeder, not by a lot but you can pretty much bet he is going nine over the speed limit at all times. My new brother in law goes exactly the speed limit or even a little under. Sitting in the back seat watching the minutes add themselves to our arrival time on the GPS was near torture.  Every once in a while I offered to drive but (I guess it's a guy thing) he was determined to do the whole trip himself. He's a good driver, very smooth. By the last few hours of the trip I was ready to knock him out and stuff him in the back just so I could speed things up.  It didn't help when we realized that his GPS did not account for time change and we actually had an hour longer to go than we thought.  But.....we made it. Without anybody getting knocked out. 

Thanksgiving
I'm all about home cooked so I spent two days in the kitchen making two pumpkin pies, two apple pies, sweet potatoes, cookies, cheese ball, mini hot dogs is secret sauce, greenbean casserole, stuffing, a 20lb turkey, gravy,  cranberry mold and more. By the time we sat down to eat I was exhausted and barely ate a plate of food. I didn't mind though. I figured even with three men and two boys in the house there would be leftovers and I could eat more later.  Uhm, yeah, I was wrong on that one.  There was barely enough left for one serving of everything. But before I could get to it Hubby snatched it all up.  I feel like I missed out on Thanksgiving. But I learned my lesson. On Christmas Eve I'm hiding a plate of food for myself.  Can't fool me twice!