Congratulations, Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah!
Congratulations, Hannah – and Nathan and Aiden. You’ll know why soon enough, and won’t hear the happy news from me; but that was an awesome surprise for me today!
We’ve had a hot, sunny, beautiful day for the wedding, but I had a lot on the go before we got dressed up and headed for the church this afternoon. Mom and I were really happy to have Dad home again this morning for Tai Chi. That’s always more fun when we can exercise together. Ethan and Ehlana came outside with us, but Violet stayed upstairs while Jaimie and Kaitlyn slept for an extra hour. There was going to be a lot of food at lunch and the reception today, so even though we had guests; we went with a light breakfast before cleaning up and taking turns getting ready for the morning.
I’d barely even thought about baseball since Wednesday, but my Rovers were playing against the Witch Falls Wayfarers, and Rowen stopped by to pick me up on her way to the park so we could bike over there together. We weren’t going to have our usual cheer squad for this game – everyone else was just too busy with wedding and family today to take a couple of hours off to watch us play – but we did have a few junior spectators when Violet, Chrissy, Michelle, and Jonathan brought the younger kids over to the park to give them something to do while their parents were all busy. Michelle and Jonathan ended up taking Kara, Eddie, Jaimie, and Kaitlyn to the playground for most of the time they were there, but Violet and Chrissy watched most of our game with Ethan, Ehlana, and Nicole. Our lack of cheerleaders didn’t seem to affect our team; Rowen and I both played a really good game; and we won fifteen to nine without needing to play the bottom of the sixth inning.
Since we were going to need to hit the showers later to get ready for the wedding, after doing the Emporium ice cream run with our team, Rowen and I opted for a swim in the river at my house to cool down and wash off some of the dirt we’d brought back with us from the park. Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Kara went swimming with us, but Jonathan and Eddie joined the guys at the Ayres’ house; and Violet, Chrissy, and Michelle took Ethan, Ehlana, and Nicole over to girl-central at Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam’s house.
Vicky’s Beauty Salon was booked solid all morning again, and Vicky and Liz now had the same group of friends coming for what was becoming a work and play weekend for all of them. Even though Liz was in the wedding party, she still worked most of the morning; taking care of Aunt Leanne, Aunt Deborah, and four other women before taking her turn, and having one of her friends style her hair before she needed to be over at Aunt Leanne’s house with the rest of the girls in the wedding party.
Since Rowen and I didn’t have to worry about that, or helping out with the work, we mostly spent the rest of our morning entertaining my cousins, Kara, and Nicole at Aunt Leanne’s place. We had lunch there, and then Mom and Violet took ‘their’ kids, including me, home to get cleaned up and ready for the wedding ceremony. Dad met us there, and he, Mom, Violet, and I tag-teamed for the next hour and a half so that we somehow all managed to be dressed up and looking beautiful or handsome by the time we needed to get to the church.
Rowen met up with me again in the sanctuary a few minutes after we’d sat down, and Grandma and Grandpa joined us with less than ten minutes to go.
While I really loved getting to watch Aunt Deborah and Uncle Nick as they exchanged their vows and pledged their love; being on the outer edge of the action gave me time to open up and take in everything that was going on around me. There have been enough moments when little things that I’ve been experiencing all join together and become new insights for me; and I had another of those moments during the ceremony. I’ll write about that in more detail in our Magi Project archive, but I have some new ideas about Magi, latents, and factors that could dramatically affect whether children are born latent or with active Magi abilities. I’m too tired now to get into that, so let’s move along – we still have nearly half the day, and most of the fun, to write about.
The sanctuary was nearly full, which wasn’t a surprise considering that two of the biggest families in town were involved; but the ceremony wasn’t much different than the others I’d been to so far since moving to Witch Falls. The respective happy couples would probably disagree on that, and I do have two favorite weddings so far, but you know what I mean. When you think about it, hundreds or thousands of hours of work and planning go into what’s really just a moment in time by comparison.
There’s another insight for you too. Millennia of human history have passed to bring us to where we are now; and the coming ascension of the light is going to happen in a heartbeat by comparison.
Okay, a bit too heavy for a happy wedding day – let’s get back on track, shall we?
Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah are married, as officially announced by the Pastors at around three-thirty. After leaving the church, it was picture time for the happy couple, their wedding party, and family; and the kids in the family were first in line for pictures with the bride and groom at the park. Though Ethan, Ehlana, and I are only their cousins because we adopted Aunt Deborah; we were included in one of those group photos, and then we were set free until the reception started.
Ethan, Ehlana, and Nicole all opted for a short nap, and Rowen and I did our best to entertain Jaimie, Kaitlyn, Kara, and Eddie at Aunt Leanne and Uncle Mark’s house while the parents were busy, and the teens were more interested in hanging out; staying as cool as possible on a hot, sunny afternoon; and with so many guests from out-of-town, meeting new people. There weren’t very many younger kids around the house to join our little play group then; but my younger cousins eventually at least met, and played with, most of the kids close to their age from the time the reception line started and most of the guests started arriving, and when they either went inside or home to bed at around ten o’clock.
And now, it’s time for the food! Jacob and Miranda don’t do catering – except apparently, sometimes they do. Jake and Stephanie were in charge of the teens that were working the wedding, and since her boyfriend was working anyway; Violet took a one-night gig and joined that crew so she could still hang out with him and their two best friends. The only help that the Stones had needed, and Aunt Leanne had set up, was transportation for all of the supplies and food. Violet was using Dad’s truck to help with that, and there were other guest vehicles and drivers taking turns to get the hot food from the Inn to the pavilion for nearly an hour; and then more volunteers to help with getting everything back to the Inn once everyone had eaten.
I was on the outside of all of that too, but can confirm that the food was really, really delicious!
The dinnertime toasts and roasts were fun, and I especially loved getting to hear some childhood and college stories about Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah. The fathers’ speeches were mushier than I would have expected from either Edward Johnson or Nathaniel Ayres. Robert Byrd certainly made up for that with his best man duties, and I definitely saw more than a little of his Grandma Eleanor in him tonight. Aunt Deborah’s maid-of-honor, Marcia Litton, had some cute stories too, with the funniest ones being about their first nursing internships. As brothers of the bride, Kevin and Rob had a few stories too, and even though Aunt Deborah has Aunt Leanne on her side; I’m going to have to give the groom’s side of the wedding party the win for entertainers of the night.
Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah had hired one of the local pub bands for the dance, and they started to play at dusk. Aunt Leanne picked up her matchmaking efforts a notch or two then too, and if you’re wondering if I was one of her ‘projects’ the answer would be yes, but not directly. Since my current feelings on matchmaking are mixed, I’ll only make the comment here that a few things that were meant to happen tonight did. Getting Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah married was the big ‘future plan’ moment today, and those other little events were just incidental by comparison.
While I’d like to skip writing about it, I’m sure that some of you, reading this sometime in the future, want to know what I meant above about Aunt Leanne’s ‘indirect’ matchmaking attempt. Let’s just go ahead and get that out of the way now. No, I wasn’t set up to dance with Michael after he got to the reception with Violet, Dillon, Stephanie, and the rest of his family. He did dance several times with another girl our age – one of Uncle Nick’s visiting cousins. Now, you might think that was just an innocent case of girl-meets-boy and nature takes over, but I saw her talking with Aunt Leanne a couple of times – conveniently shortly before she asked Michael for the first two dances. I hope they had fun, and it looked like they didn’t mind the set-up, but honestly, did you really think that a reverse psychology or jealousy-inducing attempt to nudge me into crossing over would work Aunt Leanne?
Oh yeah, and before you attempt to deny it, or point out that I was interested enough to know what Michael was doing, try to remember that I’m a Magi Master with a photographic memory. I notice and remember just about everything going on around me all of the time – including noticing your conversations with Nick’s pretty cousin. Don’t believe me? I noticed you dancing with Uncle Adam too. Would you like me to write about where one of your hands was for a moment or two? If you were looking for his wallet; the back pocket on his tuxedo pants was on the other side. How about that promise you whispered in his ear at about the same time? Photographic memories and the ability to focus on even the slightest sound – or read lips – is a scary talent, don’t you think? In moments like that one, I sure do, and honestly, I wish I’d picked a different memory to use for an example!
Rowen and I mostly stayed with Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Kara until they went to bed; though we all went dancing too – either together, or with our fathers. I took Ethan out for a spin once too, and danced with Grandpa, Uncle Adam, and Uncle Nick once each too. Rowen and I helped Mom, Dad, Alicia, and one of her friends get Ethan, Ehlana, Jaimie, and Kaitlyn home and in bed before leaving them with the two teens while we went back to the reception.
By then, the dance was in full swing, but Rowen and I were ready for a little break, so we got drinks and wandered off to sit on the dock for a while where it was a bit quieter compared to being in or around the pavilion. Going swimming wasn’t an option, though I really would have liked to for a while; but we did both take our shoes off and put our feet in the water. There were other guests going for little walks along the river, but we had the dock to ourselves, and were able to have a little girl talk time before going back to the dance.
A few of our classmates, including Michael and Tim, were at the reception, and Rowen and I hung out with the group of girls that had gathered around a couple of tables along the house side of the pavilion. Rebecca and Jenny were both hanging out there with us; though they were out dancing regularly too. Jenny’s interest in cute boys from out-of-town had me sure that I’d be seeing a lot of her and Rebecca for the two weeks that Chris, Martin, and Jonathan would be spending here, and Jonathan had a head start on that tonight. It looked like he enjoyed getting noticed, and Rebecca and Jenny weren’t the only girls watching him – or asking him to dance.
Talking about boys was front and center with the rest of the girls – okay, that was pretty much all the other girls talked about. That wasn’t particularly interesting for either Rowen or me, but by then, Aunt Deborah was in the house with Marcia and Aunt Leanne getting changed and ready to leave on her honeymoon; I wanted to give Mom and Dad some space to have fun with their friends; there weren’t any younger kids around to entertain; and the teen couples didn’t need help having fun, so we just sat with our friends and kept quiet. I know – that’s definitely not normally like me at all!
Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah did their last dances of the night at around midnight. They did a round of visits after that, and then were whisked away in their limousine by one o’clock. Some of the wedding guests started heading home then, and when Grandma and Grandpa decided to leave then too, Rowen and I went with them; and Patrick was sent with us. We went next door to drop Rowen and Patrick off, and then Grandma and Grandpa walked me home. Another quick round of goodnight hugs and kisses later, and they continued on to Blossom Ave, and I went inside.
A swim in the river was finally an option, though I had two spotters sitting on the back porch while I did that after Alicia advised me that swimming alone, in the dark, unsupervised wasn’t going to happen. That little break would have been nicer without the sound of music, conversation, and laughter echoing to me along the river from the party, but it did give me a chance to cool off and wind down a bit before going to bed.
Mandy’s already sleeping, and after checking my email, doing a little family business work, and writing this journal entry up, I’m ready to call it a night too. I doubt Mom and Dad will be back for a while yet, since they’ll be helping with the cleanup, but Violet and Dillon are here now, and took over from Alicia and her friend about twenty minutes ago. Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne have one more day of family entertaining to do, and we’ll be hanging out with them too. We didn’t get to start out Jaimie and Kaitlyn’s first holiday without the parents here with the usual fun and games, or even a campfire, but this has been such a great day; I don’t think anything else we could have done instead would have been better.
Anyway, it’s time for lights out – especially since Jaimie and Kaitlyn are going to have about four and a half more hours of sleep than I’ll get tonight; and they’ll be ready to rock in just a few hours.
Live from Witch Falls; this is Cassie Proctor, signing off!
