50 Years of Marriage: M's Grandparent's Celebration

Happy Tuesday blogging friends!



I’m back in the game today, catching up on all things work, running errands like a crazy person all around town, and trying to get myself organized once again after being away for the weekend…and ending up sick (more on that in the below post).



Our time in Mississippi visiting with M.’s family went by, of course, incredibly quickly, but we enjoyed some special family time with what little time we could. After leaving work a little bit early on Thursday afternoon to catch the train to catch our plane (oh hello there rhyming) we were on our way to hot and humid Mississippi. Two plane rides later and WAY too many of those delicious Biscoff cookies that Delta offers we arrived at the airport around midnight New York time. M.’s parents were at the airport waiting for us and we quickly hopped in the car for the short ride to M.’s grandparents house.



Not surprisingly, M.’s grandparent’s house was buzzing with activity since his four youngest cousins would be staying there for the weekend. We were greeted by children riding bikes and wrestling matches on the living room floor. :) After about an hour of catching up we called it a night so that we’d be ready for the full day ahead on Friday.



Friday morning I was up around 9 and decided that the best way to start my mini-vacation would be a quick run around the neighborhood. Not considering the fact that I’ve never run in humidity such as that of Mississippi summer weather, I quickly put in 4.2 miles and felt wonderful. Without really thinking about it I didn’t eat very much for breakfast and then spent the afternoon with M.’s mom and Aunts preparing the church where his grandparent’s 50th Anniversary party would be held. We spent the majority of our afternoon organizing and putting together the beautiful dinner party spread – tables, chairs, tablecloths, candles, flowers, cake toppers…you name it, they had it and everything came together absolutely beautiful.



Even though I didn’t get to stay to help finish up the decorating, M. and I rushed off to the grocery store and The Shed (a local BBQ favorite) to pick up some food for that evening’s family cookout – burgers, hotdogs, BBQ, chips, drinks…we had everything covered and in record time too! Upon arriving back at M.’s grandparent’s house, the men started up the grill and the women prepared everything else. Luckily it wasn’t long before the house was buzzing even more with family members catching up, children playing, and at one point, we even had some live music going with M. and his cousin playing the guitar together and M.’s mom playing piano while the crowd sang along to all of the familiar tunes.



After a big “grill” dinner (and yes, I ate WAY too much), the men started a pickup game of football outside and the rest of the evening was spent hanging out with the family. When everyone eventually headed home it was pretty late, so it wasn’t too difficult to drift off to sleep. Unfortunately, I knew something was wrong when I DID go to sleep since my stomach just wasn’t feeling all that great. Without giving any unnecessary details, I was sick pretty much all Friday night and into Saturday morning. I was hoping that it was just a food thing, but I turned out to be pretty sick the entire day Saturday which was a MAJOR bummer considering I really wanted to help finish all of the last minute details for the 50th Anniversary party and I have been looking forward to this for a while now.



M. set me up on the couch with some Gatorade and crackers and I stayed in the same spot almost the entire day. When it was finally time to get ready for the party I was NOT going to let a little illness stop me from attending so I sucked it up, got ready and put on the best smiling face that I could so that I could help celebrate M.’s amazing 50 years of marriage.



When we walked into the church hall everything looked incredible! M.’s mom and Aunts put in so much hard work getting all of the details together and it couldn’t have been prettier. I especially loved the room when all of the candles were lit and the main lights were turned off – beautiful! One of my favorite details was the enlargement of a photo of the place where M.’s grandparents first met, The Big Pig! Turns out no one actually had a photo of The Big Pig so they turned to face book and actually found one! It was a great touch for the party décor and a super sweet memory for M.’s grandparents.



Once M.’s grandparents arrived everyone feasted on the delicious catered food (I stuck to my sturdy Ritz Crackers) and got ready for the entertainment portion of the evening which started with the video I put together of photos scanned and sent to me by all of M.’s family members. It was great to watch the video and see everyone’s reactions to the old photos and I think that M.’s grandparents really loved it – their reactions were so fun!



After the video played, M.’s brother who couldn’t be there that evening sent a special video of him playing the guitar and singing a special song. It was the perfect thing since he couldn’t be there that evening and I absolutely LOVE this photo which captures M.’s grandparents and brother D. up on the big screen! Next up were two more songs, one in which M. helped play the guitar and his Aunt sang and another where M.’s mom played the piano. Both were incredibly touching and very beautiful. You can’t beat live music! To wrap everything up there was time for family members to get up and make little speeches. Everyone said something so wonderful and it was a reminder of just how special family is and how marriage in particular is such a special and beautiful thing.



After some posed family shots (look at all of those grandkids!) and a few shots of the happy couple (note the adorable veil that M.’s grandmother is sporting…I actually bought it because I thought that the little girls may want to wear it, never thinking M.’s grandmother would actually put it on herself, but LOOK how sweet she looked!)!



M. ended up taking me home early (around 9:30) and of course I felt bad because I wasn’t able to help stay and clean up, but apparently everything went smoothly in that department. I fell asleep in an instant once my head hit my pillow and the next morning I was feeling more like myself, but still not 100%. Sunday morning we said our goodbyes to everyone and had a quick breakfast before it was time to board the plane headed back to New York. Being sick on a plane = no fun. And it turns out, yesterday evening M. ended up getting sick too. Two people sick = really no fun. Luckily though, we are both feeling much better today and we're settling back into the swing of things here in NYC.



Overall, the trip to Mississippi was one to remember. A wonderful celebration of sweet memories, family, and of course, love.



Not to forget, this weekend also marked my parent's 35th year of marriage! I'm so lucky to have parents that still love each other and love their kids just as much. I'm proud that I can use their marriage as an example of what I should strive for each and every day in my own journey through married life. Love you Mom and Dad!! :)



**Thanks for M.'s Aunt Heather for all of these photos...of course in my "sick state" I forgot to put my camera battery back in my camera before leaving for the party!**