Three Weddings!

Today’s guest post is by my cousin, Jenny Davis.  I think she may be on to something here – while it’s great to have a beautiful wedding day, maybe getting married is something to be celebrated over and over again!

3 weddings?? Don’t mind if I do! This past year has been a series of amazing events and were somehow without the normal stress and frustration that go along with planning a wedding . . . or 3. We didn’t plan for it to go that way . . . really we didn’t!  Nonetheless, he proposed last Christmas and thus the planning began.

Jenny - Engagement Ring
The Engagement
We quickly decided on a wedding just after next Christmas, which meant we had just over a year to plan. We settled on a smaller wedding at a cabin up north with our immediate family and a friend or two by our side! After the planning began, the excitement started to get to us. We had planned to go to the courthouse to get legally married a few days before our perfect cabin snowy wedding so a loved one could perform our ceremony without having to actually be ordained. About 5 months into the year, my then fiancé asked if I just wanted to get married..like now? I said sure (that’s really what I said) so we called and took the steps needed and a couple weeks later wedding #1 was done!! How exciting!!
Jenny & Brian - Wedding 1
Wedding 1
Mr. and Mrs. Brian Davis
Meyer Sisters - Courthouse
The three Meyer sisters
We then moved onto figuring out how we could celebrate with EVERYONE we love, not just immediate family. The perfect plan..another wedding, of course! We had a big BBQ wedding gathering to celebrate with everyone we love at the end of the summer. Wedding #2 was another success!
Wedding Reception 2
Wedding 2!  Yes, we are awesome!
Wedding 2 Family
The Meyer Family
Wedding Reception 2 - CAS-JSK
Cousins celebrating Wedding 2
 Finally Christmas came and went and the next day we headed to the cabin for 2 days with family to have . . . I’m sure you guessed it by now . . . another wedding! The power went out in the cabin for a few hours and my brother finished cooking dinner in the pouring rain on a grill he found outside, it was muddy and cold. My perfect snowy winter wedding didn’t quite go as planned, but it turned out better than I could have hoped for! That stuff didn’t matter . . . I realized it was all perfect because I had the love of my life by my side and both of our families support and love the whole time! That’s what made me so happy . . . not all of the parties, but all of the love that surrounds us. Our families love to joke around about our 3 weddings, but we have all had so much fun all year long I’m pretty sure they would be up for a 4th. Right guys??
Father and the Bride
Father and the Bride
Wedding 3 - The Lodge
The Ceremony at the Lodge
Wedding 3 Ceremony
The Wedding Party
Guys - Wedding 3
Wedding Photo Fun
Wedding Reception 3
Wedding 3 Reception
Now it’s almost the new year and I think I’m just hoping for another year that’s maybe less busy, but just as amazing! What are you hoping for in the new year?

Boxed Wine

Today’s post is a guest post from my dear friend, Judi Esposito (also known as Whodeet!).

I do love red wine, Cabernet Sauvignon specifically.  I don’t really remember when I started to love red wine, but for the last few years it has been my drink of choice.  Before I started drinking wine, I was a beer snob.  When my husband and I first met, he drank a very popular but simple beer.  I quickly showed him the light and turned him into a beer snob like myself, spoiled with micro brews and choosing water over the other stuff he used to drink. 

I know you are probably asking yourself “why are you talking about beer when the title of this blog is ‘Boxed Wine’?”  Well, since wine and beer are popular alcoholic drinks of choice, I am drawing a parallel to them and identifying myself as a complete beer snob. 

Conversely, I prefer a boxed wine over a bottled one.   There are many different reasons why, the primary one being that I can’t taste the difference.  That along with the economical and environmental value makes it the perfect drink.  I love a good deal and boxed wine fits that perfectly.  You get way more for your money and it is estimated that the carbon cost of shipping a single three liter box of wine is half that of shipping a 750ml bottle of wine, not to mention the ease of recycling a box.  Why wouldn’t you switch? 

Boxed Wine

All that being said, there are some boxed wines that are better than others.  I first thought that wine from a plastic bag packaged in a box could not possibly taste good.  Oh boy, was I wrong.  I do have to say, make sure to try different name brands because like I said, they do differ in taste. 

Recently I was blessed with a different boxed wine than I normally purchase.  I was familiar with this type but haven’t purchased it in the past because this box is higher priced than the one that I normally purchase.  I do have to say that this wine is very tasty indeed and I am truly enjoying it. 

Boxed Wine Bota Box

Bota Box

One thing that writing this has enlightened me to is that good things do not need to come in pretty packages.  Boxed wine is actually a great example of a wonderful thing inside of simple, economical, earth friendly package.  Makes me wonder about what other things I consume or have consumed in my life where the outside does not indicate the wonderfulness inside.  This could also apply to people we encounter every day of our lives, something I plan to be more aware of especially during this Christmas season.

The long process of decay

Today’s guest post is by poet Benjamin Kirsch.

When you walk around a town
and all you can see is urban
and moral decay, junk yards full
of people and the once-great advances
of the past. Giant microwaves and tele-
visions that took up entire houses, before
computers were even a thought. Appliances
from the fifties, shaped like a future that
people believed was bright and guaranteed.

Sunshine and dust filters down and falls on
old, deflated tires of the cars that once held
the bodies of our loved ones, but are now sitting
and sighing, four wheeled moans that are not just
forgotten, but deeply forgotten; just like the people
that once rode around in them. Ghosts with electronic
hearts walk around this town, and follow you as you
walk, without dream or purpose, thinking of past
graces and advances and the full-stop of today.

Every dream is the same, there’s this person, alone,
walking through this town, looking for another human
being who’s thrown off veneer and peeled off their
skin to reveal a true heart, with true scars and a true,
ticking mind. Death is all around you, with the used-
up remnants of past lives and past purchases, things
that were supposed to fill a need, fill a hole, but never
did. And now these bits of plastic and metal and rubber
just lie around rotting, sinking into soiled ground, and
flapping in the wind that blows it all into oblivion anyway.

The smell of old books is the best thing that can be hoped
for, when most everything smells of electrical fires and used
motor oil. Fresh things are running out and can’t compete
with the decaying noise that is ever-growing and expanding.
If you never stop walking, you might never turn to dust, but
you’ll never meet another going that way, so to keep from
being alone, you settle down and begin the long process of
decay.