The Holiday's–Part III–The New Year's

So, stretching out the holidays a little more…

New Year's weekend, we had a family wedding in southern Indiana.  My cousin was getting married to a wonderful woman on Saturday.  And a big snowstorm was supposed to hit between here and there.

We headed out right after work.  In fact, I drove the already packed car to work in the morning, and then Cora and The Daughter took the L downtown and we left from there, saving us at least an hour and a half.  As we were getting ready to leave, we were getting texts and phone calls from my mother and sister.  My sister and her family got scared off by the weather, and decided not to go.  My parents were already down there, and wanted my to check the weather every 30 seconds.  We hit the road for a the 5 hour drive, planning our own route on the interstate, and not listening to the GPS that wanted us to take every side cow path imaginable to save 50 feet.

When we got to Champaign, IL, I got a call from a friend of mine who was about 2 hours in front of us, telling us things were getting dicey.  Well, everything was smooth sailing until 15 or 20 miles north of Terra Haute, the snow started falling and the visibility was dropping dropping and the roadway was getting slick.  Then I got a call from the friend again.  He was about an hour in front of us, and told us we'd better not travel any further south than T.H., and recommended the Drury Inn.

Have you ever stayed at a Drury?  I was very happy, and would definitely recommend them.  They gave us a late checkout, which we needed (the Daughter is not a morning person), the room was clean, the breakfast was outstanding, free wi-fi.

Anyhow, the next morning, the roads are cleared and we made it to the wedding in plenty of time.  The church was still decked out for Christmas and looked marvelous.

And so did the bride, as she sat in the church waiting for the festivities to get underway.

She was escorted down the aisle by her two sons (it was both of their second marriages)

The kiss…

The couple…

The fake cake..

That's right, "fake cake".  Oh, it was actual cake, but no one ate it other than the little bit they fed each other.  We all got CUPCAKES!

The Daughter made a friend with the Groom's grandson…

And, of course, MY beautiful bride and I had a wonderful time.  And we did notice that they used the same colors the we did.  (Thank God the groom didn't have the same color scheme as his first wedding.  White tuxes & rainbow-pastel shirts.  I still have nightmares about the pale yellow frilly shirt I wore that day.)

And as the bride and groom made it to their table, they were shocked to find…

that the groom's brother had placed a positive pregnancy test on the table.

The next day, we went out to my aunt and uncle's house for a while and then had to drive home because, for the first time since I entered the workforce in 1988…

I had to work on December 31st!

We all left work early, because it was dead, and the three of us just hung out here and had a good time.  I'm the only one who really hit the bubbly (sparkling grape juice) at all, and we were crashed out by 12:30 or so.

But, as we were getting ready for bed, the first flush of the New Year brought a "drip; drip; drip" from my toilet.

Welcome to 2013!