Holiday Plans

Tomorrow I'll be on a plane with Kate and her sister Emily to visit their family (my future in-laws) in Selah, WA. And, as I do before every major trip (especially one that requires flying), I'm struggling with anxiety. It's not the visiting the O'Connells that's stressing me out; I've already met them and they're all great people. I think it's just the thought of flying in a plane.

Hey, intellectually I know that it's perfectly safe...safer than traversing the roads of Washington state during December. But emotionally, I hate the thought that I'm a couple miles off the ground and there's absolutely nothing I can do to control my fate. Don't get me wrong; I totally trust the airplane engineers, the pilots, and the flight controllers to get me where I'm going safe and sound. It's just that my fear of heights, especially when I can't control the situation, always kicks in when I fly.

It's irrational, I know, and I keep trying to remind myself of it. At the very least, I'll have Kate with me; that should help. Gotta be brave in front of my lady, right? :-) She's not terribly fond of heights either but she's flown so many times that she can almost tune it out. She's warned me that if I don't get over myself soon, we might have to take two or three flights a year just to build me some backbone. ;-)

It should be fine though. Kate assures me that we'll be kept busy once we arrive in Selah. Her mother is preparing a Thanksgiving dinner for the family the day we arrive (tomorrow). Since the whole family is rarely together except around Christmas, Kate's mother likes to throw Thanksgiving in there as well. No problems here! I never turn down a good roasted turkey.

We'll stay there for about a week, flying back into DIA on the 29th. It'll be late in the afternoon but we're going to drive down to Colorado Springs to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. Dianna and Heath are letting us stay with them for a couple of nights. We restrained ourselves this year and didn't get Julie too many presents. ;-)

Kate and I head back up to Fort Collins on the 31st, hopefully with enough to time to get my place organized for the annual New Year's Eve party I host. We might have some new folks show up (friends of friends) so that'll be fun. We'll usually play board games, card games, and (if our women-folk let us get away with it) video games. It's always a big potluck with plenty to nibble on during the night. Everyone tries to make to midnight so we can all toast the new year. Then everyone crashes hard. In the morning, our friend Tammy Sue cooks a massive breakfast for anyone who's still around and we all spend part of the afternoon goofing off some more.

Busy holiday! But fun nonetheless. In case I don't get a chance to update during my trip, I hope everyone reading this (and even those who aren't) has a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

More Wedding Details

Silly me. I forgot a couple of things to mention:

1. Kate and I decided against doing a traditional wedding cake, primarily because of the cost. Instead we'd like to order 3-4 large triple-layer ice cream cakes from Walrus Ice Cream here in Fort Collins. Walrus is a relatively local ice cream shop that Kate and I frequent every chance we get. First, we have to verify that the church's reception area has a big enough freezer to store the cakes prior to serving.

(Oh, by the way, there will be NO squashing-cake-in-the-face ritual at our wedding! Kate says I'll be sleeping on the couch for our first year of marriage if I try it!) ;-)

2. We're going to go light on the centerpieces during the reception. Instead, we're going to try setting up small board and card games at each table. Kate and I love playing games and this seemed like a fun way to break the ice and keep folks entertained.

3. Parish policy says no photography during the wedding ceremony because the interior of the church is a holy place; it is disrespectful to have cameras going off all the time. We're not sure how we're going to handle this since Kate and I DO want pictures of the ceremony. We'll need to talk to the church wedding coordinator...see if there's a loophole we can exploit.

4. Kate and I debated back and forth as to whether to offer alcohol at the reception. We're still discussing it, but we're probably going to have SOME drinks available. Some of the guests we want to invite consider drinks traditional (though Kate and I don't drink at all) and we don't want to alienate them.

5. Kate and I can't dance. So we're not sure if we want to have the traditional dances or not. We're still thinking about it...

6. We have our wedding party assembled! We're not having a train of bridesmaids and groomsmen...just a single Maid of Honor and Best Man. Kate has asked her friend Dana to be her Maid of Honor. Dana is one of Kate's closest friends from college and is almost like a sister to Kate. I've asked my friend of many years Bill to be my Best Man. Likewise, he's been like an older brother to me over the years, especially back in our CSU days. Both have accepted with delight.

7. Kate and I decided to go with handmade favors for the reception. We both enjoy baking and got in plenty of practice making decorative treats during the Christmas season this year. So every attendee of the reception will have a small box or bag of homemade treats to take with them.

Hm. I might have more to add but that should suffice for the moment. More as it develops!

Wedding Stuff to Date

I promised that I'd keep up on wedding developments as they, uh, develop. Since I proposed to Kate in October, we've gotten a fair bit taken care of. Some things we really can't decide or start until a little later but here's what we've got as of today:

1. We've agreed to go through with this thing. That's the big one. :-)
2. We have a date: Sunday October 16th at 3:30pm. We weren't sure if we'd be allowed to have a ceremony on a Sunday but it's apparently okay.
3. We have a place: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish here in Fort Collins. This is the church that Kate and I have been attending for the past two years. It's not a fancy one with pews, kneelers, and stained glass...but we like it!
4. We have an officiant: Father Larry Christensen who is the head priest at SEAS Parish will be conducting the ceremony. We've always liked Father Larry's style of speaking during Sunday Mass. We're glad he agreed to do the ceremony for us.
5. We've signed up for marriage prep classes. These'll be the Sundays of February in the afternoon. It's required by the Church to take these classes. We'll also be taking NFP (Natural Family Planning) classes as soon as we find a set that fits with both our schedules.
6. We have a rough guest list. This was tricky because Kate and I both have big families and an extensive network of friends. The toughest part was the decision to limit how many of our co-workers we would invite from the Fort Collins Public Library. We'd like to invite them all, but we just can't afford it. I've already we dropping hints about this and it sounds like most folk are understanding. Whew!
7. We've robbed the Fort Collins Library of nearly all its wedding books! Kate and I are intellectuals (mostly) so of course we have to research this whole wedding thing! My parents were also gracious enough to send a couple of handy books as an early Christmas present. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
8. Kate has started a wish list for the wedding gift registry. I know, I know, it's tacky to bring this up (at least that's what the books say), but I thought I'd mention it. We didn't think we'd have much to put on the registry.
9. We've decided on a honeymoon: a cross-country train trip to Washington, D.C. Some people I've mentioned this to have given me an odd, disbelieving look. Why not a tropical island? Or a Carribean cruise? Well, Kate and I aren't the types who like that sort of vacation. Some time on the east coast seeing museums and landmarks...that's more our scene. :-)
10. We've made general announcements. We weren't sure how to go about this, so we just eased the word out. We told our parents right away, of course, but we waited on everyone else.

Okay, a quick side story. We waited before telling our friends and co-workers at the library (where we both worked for many years) just because we wanted to see who would notice the engagement ring first. At one point, Kate even flashed it practically in one of the other Circulation supervisor's face and she didn't notice. Tsk-tsk! Finally, our friend and co-worker Debbie asked Kate how things were going between Kate and myself. Kate figured this was close enough and showed her the ring. Debbie hurried out to give me a hug and congrats. Our department supervisor Lynda overheard, questioned, and confirmed....and within an hour or so everyone who was working at the two library branches knew what was going on. It was an exciting day; we had congratulations filtering in the entire afternoon. Lots of fun! :-)

I'm certain I'm missing something but that's what I have for now. I'll endevour to continue updating as things develop!

Beginnings

Hi, there. Thanks for stopping in to read this.

In this blog, I'll relate the life and times of, well, me. A lot of this will probably be dedicated to the major event of my life right now, namely my upcoming wedding in October of next year. I've promised that I'll put something like this together for the benefit of my friends and family who don't see me everyday.

This is my first attempt at such a thing; I'm not the expert my sister is. But I'll do my best! With any luck, readers will have some enjoyment out of all this. If not, hey, well, the Internet is a big place. Go somewhere else. ;-)

More to come...