December 23, 1983 was a VERY COLD, WINDY day. The weather today reminds me of that day 25 years ago. I think the wind chill then was like 30 below or something. Anyway, it was a cold day to get married! We expected that it would be cold and possibly snowy or icy -- but wow! It probably wasn't the best choice of days for a wedding. In our youth, we just didn't understand how busy the Christmas season gets for people! Our wedding was small and intimate, but lovely. I think there were about 30 people in attendance.
Fast forward to almost 25 years later............. We were caught up in the business of December -- we had gone to the Smoky Hill Vineyard with our friends, Todd and Shelly, the night of the 5th for a murder mystery dinner to celebrate Karl's birthday (the 6th), then on Saturday I had a show in town all day and Karl worked at getting the outdoor Christmas lights put up, and we were planning to go to dinner with Todd and Shelly again to a steak place we'd heard a lot of good things about in a little town nearby. We wouldn't normally go out two nights in a row, but I originally couldn't get tickets to the Vineyard to surprise Karl so Todd set up the dinner on Sat. night to celebrate both Karl and Shelly's birthdays (hers is the 8th). Midweek before, Karl questioned if we ought to just wait for the steak place until January........ but Todd said they already had a sitter so we'd go. So, ..........
Todd and Shelly picked us up that evening and as we were heading out of town he stopped by our church first. He said there was something that he needed us to settle for them. They never bicker and they were going back and forth about something with the door handle - whatever. I had trouble with it the week before and Karl said he didn't, so I figured it was that. Well, when we opened the door, the lights came on and we heard, "Happy Anniversary!" and were greeted by a sea of familiar faces.
They had been in kahootz with our family for quite a while planning this event. We were quite surprised! The celebration started with a DVD of photos throughout our marriage and then we enjoyed a soup supper. There was even a wedding cake and punch--- except for the missing fountain, it was exactly like our original wedding cake.
It was a wonderful surprise - everyone did a really good job of keeping us in the dark - I think the whole town and everyone I work with knew what was going on though! We began to suspect something was going on late in the afternoon -- just little things began to come together -- but we just thought that if anything was going on, maybe our kids and a few other friends or family members would be at the restaurant when we got there to surprise Karl for his birthday. There were 40 guests in attendance - some from as far as about 300 miles away.
Happy Anniversary to us! (And, yes, I'd do it ALL over again!)
(L to R) Our daughter, Rheann. Our son, Christopher and his his wife, Susan.
.JPG)
