Getting Our Tree

Since we were in Indiana for Thanksgiving, we decided it would be smart to get our tree there. So we googled tree farms and found the Whit's Family Christmas tree Farm.

Just 7 mi from mom's house, it was the perfect place to get our tree. A relatively small operation, it is literally family operated, starting with the teenagers that do the grunt work, mom heads up wreath making and grandpa owns the lot and handed over the saw for us to go cut down our own tree.

It was the perfect day and Stanley was in heaven as he ran off toward the field of trees.

It was a beautiful day, just cold enough to freeze the mud and feel like winter, but sunny and happy to be outside.

But what kind of tree to choose and which one of what kind? Oh so many trees. And aparantly he's got a fraction of what he used to have!

There were quite a few of the kind that I recognize as what we usually get, very full branches, med/long needles, round happy trees. Well, I wanted something a little different. I liked the woodsier looking ones. The ones with short needles and fewer branches, so you can see the trunk a little.

So then when I found the perfect, not too wide tree, I got to cut it down. Well, I let Mike finish it up, but really I did most of it myself.

Then we had to carry it back.
And of course I had chosen the most expensive type of tree, the canaan fir tree. But it was still less than we spent on our tree last year, and this one is taller. Try $55 last year for just 5 ft to $35 for 6ft this year!

Here's Mike checking the ropes one last time before we get on the highway, even though the tree was a managable size, we still couldn't have taken it on the train (or our dog), so a big thanks for Walter for letting us borrow his car. We couldn't have gotten our tree without it. So we got him a wreath, I hope he likes it.

And all that running at the tree farm really tuckered Stanley out (well and the chill pill our vet perscribed for car rides), so he slept all the way home, didn't even whine while we parked!

Home sweet home! Oh how delicious you will smell with our tree inside! Stay tuned for decorating for the holidays...

Thanksgiving 2008

One of the highlights of visiting my mom is the dogs. I always look forward to their happy greeting and this year for Thanksgiving they are the thing I am most grateful for.


So this year I brought Josie a little thank you for all the love.



A little sweater to keep her warm this winter.
Made With just one skein of Lion Brand Thick and Quick Wool-Ease.
Over two days on size 11 needles.

It's my own pattern. I wanted her to have a nice high fashion collar. The length suffered a little...

But that collar sure is cute.

But this Thanksgiving was a whole lot more than dogs. This year us kids made Thanksgiving dinner for mom. Which was what she was most thankful for.

I didn't get any good pics of the food, but just to recap:

Jeremi's famous meatballs-mike assist

turkey in the roaster-Jeremi

creamy brussel sprouts with bacon-julie, tina/mike assist

drunken sweet potatoes-julie

mashed potatoes-tina/julie

creasent rolls

pumkin pie and chocolate pudding pie-tina

It was all delicious. Well everything but the drunken sweet potatoes, they were not so yummy. And my pumkin pie (recipe from Cook's Illustrated) tasted good, but didn't set up sufficiently. Need to try the recipe again to see if I can get it right, but that crust recipe is the best.

When we weren't cooking we were just hanging out. And doing whatever it was we wanted.

Mike monopolized both our and mom's computer, which just happen to be twins.

Julie and mom browsed magazines and we chatted about whatever popped into our heads.

Josie was constantly looking for more love.

Joche wanted someone to play with.
But we like to play games too, so we did.
A family favorite is Aggrivation. It's a cut-throat take on Parcheesi that has six players. We play until we can't play anymore, which was the case that night. Pretty much petered out.

But what about Stanley, you ask, where was he during the festivities?

Like a growly shaddow all weekend. He just wanted to make sure we didn't leave without him.

Getting in the Holiday Spirit

Last week was filled with many firsts that signal the beginning of my holiday season. The first snow fall--it actually stuck, until the sun came out. I started production of our christmas card-although it has been in the works for a few weeks. I listened to christmas music by choice-I was assaulted in Target a week earlier. The sending of our second annual Christmas Cookies and Creature Comforts party's evite. The subsequent mixing and freezing of cookie dough for said party. The discussion of gifts for my mom with my sister.

And attended my first holiday play of the season.

I paid for the pleasure of attending this play, because my good friend Rawson stars in this oh-so-lovely piece. Have you ever read Capote? If not you should. He has a beautiful, poetic, descriptive prose. I was interested to see how Tim Gregory would do adapting two of Capote's auto-biographical short stories into plays. He did it with ease. The literary quality of the play is expressed by long discriptive monologues by the lead, my friend Rawson. He does a lovely job capturing our attention and expressing the emotions of his charecter (a 7-8 year old Alabama boy called Buddy). Rawson is supported by two other actors, Peggy Roeder and Mike Trehy.
There are two acts, the first a Thanksgiving story and the second, Christmas.
The structure of the play si roughly short scenes sandwiched by monologues. Monologues by Buddy that set up the scene, where we are and the emotional context, and then the other actors come in to bring the story to life. All three actors are solid in the roles they play, but it is really the relationship between Rawson and Peggy that makes this work special. Peggy play's Buddy's older spinster aunt, who is like a child herself.
There is no way to capture the beauty of their friendship here, you must see the play, or if you can't do that, at least go find the story and read it.

I was most excited to go see this play with my friend Shannon, shown here with Rawson. Even though I just saw her last week, it is never enough, never going to be like when we saw eachother almost every day. Oh well, we have a great time when we do get together, and that night was no exception. She and Rawson hadn't seen eachother in months and so it was an especially happy reunion for them, as you can tell. We went out for a drink and rehashed good times. Remembering funny events may not be quite as good as the first time...well, unless you have a video, then it's even funnier. Which if you go back a few monthes to our time at Lion in Winter together, you will experience for yourself.

To top of my week of holiday joy I have pie.

My best pie, structually--check out that height!--, to date. The recipe is from Cooks Illustrated, but was not followed to the 'T.' I changed the recipe by nixing the top crust and subbing an oatmeal topping. yum. Although this cranberries on the bottom cran-apple pie looks pretty, I like the flavor of thoroughly mixing the cranberries with the apples better. So next time I will keep the crust recipe and the method of pre-cooking the apples and crans separately, but I will mis them together before topping with oatmeal.
Tomorrow I go Thanksgiving shopping, grocery shopping that is, so tonight I will dream of all the things that go into making a delicious Thanksgiving.

Two Fridays of Plays

It was a goal of mine to see at least one play a month when I stopped running shows. Doesn't sound like much when you think of how many movies you see in a month. Although I am a cheapskate and hardly ever see movies in the theatre, but my Netflix account sure does get a workout. Not to mention free movies, books and cds from the library.
But I digress, the point is theatre tickets aren't cheap, and it is sometimes hard to figure out shich shows are hype and which are good. There are A LOT of theatre companies in Chicago, and many of them good, but it is hard to afford/make time to go to them all.
So I have some basic criteria:
A)see shows that I know people in
B)see shows that I can get in free/at a discount
C)see shows that I am a subscriber to
Some shows meet multiple criteria and that is awesome. There is, of course, the occassional time when the hype of a show is so great and so unmissable that I will flout all of my criteria and pay full price to get into a show, even though I know no one in it.

This month was a good one, I have seen two shows so far.

The first was Celebrity Row at American Theatre Company. This play fit two of my criteria, A and C. ATC is the first theatre that Mike worked at and the first theatre we have subscribed to. Which is actually also a discount, but it is also an investment becuase in order to get your money's worth, you have to go to every show of the season. I was also very happy to see my friend Christopher McLinden play Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma City Bomber) as well as other minor charecters.
This play was based on the true fact that in a SuperMax prison McVeigh shared a block with Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), Ramzi Yousef (first World Trade bombing) and Luis Felipe (leader of the Latin Kings).
In a Supermax prisoners are in COMPLETE isolation for 23 out of every 24 hours. There only entertainment is a closed circuit tv that plays handpicked movies. For their one hour of human interaction they spend it with their blockmates in some sort of excercise yard/room, fenced off from eachother. The play is at it's best during the one scene that takes place at this time. I can't really explain what it is that fascinates, some curiousity, some morbidness. But there is no violent talk, in fact just a hint of it and there is a blackout with a searchlight on the offending prisoner accompanied by a sound that drowns out any attempted speech.
The truly wonderful part is the way these actors inhabit their charecters. It is put in strong relief because of the other smaller parts they take on in the course of the show. I'm sure it is exhausting, but it is thrilling as well. I have always thought Chris a great actor, but it was amazing to see him show his versitility in this one show. The whole ensemble very strong, everyone exceding expectation. I would like to single out Usman Ally, who played Ramzi, simply becuase he was lucky to also take on the role of a southern housewife and did such a surperior job, it was impossible to take your eyes of him.
I have done one of Itamar Moses's plays before, Bach at Liepzig was not nearly as good, and although I don't think it's perfect, I think his use of repition is more evenly handed and his subject matter so controversial and yet not preaching but more journalistic, that it makes for a great night of theatre.

Phew. I really should have done these separtely, but here we go...

This past friday afternoon I requested the day off to go to the matinee of Porgy and Bess at the Lyric Opera. This show was part of criteria B, a free ticket. My wonderful friend Shannon works at the Lyric in the Tech department and got me into their dress rehearsal.
This was my second opera, and I had high hopes for it. The one thing that really kept me from being carried away by the first one (Mano) was reading the subtitles, I was hoping that Porgy being in english, would alleviate this. Not quite. Operatic singing, now this is just my observation, not research, seems to be very vowel heavy, consonances don't sound pretty and so they don't strive to pronounce them. The goal is to sound pretty, not to be understood. I think this may be a major difference between it and musical theatre. So I still had to read the subtitles occassionally to make sure I was getting it all.
But the story definitly had more going on, more to empathize with. More to carry you away with your emotions. I teared up a few times, helped along by the gospel roots of the music. I cannot say enough how much I enjoyed it. My favorite performer had a supporting role, but my (and I think the crowds) favorite song. Her name was Jonita Lattimore and she played the role of Serena, who is widowed in the course of the show. Her mourning song at her husbands viewing brought the house down. Another crowd pleaser was Jermaine Smith, playing Sporting Life, the "happy dust" pusher that had a style of dress and dance that reminded me of a young James Brown.
In fact the moves of this group were all exceptional, although there was as much dancing as in Mano, there also were not any players devoted to just dance. But the moves of Bessie were impressive especially when she was on "happy dust" and Porgy did a great job being consistantly lame (dragging his right foot).
And the singing was very moving. I just loved every aspect, no weak links here. There were a couple moments when just the visual, the use of color in the costume and lights came together so perfectly to make a work of art, a painting. Just wonderful.
So I am becoming a fan of opera, I may be a while before I start listening to recordings in my spare time, but I will definitly grab hold of any opportunity to get a free ticket and enjoy the artform it is on the stage.

A Curtain Re-Do

I was very excited when I found the perfect curtain on JCPenny.com. It had everything I wanted for my bedroom window curtain, nuetrals and stripes and texture, all of which coordinate with my bedspread. (Generally I am not a nuetral kind of person, but as of late have decided that I like a calm nuetral bedroom. It is very relaxing to wake up in.)
So I found the perfect curtain, but it was $30 for one panel, ON SALE! I know this is not a ton of money, but there are such a lot of things that we need and I didn't want to break the bank on this one item, so I measured and decided to just buy one panel.
My thought was that we would have it open much of the time and that it would cover the window perfectly when we did close it.

Well we ended up having it closed most of the time and I didn't much care for the look of it bunched to the side. And it was a little too long, hanging oddly between the sill and the bed. But I knew that hemming it above the sill would look strange, too.

That's when I thought of one of my favorite curtains in the house, originally from our dining room, now in the office. The red silk curtains were expensive and my mom helped me economize by turning them into roman shades. It just takes time and about $10.

Roman shades adjust up and down, like the venetian blinds that come standard in many apartments and homes, but these are made of fabric. This makes them softer and more homey. The gathering or the fabric that results can be very appealing as well.

For my situation, it was perfect. It allowed me to shorten the length to just above the sill at all times, while looking even more finished. It shows off the vertical textural stripes to their full advantage. And finally gives us the ability to easily open and close the curtain.

So how do you do it? This is how I did it, I'm sure there are MANY MANY MANY ways.

Make a pocket at the bottom of the curtain and in this put a dowel, or as I did a piece of bamboo.

In the fabric store, look for the window treatment findings. There are little nylon rings and cording. I upgraded from the plain nylon rope to a silkier cording from the trimmings by the yard section. In three vertical rows (left, middle, right) hand sew the rings on every 10 in. You can also get fabric tape by the yard that has the rings already on it, but this will work better if you have a lining that you can run through a machine separately, but I find hand stitching like this very relaxing while watching TV. I was lucky that I could sew my rings directly behind the crocheted trim, hiding my stitching. (For my silk curtains I bought an old sheet at Goodwill to line my curtains and sewed my rings onto that.) I didn't want to line these, because I like how the curtain looks with the sun shining through it in the morning.

You will need four eye hooks. For this curtain I had Mike put them directly into the underside of the top casing of the window. Three of the eye hooks should be directly above where your rows of rings are, so you may need to hang the curtain to figure this out. The fourth ring should be off to the side slightly to whichever side you want your pull string to be. This ring is optional, depending on how visible/accessible you what the pull-string to be.

Hang your curtain and now it is time to string it up.

You may want to take your measuring tape and run it up the curtain, across the top and down to where you want the pull string, at it's shortest to hang. This will give you the length of your longest piece of cording. Repeat this for the other two rows and cut your cording appropriately.

Starting with the right hand rings, tie one end of the cording to the bottom ring and then run it up through all the rings in that row. Also run it through the right hand eye hook, and then to the left through the other eye hooks. Your pull will then be on the left. Repeat for the two other rows. Tie a big knot in the cording to keep the curtain at a certain height for the lowest point it will hang, as I did.

You will also need a hook or knob to wrap the cording around for adjusting the height higher as above.

Isn't it pretty? I love it.

The Greatest Moment of a Generation

I will admit that going in I was not looking forward to standing for three hours. BUT there was no way I was going to miss out on the event or the atmosphere of being in the center of it all, downtown when it was going to happen.
Everyone signed up for tickets, but there was no knowing who would be getting them. We waited on pins and needles, but knew we would be going down there regardless.
Then we got the email saying we would be emailed our tickets the following night, and yet still I wouldn't allow ouselves to believe it.

And then the email came.
The top half of the ticket looked like this:
We knew we were going to be THERE, seeing Obama speak, win or lose we would be there with like minded people experiencing it together.
And when I got downtown to meet up with friends, the atmosphere was AMAZING. People everywhere sporting Obama gear, selling Obama gear, cheering and talking to people they don't even know. I LOVED EVERY SECOND.
My one great regret is that we did not use all of our tickets. We found two people to take them, but because of circumstances we were not able to meet up with them and get them in with us. We thought there would be a line of people waiting, but it soon became clear that the "line" was really a series of checkpoints and that it would be very difficult for people to find us or for us to wait.

Okay I have two regrets, not bringing my camera. The list of restricted items was so that I was afraid to bring it. Mike still supports my decision, but these camera phone pictures will NEVER do justice to the night.

We did meet up with our friend Justin (on the right) and his friend John (on the left). It is the first time I have met John, but I am so glad that we got to share the night with him. We had great energy. People in line were on their iPhones and Blackberries, listening to radios and calling friends for updates. Mike got texts from our friend Michael Barker. We would then share the latest number with all of those in the surrounding area. And then it would trickle out like ripples. The excitement and the analysis of what the numbers meant. It was all pins and needles.

It seemed to take forever to get through the line, but the line moved steadily enough that there was no sitting down, no place to either, unless you wanted to sit directly on the street that had been turned into the walkway for all the rally goers.

Once we got in we manuevered our way into the crowd, which was already large. We were able to get in view of a jumbo tron and a obstructed view of the stage, well for Mike. He was able to see the podium when standing on tip toes and had a good view of the screen. I had to strain to see the screen. The hardest part was when people would press forward. Luckily this was no concert. People were just trying to get a better view.

But everyone was warm and excited. Warm both emotionally and literally by the way. I was comfortable in a three quarter sleeve shirt of the whole rally. How amazing that it was THE most beautiful night of this fall.

And then we stood.

And waited.

There were moments of amusement. Making fun of people who claimed they were looking for friends as a reason to snake further forward in the crowd. Trying to text or call other people you knew were going ot be there--completely futile. When they were doing sound check and we would yell "LOUDER," or chant "Turn it Up!" They would also do the "1, 2, 3, 4, sound check." But also say "O-BA-MA" and we would yell back "OBAMA!" We would occassionally chant for the hell of it too, but this crowd was so chill it wouldn't even do the wave.

I'm not saying that they weren't enthusiastic.

I think we were petrified.

We have lost so many times and THIS guy, he's means TEN TIMES more to us than the ones before. Not just because of his heritage, but becuase of WHO HE IS. An amazingly inspirational speaker, a leader, a visionary. We are filled with hope for what he can do for our country if he has the chance and we were tied up with knots inside thinking that we might lose that chance.

We kept telling ourselves we would be waiting a long time. But the numbers kept falling in favor of Obama and we would erupt into cheers each time it did. And of course booing when a state would fall the other way. It was like being at a sporting event where the ENTIRE crowd is rooting for the home team. Amazing.

And then the polls were about the close in California and Justin said "Wait, with California's electoral votes we will have enough to win." Then the crowd started counting down "7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" And almost immediatly the broadcasters announced Obama the next president of the United States.

And everyone went nuts. I was still in shock and everyone around me was jumping and screaming and waving their arms, and I won't lie and say I wasn't a little scared for a second, Mike was using me to push off and jump higher! But we all hugged and cried a little and screamed some more.

And then realized that we would have to wait for McCain to concede.

Well it didn't take too long, his speech was longer. At this point our crowd was pretty polite, it's easy to take the high road as winners.

There was a little more waiting before we got what we really wanted. To hear and see our new President.

This is suppose to be the stage. I am sure you can not see anything, but maybe if you look at some GOOD pics elsewhere you might get a feel. The REALLY bright blob is the press tent, which Obama was facing, not the majority of the crowd, which was to his right. Just to the left of the bright blob...Okay nevermind. When I stood on Mike's bent thigh I could see him. This looks way farther away, but oh well.

It was amazing, I cried, but when he was done speaking, I was exhausted.

At this poing we turned around and looked behind us. People as far as you could see.

With waiting in line, it turns out we stood for approximately 5.5 hours. Most of it trained into a two foot radius. And then we had to walk to the train. But there were about a hundred thousand people heading for the train. The crowd seemed to go on forever.

So we decided to get a drink first, put our feet up and wait out the crowd. Little did we and more importantly little did the south loop bars know, that this crowd was young and ready to celebrate. Most of the bars were closing as rally goers arrived at their doorsteps and so the other half were full to bursting. And the LAST thing I wanted to do was stand more.

A little ashamed to say I was downright GRUMPY!

Almost too grumpy to enjoy the happy crowds, but I did take it all in and I will never forget strangers hugging, yelling "We DID IT!" Standing on planters and road blocades and just whooping it up.

But oh well. Justin and John stayed at one of the crazy full bars for their drink and we headed for the Brown Line. And wouldn't you know it we came across a little dive just a block away from the library stop that was not too full and we found seats right away. It took a little while to get our drinks, but we chilled out, rested our feet and recharged for the train ride home. Which I slept through.

So a wonderful, exhausting night.

Today I am just weepy. At the very mention, the very thought of our new president I get weepy. I am so full of joy, it is brimming over through my eyes.

Thank you to everyone who voted for Obama.

We Did It!

Congrats Erin and Paul!

Picking the pics for this post was the hardest process. There are so many good ones, but even though this is a scrapbook, it is not the same as actual pages I can't arrange and emphasize, so here I try and show the best.

Erin and Pauls wedding was amazing. A big part I think is because so many people came together to make all the elements possible. Above is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. The owners of the local Sun Theatre in downtown Grand Ledge have been long time family friends. They changed their markee as a surprise for us after the rehearsal dinner.
Love it. How appropriate for this movie crazed couple.



But backing up a touch, that day was a long one, decorating the hall. Since it was a wedding ON Halloween and was four years in the making, the Buitendorp clan went all out. Collecting pieces over the years at sales ect, there was a lot to put up and it took us ALL DAY to do it.


Erin's twin sisters headed up the stringing of lights, hanging of garlands and other details. Erin's other sister worked on ceremony decor outside. Erin's mom kept Erin and me busy with the tables. And Erin's dad headed up the special lighting, which was extensive. Geoff, Erin's dad, is an event manager, so he has connections he used those as well as a neighbor that does even lighting as well. It was amazing. There were also the pumpkins, Paul and his dad worked on that. Paul's mom kept us all fed, worked with the caterer on their set up and kept track of other details. We were all working to make it beautiful.

But before we knew it we needed to change for the rehearsal. We got back to the hal just in time to practice the whole she-bang outside in the slightly chill october air.


We were all glad to get to the Cancun Grill for the rehearsal dinner. The highlight (besides getting to sit RIGHT ACROSS from the bride) was the song performed by Paul's bandmate with lyrics written by Paul's dad. It was lovely but the touching moment was cut by the timely arrival of the food and the waiter calling out things like "Chicken Fajita Barrito." we all tried to keep in our giggles and barely succeeded

The next morning I joined Erin and the twins at their parent's house to hang out and watch Erin get pretty. Mike had finally shown up and he hooked up with Paul and kept him sane while his Best Man had to turn tail and find his tux where ever it was that he left it.

We had our own moment of drama when it came to getting Erin to wear the veil. In my opinion she lost that battle the minute she let her mom purchase it.

We finished up with our makeup and then had to pack it all up and hed to the hall, where we would get into our dresses.

And what a lot of dresses, this is only half of what we had to take with, cause remember, there is a costume party element, for which most of the girls were changing and therefore needed a whole nother outfit.

That last hour before the picture flew by and before I knew it, Shawn was helping Erin into her dress! I missed the classic into the dress shot, I was lucky they let me take pics of there getting her laces tied. My fav part was when Erin had to brace herself against the pulling. he he.

But it was worth it. She looked amazing in her dress. To quote the lady herself, "I could trip into a mud puddle in the dress and I would still feel beautiful."

Picture dragged on forever, but it was nice to hang around and chat with everyone. There was much to thank these two, Erin's rents Geoff and Linda, for all the fun we were about to have.
Getting to know all of Erin and Paul's cool friends was definitly the best part of the weekend.

This family was definitly the coolest. Berkley was a junior bridesmaid and her rents Allen and Angel really contributed to the party atmoshere all weekend. Loved getting to hand with them and hope that we can visit Erin and Paul and see them again too.

After the picture we took a moment to look at the hall one last time and see all the finishing touches that had occured that morning while we were getting ready.

Although this is the hall before dark and so the color isn't quite at striking, but it is the best picture I have without people messing up the view of the whole. All the lights changed color ove3r the course of the night and gave the room a different atmosphere. It was amazing. People were coming in off the street all day taking picture and ahhhing.

The cake table was graced with caulrons and more halloween touches. Erin and Pauls cake topper perched on the edge of the top tier, a fun touch too.

But pictures were over and guests were arriving so we headed back downstairs for the big event.

Can you believe how nice it was for the last day in October, just warm enought for thoseof us with bare arms to be comfortable. Amazingly lucky for them to have this beautiful view over the Grand river and the opposite bank. It was a lovely ceremony. Just short enough to miss the 6pm siren to announce the start of trick-or-treating. But not without memorable moments, Erin "flubbed her lines" at one point and just said somthing like "and everything else too."

While the reception line slowly moved by the happy couple and their parents. We took a moment inside to relax.

All the maids together, there were no chairs all the one that had been in the room were needed outside, the ceremony was full to the brim. So we sat on the floor.

But thank goodness eventually we got to make our grand entrace into the hall, to the tune of "thriller." But the fun didn't stop there, instead of the more traditional clinking of the glasses they went for the sing a song with the word "love" in it. There were many many many people that took the wireless from the DJ over the course of dinner. I think there was even a line at one point. From Diana to Frank to The Love Boat we saw it all.

But my fav by far were these three that added a little dancing to there rendition of "Do a Little Dance, Make a Little Love, Get Down Tonight."

When dinner was over we all rushed to put on our costumes. I was surprised at the effort and thought that went into many of them and was a little sad that I hadn't brought more than just my ears to wear.

But I did love how Mike's ears and tail looked with his suit, so it was okay. And we went well with Kimmie's Cat Lady costume.

There was much fun had by all. I wish I had a good pic of Erin and Paul during their first dance. Paul with his Fedora and Erin with her Angel wings were a vision.

Towards teh end of the night I missed out on many photo opportunities, my battery was dying and I got sick of luggin the thing around. So I hope to get pics from others.

Amonng those missed was the costume contest, Most Imaginative, Scary and Funniest. But my favorite didn't fit into any of the categories, a older woman dressed as a flapper. Gotta find a pic of her. And even better than the costumes was watching people dancing in them. Friars and pirates, cowboys and flinstones, all getting down!

We all had fun dancing the night away and Erin's parents made everyone feel welcome, even strangers off the street.

No really, the three people on the right were wedding crashers, although is it REALLY crashing if the mother of the bride invites you in? On the left is the DJ, who was awesome and even made fun of poeple who requested tired songs like the Macarana.

But I don't think anyone enjoyed it half as much as Erin's fam and good for them, becuase they worked very hard at it and made it more than even they had thought it would be.

The moral of the story is, your wedding will never be as cool and crazy and fun as Erin and Pauls was. But if you want to take them on, but all means invite me and I will let you know how you did.