Wintery Weather Wedding Weekend Wrapup

I'm still dreaming of the Salisbury Steak and mashed potatoes I made for dinner last night.  Do you know my family eats 3 lbs. of ground beef and 5 lbs. of potatoes for ONE MEAL?  And I only have two teenagers!  The chilly weather is finally upon us which means cooking those big comfort meals is back in style.  Summer can be so judgey when I try to make meatballs and marinara and beef barley soup, but not winter.  Oh no, winter's like the perfect combination of huggable grandmother and stretchy sweatpants that just makes you want to sit down, enjoy a nice meal, and add body layers for warmth to get you through until judgey summer comes back again asking you what happened?!?!

Speaking of good food, this past weekend we went to a wedding, which I was VERY VERY excited for and it did not disappoint!  We were running late to the wedding and had to do the walk of shame from the front door of the church to our pew because we couldn't get in the back entrance where the whole wedding party was all lined up and waiting.  Fashionably late is still a thing, yes?  The Nuptial Mass was beautiful, so extra Catholic in the songs, homily, and little teachings in the booklet.  The reception was so much fun!  They had a macaroni and cheese bar, where you got served mac n cheese in a martini glass and then added toppings of your choice.  I made mine buffalo chicken mac n cheese and Phil was all about the bacon!  Dinner was delicious, I had chicken, Phil had prime rib, and the dance floor was rocking all night.  They had wedding cake and a sundae bar for dessert!  I have so many funny/happy memories from the night:

1. The DJ was acting so nice to me at the beginning of the reception, talking to me like he knew me.  I offered to bring him over some of the mac n cheese and we were just shooting the breeze a bit.  On my way to the bathroom, I ran into him and he stopped me and said "I know you from Sam's wedding, right?" I was like "Nope!" but he swore he knew me.  Phil thinks he must have gotten together with a girl that looked like me at the wedding he asked about.  Not sure, but he was an amazing DJ!

2.  How can I make this next story short?  I'll try!  The groom is someone I work with, and one day he walked into my office and started talking about how he had just gotten back from a wedding in New Mexico that weekend.  I literally had just read the blog post by Grace Patton about her sister Emily's love story.  I knew from the post that Emily and Sam were getting married that weekend in New Mexico, so I asked, "Emily and Sam's wedding?"  "Yes! he said, "Do you know them?"  Ummmmm, not really, I just am a faithful reader of her sister's blog. So lame.  So creepy.  Anyway, knowing that the groom/my coworker/friend was friends with Emily and Sam (whom my boys had loved seeing in this video) made me start following Emily on Instagram like a creeper does.  All of this to say that by the time I saw her at the wedding this weekend, I kinda had a fangirl moment.  Am I like 12?  Apparently.  I went up to her and introduced myself and she was so kind and engaging even though I probably said "I'm not a creeper" ten times, which is EXACTLY what a creeper would say.  She even took this photo of us, which I have borrowed from her Instagram:

3.  At one point, a Beyonce song came on, and I jokingly moved my wedding rings to my other hand to get ready to dance to "All the Single Ladies" but my ring dropped on the floor!  We found it, and then I realized it was  her "Crazy in Love" song anyway.  D'oh!

4.  I was talking with a female coworker, trying to get her dating info so I could try to set her up with someone at a future date (matchmaking is a skill I want to have on my resume) and another wedding guest came over to say hi to her.  He seemed real excited to see her again (they had hung out at a couple parties) and I straight out asked him if he was single.  He jokingly said "No, I'm married to this lady right here" and grabbed his elderly Aunt for a hug.  We all kept talking and then as he walked away, he whispered to me "Yes, I am single.  Make your magic happen!"  A dream come true for this matchmaker wanna be!  By the end of the night, I had danced around the two of them so we were in a little group and then I dropped them like they were hot.  I gotta check in later with my coworker to see if any sparks flew.

5. They didn't play any slow songs before we left around 11 pm, but Phil got on the dance floor for a bit anyway!  This is just miraculous and I loved it!  Okay, I could talk about this wedding all day, Phil and I were so happy to be there, and he kept whispering "Toit Nups" to me all night which cracked me up:

You must watch Brooklyn 99, so funny!

But there were more weekend happenings too!  John-Paul had his freshman retreat all day on Saturday, I still can't believe he's old enough for these events.  He's also selling a Calendar raffle for school - they cost $25 and it's a huge raffle with over $15,000 in cash prizes given out from Jan-June.  Anybody want to buy one?  You can't win if you don't play ;)

Basketball games have started (just scrimmages this weekend) for Andrew, Eamon and Maggie.  They all played so well, and my motherly heart just wants to burst from pride and enjoyment and nervousness when I watch them give it their all on the court.  JP and Andrew are also working at the CYO center for a little (and I mean very little) spending money.  They run the scoreboard, buzzer, and keep the records.  They both enjoy the work and don't mind the horrible pay because they get to eat candy and chips from the concession stand.  Ha!  Andrew and Eamon also ran a 5k on Sunday in the rain and placed 1st and 3rd in their age group.  They are so cute:

They do not love to run but they do love to race, complete opposites as me!  I would happily train all year for a race that never comes.  The little kids are doing fine - they are good sports who get dragged around to everybody else's events but also sleep really well at night from all the activities!  Brendan had a double ear infection, that turned into a single ear infection, and if that doesn't clear up we will consider tubes for what will be our 5th time around.  Kids got the bad Sweeney ears :(

We are gearing up for Thanksgiving break and a wonderful meal with all of my non-working family members (darn hospitals have to stay open on holidays!).  I'm making Loaded Cauliflower, Sweet n Sour Meatballs, Caramel Apple Sangria, and juiceboxes for the kiddos.  What are you planning on gobbling up?  Heehee...gobbling...still killing it in the joke department ;)