Anyone else remember this fondly? 

Wizard of Oz is among my favorite movies ever – I can’t wait to watch it again to see if I can spot these bloopers!

Yesterday David and I celebrated 13 years of wedded bliss.  Okay, maybe not all 13 years were blissful, but we celebrated, nonetheless. 

13 years ago, David wore one of his old suits and I wore a friend’s red dress and we drove about 40 minutes to Taylor, Michigan to get married in my father’s childhood church – no attendants, no musicians, no frills.

This was a “quickie” wedding.  No, there wasn’t a bun in the oven. 

A few days prior to the wedding, we’d received notification that David’s Army unit was being deployed to Bosnia.  At the time, David and I were living together and planning a large wedding for the following June.

After receiving word of his impending deployment, we knew there was no way he’d be back in time for the big wedding six months down the road. 

We called the pastor who was scheduled to marry us in June in the chapel of Concordia University-Ann Arbor, where I ‘d attended undergrad, and asked him if we should go down to the county court house for a quickie wedding before David shipped off.

His response was, “No – come down to my church.  It’s beautifully-decorated for Christmas, so you can bring a couple of friends and family members and we’ll just have the wedding here.”

I was still in the process of making my wedding dress, and it wasn’t anywhere close to being finished, so a friend loaned me her red Christmas-y dress for “something borrowed.”  Thankfully, we’d already received the rings – already inscribed with the June wedding date. 

There wasn’t any time to put flowers together, or a cake, or even music – but these were things that mattered little at the time.  All we could think about was that we had less than a week before David was going to Bosnia. 

We each called our parents to tell them about the “quickie wedding,” then we each called a friend to join us as our witnesses. 

Somehow, word spread like wildfire… and when David and I pulled up to the church for our small “quickie wedding,” we were astonished to see almost 160 people waiting for us. 

Despite the sadness of David’s imminent departure, there was a joyfulness to the ceremony.  The church was indeed decorated for Christmas, just as the pastor had said.  We had a candle-lit ceremony with holiday greens lining each pew, and the pastor suggested we all join together in singing an a capella version of “O Come O Come Emmanuel” (I get goosebumps each time I hear it now).

There was no procession, no long message, no soloists.  

We simply said our vows, exchanged our rings, and we were married. 

Three days later…

David’s Army unit’s orders were cancelled. 

It was all for naught, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. 

Realizing that we could still go ahead with the originally-planned BIG-WHITE-DRESS wedding in June, we did – and now we celebrate two anniversaries each year:  Dec 15th and Jun 22nd. 

So we called this anniversary “The 13th anniversary of the 1st wedding” and David surprised me by taking me out for an amazing dinner last night at The Melting Pot (309 S. Main St in Ann Arbor). 

Our fantastic waiter (Guy – you were AMAZING!!) led us to the back corner table (very cozy & intimate), and the feasting began…

The first course was a creamy blend of aged cheddar cheeses, lager, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce & chives blended together – right there at our table! – served with an assortment of breads, fresh vegetables, and crisp granny-smith apples for dipping.  Seriously – this was SOOOO fantastic that I could have stopped there. 

BUT WAIT!!  There’s MORE!

Our second course was a giant salad – I had a fresh spinach salad topped with baby portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced red onions, chopped tomato & bacon, served with a warm Burgundy shallot vinaigrette.  YUMMMMM!!!!

I had no idea how we’d have room for the main course and dessert, but a few good belches later, I made room. 

The main course featured lobster tail, filet mignon, salmon, BBQ pork tenderloin, Key West shrimp, honey-Dijon chicken, and ravioli stuffed with spinach & gorgonzola – all served with about a billion different kinds of sauces, fresh potatoes, broccoli & mushroom caps. 

I had never realized that fondue could be anything other than cheese or chocolate, but for this main course, we were given a pot of broth-like liquid that simmered steadily, and we were told to pierce our raw meat pieces with the fondue sticks and cook them to their desired “doneness” in the broth:

I was totally in my glory.    There was no way for this to go wrong – I had bread, I had cheese, I had seafood (and did I mention the AMAZINGLY FANTASTIC glass of Spatlese I was drinking?) – and I knew chocolate was yet to come.

Oh. My. God.  The chocolate. 

Creamy melted milk chocolate, mixed with marshmallow cream, flambéed with a little rum, and topped with graham cracker crumbs.  And this was just the dipping sauce.

INTO the dipping sauce went:

Yeah.  ALL of that.  A large piece of creamy cheesecake, miniature decadent chocolate brownies, moist pound cake, chocolate-covered marshmallows, Rice Krispie treats, fresh strawberries & bananas, more graham crackers, and an already once-dipped-in-chocolate cherry, just waiting for its second dip. 

Guess who almost went into sugar-induced comas?!?!?!?

I swear – we had our pants unzipped, and they almost had to roll us out of there.  How we walked all the way back to our car is beyond me.  When we woke up this morning, we were STILL stuffed!

If you’ve never been to the Melting Pot, go!  I can’t imagine how David will ever be able to top this event. 

My husband’s Army unit had their annual Holiday Party last night at Mulligan’s, the golf course restaurant at Selfridge Air National Guard Base.  I was asked to help with the centerpieces for the party, so I went with a basic “Holiday greens” theme, using poinsettias, pine cones, glass balls, berries, pine branches & glitter:

Here’s what 10 centerpieces grouped on a single table in my studio look like:

And here’s what 10 centerpieces joined with another 10 centerpieces look like, after they’re divided among the beautifully-decorated tables in a beautifully-decorated room:

Up close:

There were some men in my husband’s Army unit who were unable to be with us at the Holiday Party because they’re serving overseas in Iraq.  One of them sent us a photo that we had enlarged and framed, and we placed the photo on a table at the party so they could be with us in spirit.  Come home to us safely, fellow soldiers and friends:

I took a lot of other photos of families and their children, but it doesn’t feel right to post them here for public display without their consent.  And as usual, I didn’t get a photo of David and I together, even though I looked amazing in my new black blouse with black lace trim, super-sparkly gemstones, and a plunging neckline that required frequent hoisting throughout the night. 

Tonight’s the Army unit’s Holiday Party at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, and rather than try to navigate my way through all those horrific freeway interchanges, I opted instead to drive out there with David this morning, since his unit’s drilling today and tomorrow. 

Unfortunately, that meant getting up at 4:30am in order to leave Ann Arbor by 5:30am.  

So here it is,  mid-morning on a Saturday afternoon, and I’m hanging out at Panera’s because it’s the only place nearby with free internet access. 

I finished up the centerpieces for the party last night, and I’ll be helping decorate the party room later this afternoon, but meanwhile, I’m killing time on the computer (because I’ve already spent an hour shopping the sales at Jo-Ann’s and David will kill me if I shop anymore today). 

So I’ll use the time to post a few of my recent ATCs for the Swap-Bot “Pin-Up Girl” challenge:

It’s no secret how proud I am of my nieces, and how I love to brag about them at any given moment.  So with that in mind…check out my little musician, Gabby!!!!

I’m so proud of her that I could just BURST!!!  I can’t wait til she’s a little more advanced and we can play flute & cello duets! 

When her Uncle David & I talked to her after the concert, we told her how proud of her we were, and she asked, with an earnest look on her face, “Could you tell that I didn’t know what I was doing during “Jingle Bells?”

We told her, “Of course not!  We thought you were leading everyone else!” 

Tonight was the last session of the fall semester Holiday Greeting Cards class I was teaching through Ann Arbor’s Rec & Ed Dept, and we held the last class here at my studio.  We had Christmas music playing in the background, lots of chocolate goodies on the table, and mugs of hot cocoa topped with swirls of whipped cream. 

After indulging our sweet tooths (teeth?), we got to work, assembling our final cards for mailing out to family & friends. 

Over the last few months, I’ve had the great pleasure of getting PAID to play with paper with these amazing women (who I now consider friends) – we’ve spent weeks playing with cardstock, die-cuts, rubber stamps, paints, paper punches, ribbon, handmade papers, gemstones, buttons, confetti, embossing plates and so much more.  I LOVE this job! 

Here are pictures of some the cards I designed for the class to make:

And if you’re on my mailing list for Christmas cards, expect to see a brand new design this year!

One of my previous students from Paper Arts Studio (Gretchen M, not Gretchen G from last week) recently finished a STUNNING piece of mixed-media art and I have to showcase it ’cause I’m SO PROUD of her!!

Here’s her photo of the piece, as well as a link to her blog.  Check her out – she’s AMAZING!

Visit Gretchen’s website to learn more about this civil engineering graduate student-to-be and her other amazing pieces of art!

The Ann Arbor Women Artists held our annual Holiday Party this afternoon, and as usual, there was plenty of great food (I LOVED the pumpkin & cream cheese roll that you brought, Sue B!), great wine (excellent choices, Corrine & Lois!), and a great climax to the afternoon – the White Elephant Gift Exchange. 

Every year, we have a contest to see who will bring the gift that provokes the most laughter, as well as the gift that’s the most popular (others request it rather than choosing a new gift). 

And every year, Karen Gallup seems to win with the gift she finds while working her volunteer shifts at Kiwanis Thrift Sale.  This year was no exception – here’s Sandy D.  (our 2006-2008 AAWA President) holding the dancing, moaning, purple monstrosity that Karen brought this year:

That thing TOTALLY freaked me out!  I was sitting next to Sandy during the White Elephant gift exchange, and every now and then, that purple thing would lift it’s neck, jiggle a little, and say something unintelligble in a scary voice that reminded me of haunted house movies.  CREEPY!

Sandy was having awful luck, ’cause before she ended up with this purple monster, she had this pirate’s necklace, which was promptly taken by another mom for her son:

It was a bad year (gift-wise) for our past & present Presidents – here’s our current President (Barbara Brown) with the smelly corn-huskish necklace she started off with:

And before she left, Barbara B. had this very odd, very creepy, light-up squishy cucumber thing:

I found out later that my best friend Barbara Carson (who couldn’t make it to the party ’cause she was selling her art at the 10th Annual Gift Fest) had sent along that creepy cucumber thing with another member (Cathy M)  – how I ended up sitting next to the two folks who got the creepiest presents is beyond me.  

My nieces Gabby & Ani came over this evening to work on their Christmas present crafts – they’re assembling foam Christmas ornament/picture frames for all our family members (so if any of you are reading this, ACT SURPRISED when you open your gift!) 

After decorating the ornament/picture frames, we started our FAVORITE cold-weather, indoor activity:  toasting marshmallows in the fireplace!

(Yep, that’s Chippie’s butt in the lower right corner.)

If I’m never able to have children of my own, I’ll still consider myself incredibly fortunate to have been given these two precious little jewels as my nieces. 

My greatest wish for them is that they’ll grow into young adulthood knowing that they’re loved beyond measure, that they’re more beautiful (inside and out) than I could have ever imagined, and that I’ll ALWAYS be there for them, no matter what. 

Auntie Katherine loves you to infinity and beyond, Gabby & Ani.  Always remember that.