Saturday, October 28, 2017

Weddings Are Beautiful & Family is Wonderful

Over the past 8 years, Carolyn and I traveled near and far to attend 29 weddings of our closest friends and family.  Last night made 30. And by the end of December, we'll have been to 31 weddings, not including our own. Wow! That's a lot of happy people.

Yesterday one of my younger cousins on my mother's side got married to her long-time boyfriend. Her sister's maid of honor speech couldn't be contained by tissues alone. Our family thoroughly enjoyed the festivities and danced the night away. And the groom's family was as fun, supportive, and respectful as any I've ever met. Of my grandparents' 21 grandchildren, my cousin is the 19th in chronological order. And most, not all, of the cousins older than her are married, many with children already. Safe to say, we've had plenty of fun all these years, and we're hoping to continue the parties with the new generation of kids and those yet to come.

The best part of family weddings is seeing all the relatives in the same place. Family members who have moved away from the area, who we don't get to see at our convenience, come back to join in for the festivities and it's always fun catching up with whomever is in attendance.

It's too bad there are still situations when some relatives aren't able to join. It's been a long time since the full family has been completely together. But it's just an example of the difficulties it is to coordinate. No one means any harm by not being able to attend. There are always competing priorities or conflicting schedules.

The next wedding to be attended is my brother's wedding in December. We will be traveling to this one in Dallas as he too has moved from the area a few years ago. And we're already scheduled to celebrate 3 more weddings in 2018. It's funny how it's this time in our life cycles, this age range is the time when so many people get married. I'm sure that the older we get, the less weddings we'll be invited to but until then, party on party people. (358)

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