My Sister's Wedding
Sept 27, 2004 AM/Walnut Creek
The highlight of the evening was certainly my new brother-in-law Paul singing to my sister Jennifer "All The Way". The lines coming between kisses and hand holding. For the iTunes enabled geeks among us, let me point to this.
But really Frank had nothing on Paul! And he had flower girls to contend with, running around his feet while he sang! My wife and I finally got them under control again. Sorry about that!
My own personal highlight was watching my daughter seek out her Auntie's lap, and the two of them sitting together for quite a bit of the afternoon. Absolutely made my day.
But then, of course, there was the incredible feast! This is the reception of a chef after all! There was a whole roast pig, and by whole, I mean WHOLE. Head, shoulders, knees and toes. A good friend of the groom's hovered over the roasting pig and it came out fantastic. On a funny note, at one point my wife and I were wondering, where did an ear go? And I was thinking to myself ... Dad. It had to be Dad. Sure enough he had run off with it. He proclaimed later that in some cultures it is an aphrodisiac, but I was trying not to listen. Parents and talk of aphrodisiacs don't mix well.
But the pig aside, the salads upon salads that my sister and her chef friend Nicole created were show stoppers. My mother's pate and salmon tartar were delicious. The long line of cheeses and sausages that Maile smuggled across the country in her suitcase from NY were incredible. Though there was a truffle cheese that I could have eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner for a month and still smiled a contented smile right to the end (Maile must have been working out, because there was something like 40lbs of cheese all told!) And as if all that just wasn't enough, there was the cake my wife and I made from my sister's recipe (my wife made homemade plum jam to go in the middle, yum). Lemon buttermilk cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. But that was there mainly just to push you over the edge if you hadn't already taken the plunge.
Speaking of pushing over the edge, there was my wife falling down the stairs! Almost forgot about that one! Thankfully she saved her recently healed arm and only managed to scrape up her ankle. Who could forget the lovely vision of Nicole carving the roast pig in a beautiful chiffon-y dress and work gloves!
And what wedding reception would be complete without some family drama. Though surprisingly I didn't need to walk Dad around the block this time like I was expecting. Lets see, drama. Well, there was Jennifer not eating, and everyone calling her on it. I can't count the number of, "Jennifer, please eat!" comments I heard. Though she promised me she ate her whole slice of cake. And there was the groom's Mom trolling the party looking for an argument. Did I miss anything?
All in all I'm going to remember that party for a long long time. Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful.
Sept 28, 2004 AM/Walnut Creek
A follow up.
Yesterday I dug into my goodie bag that Nicole had put together for me. She had asked which cheese I liked, and I had said, "oh any of them. They're all good". So I was expecting that she had cut me off a nice piece of one of the cheeses. Its what any normal personal would have done. But not Nicole! I opened the bag and she had made me a selection of six cheeses all individually, perfectly, wrapped. I smiled to myself, she is just too much.
For a snack while I was coding last night I munched on left over smoked salmon. A selection of cheeses. Some of Mom's left over pate. A couple slices of the beast. I'm livin' high on the hog here! Literally :) Its hard to code when eating all this great food. My mind kept wandering to my mouth!
My Uncle Phil sent me an email asking how my mother was at the wedding. I didn't mention her. Sorry Mom! She was cool as a cucumber and happier than a clam. Definitely beaming, I could tell she was really happy to see her daughter so happy. She was also a little worried, like the rest of us that Jennifer wasn't eating anything, but all in all having a great time. Mom came over to me and made sure I tried the Stirling Pino Noir, which was really nice. Surprisingly she didn't try to clean my glasses, which probably had a good layer of buttercream on them. She can be restrained! :)