“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now update your Facebook status.”
—Author Unknown
—Author Unknown
As time passed and my children
continued to grow, one by one they fell in love and got married. Tracy had the big traditional wedding with
lots of bridesmaids and the big flowing white gown, a couple hundred guests in
attendance, the reception at an elite banquet hall overlooking Biscayne Bay and
a honeymoon cruising the Caribbean.
Jamie, on the other hand,
wanted a small wedding in a little historic church in Bradenton with only
family in attendance. The reception
consisted of a few party platters served in the church courtyard. Her dress was a vintage, cream colored,
antique design. Her wedding was
considerably less expensive, but equally as beautiful.
Jamie had one little incident
at her wedding that we continue talking about to this day. While the groom, James, and his Best Man
waited at the alter with the minister, Jamie and her Maid of Honor walked
around from the back door of the church to make her grand entrance at the front
door in order to walk down the aisle.
The music began and we took our seats in the church and waited for Jamie
to enter. And we waited. And waited.
We began to get nervous and wondered if she had changed her mind at the
last minute. After all, this was
Jamie. We were never quite sure of what
Jamie was going to do from one moment to the next. We all exchanged glances and I could see the
concerned look on the groom’s face with beads of sweat forming on his
forehead. Finally she appeared and with
a collective sigh of relief from both sets of parents and the groom, the
wedding proceeded as planned, until it came time to exchange rings. The minister blessed the rings and then handed
them back to the bride and groom. James
slipped Jamie’s ring on her finger and Jamie proceeded to place a small ring
onto James’ finger that didn’t quite fit past his first knuckle. Remembering how much time they had taken to
pick out their wedding rings, James had a quizzical look on his face. “Just go with it”, Jamie said to him shaking
her head. “I’ll explain later.”
As it turned out, the maid of
honor had dropped the groom’s ring accidently as they walked around the outside
of the church. Not being able to find
it, they used her toe ring as James’ ring in the ceremony. Although the original ring was later found,
that toe ring was the one that was blessed.
In the years that followed,
Tracy and her husband Chris blessed me with three grandchildren and Jamie and
James blessed me with one.
A few years later my son,
Michael, met a lovely girl named Starla and they too were married with a big,
beautiful wedding held outdoors in the gardens of Parrot Jungle in Miami (of
which my husband was happy that we didn’t have to pay for) and later they too
blessed us with two more beautiful grandchildren.
Our little family had grown
from just the two of us to a family of fourteen. Yes, fourteen… not counting the six dogs and eight cats, a guinea pig, two rabbits, and a sugar glider.
FRESH
APPLE CAKE
Ingredients:
·
2 cups
unsifted all purpose flour
· 2 cups sugar
· 2 tsp baking soda
· 1 tsp cinnamon
· ½ tsp nutmeg
· ½ tsp salt
· 4 cups finely diced pared raw apples
· ½ cup soft butter
· 2 eggs
· ½ cup chopped nuts
Procedure:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease
a 13x9x2” baking pan.
Into a large bowl, sift
together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
Add apples, nuts, butter and
eggs. Beat until just combined. Batter
will be thick. Turn into prepared pan.
Bake one hour or until top
springs back when lightly pressed with fingertip. Cool in pan or wire rack.
Powdered sugar can be sifted
on top, or a dollop of whipped cream, if you like.
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