celebratory season

i've spent the last few days repeating myself over and over "how is christmas next week?!" but it is next week. exactly one week from today is christmas day and 2013 is coming to a close and it's just so crazy...this time of year plows through like a freight train. here for a second, and then gone. 

i digress. today is december 18th. since i was five, i've loved december 18th because it meant the lewis family officially kicked off their celebratory season. the three of us have our birthdays within three weeks of each other. december 18th kicked off three solid weeks of presents, and parties, and cake, and delicious food, and then more presents, more parties, more cake, and more delicious food. don't forget about christmas! and new years! and throw in the fact that we would travel across the country every other year to celebrate christmas in new mexico. wrapped presents and all! the amount of patience, and coordination, and work that went into making not only each christmas but each birthday SPECIAL....and it all literally happening at once...geez, my parents are amazing people. 

and then i met pat, and december 18th became even more special, because it's HIS birthday. and so now the lewis family has one more reason to celebrate december 18th-january 9th because we have not three, but four birthdays! 

happy birthday, daniel and patricio! 

daniel, you completed the five of us - the icing on the cake, as you like to call yourself. i am so so proud to be your big sister.

and pat you are where my new family begins. i am so very lucky that i get to do life with you.

so, here's to you both. 

you're loved and celebrated, not only on december 18th, but every darn day of the year.

what he wore

patrick was not super involved in the planning of our wedding. and i mean that in the BEST possible way. he helped me whenever i asked, gave his opinion on things that mattered to him, but for the most part it was "you like it? and your parents are okay with it? okay it looks great to me." he was the ideal groom...but there was one thing he was very particular about and that's all things having to do with his attire.

he said from the very beginning that he would not be wearing a tuxedo. and that was just fine by me. if you went to our wedding you can kind of see how a tuxedo would have looked a tad bit out of place.

he chose a grey suit early on, which made my decision about the bridesmaid dresses even easier. he chose the "fitzgerald" suit from brooks brothers. they were amazingly helpful in placing orders to dozens of stores across the country so that our groomsmen's suits could be pieced together.

contrary to what my father says (he still turns beat red whenever we bring up the fact that last christmas he asked everyone "who wears bowties besides a clown?!" and pat solemnly said "i do.") bow ties are the bees knees! and patrick heckel is a man who can pull them off flawlessly.

navy was the obvious choice, and as an ode to his unwavering love for his wife....he went with polka dots. we bought all the ties from the tie bar  and gifted the groomsmen theirs.

much like his decision to not wear a tux, he was also dead set against a very feminine boutonniere. when we sat down with our florist for the first time and the subject of his boutonniere came up he immediately said "no, no, no, no" when we started to flip through a book of flowers. he wanted something simple. something masculine. with some green. and silver brunia was just what he was looking for.

last little deets..

shoes are cole haan via nordstrom. 

belt is from childhood (probs made it in boys scouts to be honest, he loves that thing and i fear the day the leather finally gives). 

and bless his heart, he wore his watch. i gave it to him as a birthday gift a few years ago, and when i saw it on his wrist at the altar i found something so sweet about it.

the loveliest lovely.

last week i was mortified when i went to parallel park and....well i had forgotten how to do it! 

in my frustration (and a tad bit of embarrassment) i thought to myself: "i used to be so good at this!" and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. 

i don't live in chicago anymore.

and i just got so very sad. 

the city that played host to so many firsts for us, will not be the city that we grow roots in. 

it won't be the birthplace of our babes.

it will be a place we always visit, but never stay. 

i know that we made the right choice moving to florida.

our priorities have shifted.

stuff that wasn't important to us when we were 22-28 years old is tremendously important to us now.

and there are a million and one things i don't miss about chicago.

but there are a million and one things that i do miss. 

i think this sums it up best: 

"Yet once you've come to be part of this particular patch , you'll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely so real."

- Chicago: City on the Make, Nelson Algren

by the way, if you live in chicago, i KNOW you've either seen a couple get in a throw down screaming fight over parallel parking or you have been one half of said couple. very early on in our relationship, pat had the utter audacity to tell me that i wasn't "doing it right" and our perfectly lovely day went to hell in a hand basket in a matter of ten seconds as we both left the car screaming "YOU DO IT THEN!"

for the nuggets.

pat has three nieces and a nephew that we a-d-o-r-e. 

pat's actually the godfather for 75% of that generation of heckels, which cracks me up because this is the same man who yells the most obscene things to any team playing the packers, but whatever. father of my children, love of my life, etc. etc. etc. 

 we are crazy about those little ones, but i'm not an idiot. i know how difficult (and expensive!) it can be to travel with little ones, especially for something like a wedding which for all purposes is something that only adults are interested in. and so i absolutely understood if our nieces and nephew would have stayed home and been taken care of by their other set of grandparents. we would have missed them dearly, but pat and i agreed...whatever was decided, we would understand. 

thankfully they did attend! and i got to put together special "kid favors" for them. 

i used the same kraft boxes that were used for the welcome boxes at the hotel

the kids had the same tulle ribbon that the adult favors were tied in, but i didn't take a picture of them! darn it. 

i printed activity books onto card stock. the template was very easy (i just had to download it) and super cute! it included a cake for them to "decorate" and a picture of a bride and groom to color in. 

i also ordered some goodies from my favorite store and yours, oriental trading company!

animal finger puppetes

safari stickers

crayons

and glow sticks!

it was really easy, took almost no time at all, and added a whopping $30 to our wedding budget. 

money well spent i say. 

freak flag

much like the man repeller there are few things i love more than a good maniac. and not a light stuff on fire - danger to society - heath ledger as the joker kind of maniac (although, 1. my sorority sisters and i did light a fire at passdowns and 2. moment of silence for heath ledger) but someone who lets their freak flag fly. just lets it all out. someone who is on a 10 when everyone around them is on a 3 or 4. 

it can be kristin wiig doing her thang on snl

or it can be a preschooler, who just brings it. 

bravo.