Further Celebratants

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

It had been a long, yet very full and somehow fast, four days. Everything had started with:

Friday

Collette pieced together the morning by gathering together everything necessary for the next several days when she would hardly find herself at home.

1. OLeif picked up three bags of salt for the sidewalk at the house.

2. Collette arrived at the house by 11:10 or so.

3. Mom had the house decorated as only any “Victorian-cottage” hostess would:

   A. Lace table cloths, orange juice station, coffee station, mimosa station, little note cards detailing the brunch selections:

   B. Coffee cake, breakfast casserole, tiny cheese and preserve tartlets, pumpkin bread, chocolate cake, chocolate-covered strawberries…

   C. And a gift, each, to the mother of the bride and mother of the groom: a copy of a handwritten poem.

4. All bridesmaids and family members of the bride and groom, including Diana’s future aunt-in-law currently residing in Germany, arrived al 11:30, and all food and talk was finished by 1:30 or so.

5. A brief interlude before Collette left the house, freshly dressed for the evening, to pick up Gloria from Walgreen’s.

6. Rehearsal at the little Emmaus Chapel, which she had not seen since her own wedding, which included the usual and expected confusion of basically no one of the forty or so guests knowing exactly what was happening…

7. Diana, smartly attired in a black dress with silk-like leopard-print top, black pumps, and hair down and curled, was relieved to have everyone depart a time later for The Old Spaghetti Factory in The Valley.

8. Collette sat with the English children and Gloria until the food arrived, hearing bits of this and that, including Eve’s house hunt, Bible quizzing, extended family members, etc.

9. The second half of the evening was spent with Alfonso, Velvet, and the maid of honor over giant wedges of lasagne and an equally enormous slice of chocolate mousse cake before speeches were made to the 90 or so guests, a slide-show presentation (including a snippet of the infamous Ok Go dance), and etc. Plus a box of Chicago Frango chocolate mints per person before leaving at ten o’clock, after which the bridal party was planned to conduct themselves to the Cigar Club at the Ritz Carlton downtown for drinks until one in the morning.

The ending of this day slipped easily enough, after the briefest of moments catching the Opening Ceremony of the next Olympic Games in Vancouver, into the next:

Saturday

The big day, which began with:

1. Dropping in at the Silverspoon house, where Collette left her boys and headed to Linnea’s basketball game where they were playing the obnoxious team from several weeks previous. A near-win. If the score keeper had not messed up the board, they would have lost only by two points. And Linnea had made a basket.

2. Back to the Silverspoon’s for paninis and ‘crisps’.

3. By 3:00 or so, Collette and Gloria had departed for the chapel. Candles were lit, white rose corsages and boutonnieres pinned, photos being snapped from every corner, Mrs. English looking very sophisticated in gold, and the mother of the groom in black and silken blue…

4. The ceremony began only a few minutes late, with music given by organ, piano, Bing on cello, Adam on oboe, a young beautiful singer from the March family, and Irish flute and Uilleann pipes…

5. Despite the also usual and expected confusions of getting everyone actually into the chapel at the right time, the ring bearers, bridesmaids in cranberry, and the flower girl were all sent down the aisle just before the organ began the piping of the entrance of the bride, in the gown of her own design, a bouquet of pale green blooms and white roses, her hair curled back under Kitts’ veil, and on her dad’s arm.

6. The reception at The Bluffs began with an hour of cheese, fruits, hot cider, coffee, and drinks, accompanied by a piano and oboe.

7. After which, everyone retired upstairs where the evergreens were lit with white lights and the assigned tables were lit with candles waiting for the feast to come.

8. Toasts, including the relating of the pricked finger dropping blood on Diana’s gown by the maid of honor in New York two hours before her flight to St. Louis, already delayed by a day because of the snow… dinner, a pale pink cake, the singing of ‘Happy Birthday’ to Annamaria on her 20^th, and everything else of which Collette heard about later, due to the necessity of putting Puck down at not too frightful an hour…

9. And the couple was off to Mexico.

And so, with the leaving of the near-last of Collette’s old friends growing up, a late Saturday night of Italian mixed chips, Reeses peanut butter cups, and pomegranate juice while watching Apolo Ohno take the silver amongst other fascinating Olympic events… easily led into:

Sunday

Another cold morning began with:

1. Collette and Puck leaving for church at their usual hour while…

2. Joe, Magnus, and Rose picked up OLeif to spend the day in Columbia with Ben-Hur, visiting his church, apple and sausage pancakes and ‘Awesome burgers’ for lunch, and coffee.

3. It was Valentine’s Day, after all, but it was also Chinese New Year, so there was Chinese for dinner, just in time for the bellowing of another snow and the crew to return from Columbia to join them for dinner.

4. Puck was requested to spend the night, over which he was very happy and immediately responded with: “I see you tomorrow, Mama. Bye, Mama, bye.”

5. Magnus left after dinner and totaled his car in the snow, after which Joe joined him on the road.

6. And OLeif sent out resumes and continued his work while Collette watched pairs figure skating.

There was just enough time to catch a breath that evening to watch Canada win its first gold on home soil due to the moguling expertise of Alexandre Bilodeau, before plowing into:

Monday

Francis’ fifteenth, golden birthday.

1. There were already balloons when Collette and OLeif arrived the next morning on that certain President’s Day, which meant that Dad was also home from work.

2. After a quiet morning and afternoon, in which everyone seemed to be working on something, and Francis studied his driver’s guide…

3. Cracker Barrel at 3:30, wherein Francis was given a ‘Happy Birthday’ blackberry cobbler, and Dad picked up several snacks for their return.

4. There was also a Dairy Queen cake, in which Joe and Francis had a great time requesting the iced text to be written across the top: “Don’t Eat Too Much Carrie”, after which Carrie-Bri joked an avalanche of boo-hoos, and there were candles and singing and laughing.

And that was pretty much the size of everything.