A Moment for a Shechechyanu

This is a postcard from this moment.  In this house right now we have Alissa and Benjamin and Rebecca and Jon and me.  Alissa is working on a variety of desserts, Benjamin is examining an ancient camera that he found on the porch, Rebecca just went outside and brought in her demonstration plate of six different versions of cake and frosting (testing how they hold up in heat), Jon is about to clean up the pans that were used for frying fish.  We just asked Rebecca to find some metal pitchers for the iced tea and she went right to Amazon and ordered some.  Why metal?  Because Jesse has made choices for his wedding that don't involve any plastic or paper so we don't want to serve anything out of a dish that doesn't match that standard.  Plus it would be nice to have some good pitchers.

This is what weddings do.  They cause everyone to come together, stop what they are usually doing, and focus on creating an event that is an expression and celebration of the people who are getting married.

My own role is minimal.  I am continuing to do farm stuff, and I come inside now and then to help to come up with solutions to unsolved problems, and to taste the frosting to see which one will hold up best and still taste good when it is hot out.  We just discussed and figured out what serving dishes we will use -- by looking around the kitchen and realizing that we have what we need, way up on top of the cupboards.

Alissa has switched over to making dipping sauces. None of us will be hungry by Saturday. We will have had our fill of cake and dip.  The current version of dipping sauce under construction is ranch dressing with herbs.

Benjamin is disturbed to learn that we have one of those Alexa things in our house -- he thinks that our conversation is being recorded and sent back to headquarters.  He has spent his life trying to stay off the grid.

Now Rebecca is reverting to her favorite pastime: sharing trivia questions from some huge database. I don't even try to answer those questions. Inevitably, the conversation moves on to discussions of history and culture as they try to figure out the answer.  Rebecca has been playing trivia for years and years -- it entertains her mightily.

Anyway, I need to return to the outdoors where the vegetables are still happening, but these moments are so delicious. Oops, Alissa just ignored the timer and forgot to get the cakes out of the oven, so distracting is this conversation, and Rebecca is shrieking at her.  All is right with this little world.