This post is going up late.  Much later than I had anticipated.  Do you want to know why?  It’s because I’m a dingbat and decided it would be a good time filler to have my kids help me pack for them.  Have you ever tried packing with a 2.5 and 4 year old?  It’s an exercise in patience.  And mercy.  And not poking your eyeballs out with forks. I started by having the boys open the drawers and each locate a very specific shirt that I am going to force them to wear on Thanksgiving.  But they didn’t think that was quite challenging enough so Leo started asking Nico to pick out what shirt HE wanted to wear.  I tried to explain the rules which were that they have no choice, but Leo just kept talking over me, “Nico, pick your shirt” and Nico, the little devil, started pulling all the nicely folded shirts from his drawer out one by one and throwing them across the room.  Leo promised HE would refold them, and I’m happy he wanted to help, but have you seen a 4 year old’s fold?  He literally takes the shirt, folds down the arms, then grabs it in the middle and twists it into one gigantic ball of wrinkles and then looks to me for praise.  I can’t disappoint the kid and tell him his “folding” skills are horrendous for the small chance that this interest in laundry might carry with him for years to come and I will be fold-free when he’s old enough to actual perform the task, so I have to let him crinkle each and every shirt and try hide my twitching in the process.  After a very stressful 15 minutes of clothing tossing and twisting, I decided to let the pack toys. Mind you, we are going to my parents for the holiday where there approximately 1,000,000 toys for them to play with, so I suggested they each choose one special toy to bring in a separate suitcase that I had no intention of actually bring with us.  20 minutes later we had a game of Toy Tetris going as I was being screamed at to get all the toys from their toy box to fit in the suitcase that I never planned to take anyway.  Lord, save me.

But, I will tell you, I would let my boys pack ten suitcases, unfold all my clothes if it meant going home to see the place I love most.

And tonight, I get to share with you a very special wedding in the Finger Lakes who are from my hometown.  The wedding of Jenny and Will.  They were married last month at Glenora Vineyards which is a favorite of mine for not only the wine but the amazing views of Seneca Lake.  Like most Saturdays this fall, it decided to rain, which put somewhat of a damper on the day, but Jenny and Will and family made the most of it…Jenny actually made the call on her own to do the ceremony inside before it started raining that day.  So happy she didn’t ask my opinion because I would have absolutely told her to have it outside and I would have felt terrible when it started to pour during her ceremony as it ended up doing that day.  The skies cleared up just long enough for us to run outside and get some photographs and the rain made for an epic dance party-as it always does.  Photographing Jenny and Will was so easy–maybe it’s because of the Canandaigua connection–or maybe it’s just because they are my type of people–but I felt like I was absolutely meant to be with them on their day.  Between knowing some of the groomsman, and having more than a handful of guests from Charlestown at the reception in Western New York, I just felt home.

Will’s mom will go down in history as one of my favorite mother-of-the-grooms, which you know I have a special affinity for as the mother of sons.  Jenny’s father gave the most touching speech that had us all in tears.  And the friends in their bridal party really loved these two in ways that you knew made them special human beings (and did I mention they were also Bills fans?).  I am so glad my paths connected with these two and I can’t thank them enough for letting me be with them.

















This was literally two seconds before the sky opened up and dumped 1,000 gallons of rain on us.  Will tried to tell me he could see it coming behind me but I convinced him he was wrong…until I turned and saw buckets coming down ten feet away from us.






























I hope these two always have this much fun together 😉

Now, I don’t want anyone to leave Canandaigua…but I so wouldn’t mind having you two in Charlestown 🙂 Come visit soon!