A full weekend

Last Friday - the date of our tenth anniversary I might add proudly - the wife and I packed the kids in the car, took the dog to the vet. for boarding, and headed southward for Houston to visit family. We did some shopping with grandparents, some festive dress-up and related activities, ate out a bit, and enjoyed an absurdly good lentil soup inspired by my wife's equally flavorful concoction.

On Sunday we attended Divine Liturgy with my father and his wife followed by a blessing of the new cross for the church's freshly repaired dome, an all-parish meeting, and a final tour through the parish bookstore. Fr. James and his wonderful family then went out to eat with us at a nearby restaurant. After the prolonged post-liturgy events lunch proved a restive, short-lived affair as our children revolted against us, but we enjoyed it all the same and hope to repeat it next visit.

Most importantly, some friends of ours have chosen to enter the Church and are to be received on Christmas. So after dinner we drove over to their house for dessert and a chat. Boys wrestled on the ground and chased one another, girls drew and played with crafts, and adults insured the playtime was bloodless with the occasional adult conversation thrown in.

This morning - my birthday in fact - the wife and I arose at 4 (4 looks a lot like any other hour of the "should be in bed" array of nocturnal hours complete with moon, cold, and complete silence), lumbered down the stairs encumbered by children and chattel, and headed for home so that I could make morning meetings. I was held up by demands for restroom breaks and food (the demands these people make), but arrived in sufficiently spritely spirits to dial a nine digit number and stare vacantly at the phone while people talked.

I find that, much as at the Wedding in Cana, that in my marriage the better wine is to be found later in the celebration of our union than at the beginning.