How We Spent Our Summer Vacation, Part 1

At the end of May, my baby sister--my only sibling--got married. She looked amazing. The bridal "glow" is such a real phenomenon. All in all, the day was a warm, joyful celebration of love and family, and I only wish the weekend lasted longer.

The professional photographs were recently posted online, so I thought I'd steal a few to share with readers of this blog.

Lovely. Now, I knew going into this wedding that I was going to be a bit emotional because I love my little sister and I know how excited she was to marry Sean, who had been in her life since they were freshmen in college. I didn't know the photographer was going to catch my sobfest, but I spent pretty much the entire ceremony like this:

There are several others like this. I was a big, snotty mess. Fortunately, Sean's big sister was the bridesmaid next to me and she was also experiencing a big-sis-breakdown, so we just shared tissues and held hands, reflecting on our wisdom to not stuff our little siblings in a box and mail them to Siberia as we had been tempted to do so many times in our youth.

My sister was good enough to include my son as her ring bearer, which meant we got to wrestle him into a little monkey suit and let him loose on her otherwise orderly day.

These are the few photos he didn't ruin by screaming, kicking apart bouquets, or trying to hurtle himself like a crowd surfer.

The ceremony, though punctuated by occasional sobs and nose-blowing, was beautiful.

Those two are going to make me some adorable nieces and nephews someday, if my kid hasn't convinced them otherwise.

One of the biggest benefits to attending the wedding of a sibling is seeing your own extended family and, in many cases, good friends. I'm so lucky that my sister has embraced my best friends as her surrogate big sisters and brothers. So, for me, it was like repeating some of the best moments of my own wedding, only without worrying about someone stepping on my big white dress. It was great.

April, 2007:

May, 2010:

We know how to have fun, no doubt.

Congratulations, Shirlea & Sean! It was a long time coming, and a true blessing to witness your special day.

Sweet Things

Well, hello there blogosphere. It's been a while, huh? I really didn't mean to let the last week slip away from me, but with traveling east and extra work assignments, I haven't had the brainpower to write up a post. I probably still don't, but I at least have cute pictures.

Last weekend, Joe and I flew to MD for my sister's bridal shower. My sister happens to think that I'm a huge dork for blogging, so I should take this opportunity to say HI SHIRLEA! She's getting married later this spring to a really swell guy. Here they are this past Thanksgiving, looking all in love and photogenic and stuff:

 

Yes, a collective "awww" is in order. 

Anyway, in preparing for the shower, I called upon an old friend from school who lives in the DC area to help us with dessert. Her name is Cara and she is the baker extraordinaire behind Cara Lee Cupcakes & Cakes (you should definitely click on that link for her adorable and delicious blog). Because my sister is marrying into an Irish family, fell in love with her fiance while traveling through Ireland, and is seriously obsessed with Gaelic music, we decided to go with an Irish theme for the shower. Here's what Cara came up with:

There were lots of tasty flavor combos of cake/buttercream (peanut butter chocolate, salted caramel, lavender vanilla, etc.) but the hands-down favorite was the "Irish Car Bomb" combo of Irish stout chocolate cake and Bailey's buttercream. Hoo boy, I think I had 5.

 

The rest of the shower was fairly typical of bridal showers. We laughed a lot. We cried. We played silly games (the Olympics are nothing compared to competitiveness of shower-goers). We hooted and hollered every time Shirlea broke a ribbon, which was easier said than done in some instances of industrial strength bows.

It was very satisfying to see my lil sis surrounded by supportive women and kitchen appliances. I'm not quite sure when it became a sacred ritual to bestow whisks and potholders upon the younger debutantes of the tribe, but there is a comfort in knowing that she will posess the basic tools of homemaking (if she so chooses to use them) and, more importantly, she has a gaggle of females who will be there to listen.