Travis is Married
Sunday, May 1, 2011
In which the sixth family wedding occurs, the second to take place in the month of May…
The whole day had been a bit of a blur, really.
During church…
OLeif was wearing a suit. Because of this… novelty… the praise team stopped as a whole and asked him what was the matter as he walked into the sanctuary to rehearse. These sorts of questions continued throughout the morning.
“Are you going to a funeral, OLeif?” they asked.
When Babe Ruth saw him later, he just laughed.
“People ask me the same thing if they see me wearing khakis,” he said. “Or even shoes.”
An unexpected volley of charges was sent out regarding the care of the elders and deacons at the end of the sermon… which, Collette could not help but think, must have been semi-awkward for the 29 fellows who were, at one of the two services, called forward to stand before the congregation.
Sunday School was led by their resident single seminary student, wearing his signature bow tie.
And while OLeif played the second service…
Collette stole some cinnamon Teddy Grahams from the youth building. Desperate times…
Twenty minutes spent going over Puck’s Sunday School lesson with him.
And some light kickball in the foyer, rolled. Judah even participated, briefly.
All the windows of the church were opened in the cool morning, which was growing steadily colder by the hour, Collette noted.
Back for a short time to the house, where Carrie was serving up pancakes, sausages, and mixed berries and fruit.
Rose tried to convince Collette to take home her sprouting sweet potatoes.
OLeif was saying something about having a Masters in Etiquette…
Dad drove out to pick up Grandma Snicketts.
And everyone prepared to leave for the wedding, except for Joe, who made a pot of coffee and got to work on class projects.
St. John’s United Church of Christ was ready for the ceremony by 4:00. Present from the family, besides themselves, were: Martha, Uncle Hilario, Aunt Corliss, Jashub (just in from Columbia), and Blessing.
They were seated near the front of the sanctuary, joined not long later by Bristol and Nerissa with the twins in matching floral dresses and tiny pigtails.
“Here,” Uncle Balthasar said to them, “your entertainment.”
The simple ceremony was brief enough, with four bridesmaids in red, silk red roses, and little Whisper in white and red, followed by her mother in white and red. Travis wore a white tux. And not long later, they were married. And back into the cold and the rain, which had finally come.
A skip over to the church for the Children’s Choir program. Collette was greeted with a potted red geranium from Daisy-Jean, in thanks for helping out that year.
“Hmmm,” said Sinai to her. “Why don’t you take a good smell of that.”
“I have no sense of smell,” Collette had replied, “so if you’re trying to get me to smell something bad, it won’t work.”
Sinai apparently thought this was funny.
And not long later, the program commenced, with little trouble, some good laughs, and all put together by their very own Isabella Swiss, who had incorporated various shining lights throughout history, including Athanasius, whose name did not seem could be pronounced correctly.
Followed by cookies and punch. Puck hurried out for a giant sugar cookie in the shape of a butterfly frosted in pink and covered in duck and rabbit candies in green and pink. Sugar rush.
By the time they had arrived at the reception, a cold rain was falling.
Inside, the buffet had not been completely ransacked, so they helped themselves to the green beans and carrots, muscacholli, sliced bread and cheese, ham, and chicken, and joined a table with the Blacks and Grandma Snicketts.
Uncle Hilario had fun with Puck after opening the little box of M’nMs on his plate.
“I don’t know, Puck,” he said. “I might need some help with this.”
Puck eagerly obliged.
Uncle Hilario explained that he could get away with handing out the chocolate because he was a grandpa.
“Although I imagine your parents tow the line,” he said to Collette.
“Well, Dad more than Mom…”
“If anything, it’s my parents who give him whatever he asks for,” OLeif said.
“Yeah, I can see that,” Uncle Hilario chuckled.
“Here, have a pound of bacon,” said OLeif.
Jashub rolled with laughter at this unexpected statement…
“Here, let me cook you up some more!”
The cake cutting got underway shortly later. A small, lit fountain gurgled beneath the layers of white and red, which fascinated Puck. Though they were obliged to leave shortly later before tasting the cake, following the first dances, which included Travis and Aunt Tuuli, who was sobbing as predicted. Uncle Balthasar hurried a tissue over, laughing. There were the usual hugs from Travis for everyone, and a near-headlock for Jashub. And that was the end of the evening…
Puck crashed into bed after nine o’clock.
The tally now stood at:
-
Collette Snicketts, August 28, 2004, St. Charles, Missouri, age 19
-
Brit Black, October 23, 2004, Columbia, Missouri, age 28
-
Bristol Snicketts, September, 2006, Mexico, age 23
-
Polly Black, May 19, 2007, St. Charles, Missouri, age 27
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Esther Black, November 13, 2010, Nashville, Tennessee, age 28
-
Travis Snicketts, May 1, 2011, St. Charles, Missouri, age 24
Late that night, an unexpected news headline rolled in…
Osama bin Laden was dead.