Twenty-Five Years Ago Today

Happy New Year!

I've meaning to put up a blog post for a while, because I have some big news, but I never did. I'm out of the habit, not sure anyone reads this thing anymore, etc. But then Scottius Maximus re-emerged from his own blogging hiatus, which gave me the impetus I needed to revisit my own blog. However, this post isn't going to be about 2018, but the last big family event of 2017. Our eldest daughter got married!

As you can guess, the wedding had a Halloween theme. Overall, it was very nice. I'm hoping I won't have to deal with any big events in 2018, however, at least not in my immediate family!

Let's Have a Party

I miss the big old-fashioned weddings. No, they're really not practical, especially not in a recession. And of course the marriage is more important than the wedding. And the actual wedding ceremony is more important than the reception. But large wedding receptions did something also--they created memories; they stood out. You'll never forget spending time with your friends and family celebrating a momentous event in a family's history. In a time when extended family seems to be drifting apart anyway, getting up to dance and act a little wild and move from table to table or even to a bar (horrors!) seems to me more likely to create some small ties than sitting at a table staring at each other. Sometimes we need to put on our fancy clothes and our impractical shoes and go out and party. It seems there are fewer and fewer opportunities to do so. Why not for something as great as the creation of a new family?

Time Keeps Moving On

17 years ago today!

Reminscing

At my (husband's) nephew's graduation party on Sunday, I got the chance to see a little bit of the "cycle" that Presbytera blogged about recently. Like watching a cousin's daughter as she ran around grabbing candy off of the tables, and remembering that when the Scientist was a flowergirl in this same cousin's wedding, the Scientist went around taking candy out of the favor boxes on the tables. Looking at pictures of my nephew in a little white tux at my sister-in-law's wedding, and a little black tux as a ringbearer in mine and my husband's wedding. And now he's graduated from high school, and my own daughter will be the next one in the family group to graduate, albeit seven years or so from now. Will they go as fast as the last eleven have? Probably.

Love Ya, Hon!

Tomorrow we will not only be celebrating Mother's Day, but my family will be celebrating another year in my husband's life. Happy birthday, my dear husband! I'm thankful for all the great years we've had together, and looking forward to what the future will bring us.

(Pic is from when he was in his sister's wedding, and he's dancing with his cousin.)

Family Vagaries

Did you ever get a wedding invitation and have no idea who the bride and groom were? That happened to me today, I believe for the first time. The wedding is taking place in my husband's hometown, so I'm presuming they are somehow related to him. I know my husband's family pretty well though, sometimes better than he does, and I have no guess who either of these people could be. His grandmother was the one who really knew all the ins and outs of the family tree, and believe me when I say, there were a lot of ins and outs. My husband's family on his father's side all came from a tiny village in Italy called Sulmona Valley, big enough that there weren't all the problems associated with massive inbreeding, but small enough that DH's family tree sometimes resembles a tangled vine more than a tree.

And yet, when my husband was at a cemetery in Chicago to see Al Capone's grave, he found several headstones that bore our family name, and also a couple headstones that carried another of the family names, and he had never heard of any of these people. It's interesting, because my husband *does* have family that lived in Chicago, and our family name is a relatively unusual one. I have often wished I had the time to do a thorough investigation into my own family tree. I guess the least I can do is write down what I do know, so my daughters can check into things if they are so inclined.

Out of the Past

The Chaplain wrote about his engagement anniversary yesterday; today is the anniversary of my husband's and my engagement. This picture, however, is from exactly one week before, at my sister-in-law's wedding. We held off getting "offically" engaged until after this wedding, so as not to take attention away from my sister-in-law and her husband. This, however, did not keep lots of guests at the wedding from speculating about when our own marriage would be. I was even welcomed to the family by Gino's step-aunt's ex-husband's nephew.

On Oct. 19, 1991, I went to the homecoming dance at my former college, where my husband was a senior (I robbed the cradle.) I was wearing the same green dress and shoes as in the picture above (so I re-used a bridesmaid dress!) We had a yummy dinner, and when he presented me with my corsage, there was a diamond ring on one of the flowers. And here we are fifteen years later, still happy to be together. Tonight my husband gave me a red rose, and we had a dinner very similar to the candlelit meal we had in my husband's dorm room fifteen years ago, right down to the fudge cake from Entenmann's. How sweet!