Hello Monday- a festival and a wedding

 Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

We had a busy, full weekend. It was all good for the most part but very busy. I am not one who loves to be busy but I try to take everything in stride. That's why when we have a non busy one like the previous weekend, I enjoy it. I know that some are like that and some are not. 

First thing, our school district has this entire week off of school. That has never happened before! (And yes, Jacob and Abby were mock (sort of) outraged!! They always had to to go to school the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.) So when the final bell rang on Friday, there was much glee (I'd say more on the teachers part if I was wagering a guess!). I felt the glee, too, even though I'm just a sub and only work when I choose. But I try to work if I'm asked and I know the need is great and I don't have anything at home that I have to do. That translates to working a decent bit;  I worked four days last week. So... it was nice for me, too, to know that I couldn't work this week even if I were dying to spend the day at school, lol.

Though the day was a good one, I found out one piece of bad news. My sister was supposed to be coming into town for my brother's wedding that was on Sunday. My sister lives in Canada very close to the US border. She's travels through Buffalo, New York and enters/ exists via the Peace Bridge that goes over Lake Erie and separates the US/ Canada. I talked to her on the phone on Thursday and she asked if I'd heard about the huge snowstorm that was precipitated for Buffalo for the weekend. Why, no, I had not heard of it and I tried to be optimistic (not my normal tendency...) and believe that it wouldn't come to pass. My sister could not risk a weekend of travel during the weekend of a blizzard. Lake effect was being blamed for the monster storm that was predicted. Argh! Darn that lake! Wasn't it just last month that my sister and I met in Erie, PA and were gushing over Lake Erie?? "It's so pretty! It looks like the ocean!" Blah, blah blah. I am not liking Lake Erie right now! The snow had already started to fall on Friday and it looked like with 100% certainty that a huge amount of snow was coming (which it did. Some places in Buffalo got six feet of snow with more predicted) so my sister scrapped her plans to come. So disappointing but there's nothing we could do about it (besides complain about the lake and Buffalo and the fact that my sister lives in Canada. Obviously we could and *possibly* did do that!). 

I volunteered that evening at our town's Christmas in Springboro festival. I helped out in the children's tent. I let tent enterers know that all the activities were free in the children's tent and would they like to enter a raffle to win this beautiful and festive wreath? (It was really pretty; I entered the raffle myself(!) and hope to win. The winner is announced today!!). After my shift, I walked around the festival before going home. It was freezing cold. We had plans to go to the festival Saturday evening. I hoped that it would warmer and more enjoyable on Saturday (spoiler alert, it wasn't).

As I was leaving the children's tent, I heard the unmistakable voice of my friend Payton exclaiming, "Mrs. Reindeer! Mrs. Reindeer!" Payton knows she's only supposed to call me Mrs. Reindeer in December but she calls me that year round. I could hardly chide her for saying it during a Christmas festival! Plus I had my reindeer hat on! I asked her friend if she would take a picture of Payton and me.

This church had a nativity scene and some real animals!

Saturday was a busy day. Donnie had a board meeting in Dayton Saturday morning. Jacob was coming home and Alyssa was getting ready to go out of town. I was trying to get gifts ready for my nieces (my brother who was getting married kids') and finish decorating the house. The latter didn't happen since that was not necessary but I did get a good start on it. Our friends came over and we headed to the festival with them and to meet others. My stars, it was cold! And then it got windy. We ate at the festival but decided it was too cold to enjoy. So we left. Our friends came back over to the house. We turned on the fireplace and just chilled (well, warmed) until they left. 

Oops, I did it again! I assembled all of the clearance Halloween candy that I bought at various stores after Halloween. It would appear that I bought too much (but I kept finding good sales and couldn't pass it up!!) I was hoping to use pieces for advent calendars that I was assembling for my nieces. Unfortunately, none of the pieces fit. I will attempt to use a lot of the candy for holiday baking!

The advent calendars turned out cute! The light is less garish in real life than it is in this picture. It was fun adding small things to each box (though I sure wish minature candy pieces would have fit!).

Back at the festival, I ran into a favorite student from my last year's long term sub job. We screamed when we saw each other, hugged and I asked for a picture with her. 

We went to a coffee shop to warm up and for the coffee drinkers to get coffee. I forgot that Alyssa's best friend works at the coffee shop. We screamed when we saw each other (not too loudly, lol) and we had to get a picture, obviously. 

I knew that the kids tent had a photo op place so before we left, we ducked into the tent. Everything had been taken down since it was late but thankfully they still had the photo area set up. Jacob and his girlfriend Paige ❤

The guys

Nicole and me

Alyssa had to get up early the next morning to catch an early flight to Florida with a friend. She was invited to go on a cruise with a friend. Her friend's mom offered to pay for everything (we were going to pay for half even though she didn't ask for it)! Alyssa had never been on a cruise and did not remember the last time that we were in the Bahamas. We decided to let her go even though she'd have to miss my brother's wedding. Abby already couldn't go to the wedding due to a school assignment that required work of her on Sunday. So we told Alyssa she could go on the cruise. Then her friend's mom decided to not go on a cruise and just go to Florida. So Alyssa left cold and freezing Ohio early Sunday morning to head to the Sunshine State. 

Sunday morning, Donnie, Jacob and I went to church but had to leave before the last song. We hated to walk out but but the sermon was long and we could not risk being late to the wedding. We had a two hour drive to Indiana to go to the big event. The wedding was really lovely. I took many pictures and will let them do the talking.

We were able to see the bride and groom (to be!) before the wedding. The wedding was small and pretty informal. 

My little brother Joe and me. Our parents had five kids in six years. Joe and I are the furthest apart at 21 months!! 

My mom said that she always wanted four kids. Two girls and two boys. She and my dad married later in life (hence the lots of kids in a few years). After I was born, my parents had two girls and two boys. They thought they were done. When my mom was pregnant with Joe, my mom's sister, my Aunt Katy, said that God revealed to her that Joe would be a blessing to her. Years later, when my mom was sick, my mom wrote a letter to me that detailed some events that had been happening recently. She mentioned Joe helping her out and spending time with her. She wrote, "Joe is such a blessing to me." God had already known that he would be a blessing to my mom!

Joe, his girls, and Kacia

Joe and Donnie

Jacob, Carly and Mallory

Jacob and Joe

Kacia and Joe

Love Kacia! She has a heart of gold just like Joe.

Jacob and Paige

I took many more photos- these are just a few that I uploaded here (I feel bad that Donnie isn't in more of them...). The professional photographer took many pictures of all of us that I look forward to seeing.