I don't know about you but I LOVE surprises! Seriously, I think they are the best. Well, as long as they are good surprises. The trick about surprises (especially when there are multiple surprises) is pulling them all off without letting the cat out of the bag as they say. Jaime and Brock's wedding was absolutely full of wonderful surprises. And I must say, they pulled it off like pros.

Jaime and Brock got married on January 18th at Little River Heartland Wedding Chapel in Townsend, TN. The couple had originally decided to just get married in the court house. They just wanted something quiet and small. However, then Jaime found out that her Dad, Mike, was thinking about renewing his vows with her Mom, Joanna, as a gift for their 46th wedding anniversary. Enter surprise numero uno.

So they all decided to make the vow renewal a surprise for Joanna. They would go to the chapel for Jaime and Brock's wedding and then Mike would step up to renew their vows. How cool is that?

However as I said before, there is a second surprise! Everyone thought that Jaime was wearing a small cocktail dress when she had in fact picked out a wedding dress the day before. Exactly in her size! The only people who knew were Mike and her Best friend. Now, I'd like to point out that together, Jaime and Brock have five children, so hiding a dress from that many interested parties is no easy feat. But she pulled it off beautifully and everyone, I think especially Brock, were very surprised.

Congratulations Brock and Jaime! You had a lovely wedding day and you have an absolutely beautiful family. It was a pleasure to be a part of all of the surprises and fun! Also, congratulations to Mike and Joanna for 46 years! I'm sure it has been a ride and I loved watching you renew your vows. It was truly beautiful.

Comment

It's black, it's shiny, it's BIG, and it creates amazing delicious food. Meet our new grill. With a lot of help from a few elves, Mrs. Claus was able to surprise Speed Racer with this beautiful monstrosity...he didn't even see it coming. As I lugged Christmas presents up the stairs from the lower garage, having just arrived home from a lovely Christmas at my parents house, I heard a cry from upstairs. "What's this??!"

"What's what??" I asked, trying really hard not to grin like a Cheshire cat.

"There's a big box in our house....it's...it's...a grill??"

It's not often I get to truly truly blindside Speed Racer and I was enjoying every minute of it. I began to grin remembering how he had "seen" the box of his decoy present (a poster tube, inevitably containing a rather cool poster, but pretty obvious) and had bragged for days before that he knew what it was.

He kept just looking at me, then looking at the grill, then looking at me. After several more gapes, and silences as he let it sink in, I explained my evil plan and how many of our family members had been involved.

So last night, after setting it up the night before, Speed Racer treated me to a feast on his new grill. And I have to admit folks, he showed me up. It was AMAZING. I may have to change "Dish-o-the-Week" to "Speed Racer's Grill of the Week." I rather like the idea.