Wedding Notes

So much for El Nino! It's supposed to give us Minnesotans a warmer winter than usual. We arrived in Fairmont to find out they started the day at -31. It certainly wasn't much better at the time of the wedding, although the icicles descending from the roofs of all the improperly insulated houses we drove past to get to the church were absolutely spectacular! Paul got out of the car to stretch his legs a bit after the drive, and pronounced the cold air was actually OK, as long as you didn't have to breathe or anything.

The first new extended family members we met were a pair of absolutely adorable 7-month-old twin girls. Lucky John! He was becoming an instant grandfather today! Oh, and here were three or four other new grandchildren, some of whom found it their duty to fill in the silences in the service so nobody'd be lonely. Especially them.

This is John's 3rd wedding. The first was brief, ending in divorce. The second lasted many years, ending with death. Considering the first, however, the question that nobody could answer (we tactfully didn't ask the priest, just in case) was how did he get a Catholic Church wedding? Did church policies change? Didn't it count because he was/is Protestant? Or was he also tactfully silent?

The wedding was small and cozy, held in a chapel off the main sanctuary. This was good, as we just filled it, and that helped warm the room up by the end of the service. Everybody dressed warmly for it, sensibility trumping glamour, except for the bride, Susan. Her lovely dress would have been very comfortable in July, with its tiny cap sleeves. I would have been shivering in it, and would personally have turned into the "something blue", but she did look quite comfortable - no visible goosebumps, anyway.

At the reception in a local restaurant, we finally got to meet the next-most-recent newest family member, my niece's husband of about 15 months. Yes, of course we attended that wedding, held on a lovely September day in a local lakeside park, but as groom he was awful busy that day. Now we actually had a chance for conversation. He favorably impressed everybody on my side of the family, and to top it off, he and my niece just announced they are becoming parents! August!

Hooray! I get to be a Great Aunt!!!!

This raised another question, which the other great-aunt-to-be and I discussed. If the direct line goes parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, why does aunt-hood jump from aunt to great aunt? Why no grand aunt? Not that it really matters, because hey, Hooray! I get to be a great aunt!!!!!!!