Today was mostly about Gwen’s first communion. We got up this morning and continued getting the house ready for the “after party,” then got all the kids ready to go to Holy Cross, which is just a few blocks from where we live. I was still in the doghouse for forgetting something important yesterday, and not keeping in contact with Leigh, but we didn’t let that get in the way.
Even though I’m not Catholic, the mass was nice. It was great to have Ashley and her kids there for Gwen, and overall it was just great for Gwen. I made the right decision to to up and witness Gwen’s first communion rather than stay seated. It was a great start to a great day.
We introduced ourselves to a relatively new neighbor, Mercedes and Santiago’s mother. Turns out Mercedes had her first communion today, too. It also turns out that I helped her mother get her car unstuck this winter one morning on my way to work. I’d totally forgotten about that — it was just a random act — but she apparently did not forget it, as she mentioned it right away to Leigh when we made our introductions. Oh, and she had a really cool hat on, I thought. Leigh was dressed really great, too.
After that, we had a million people over to the house. We had hot dogs (healthy! not.) and chili. Ashley brought a great decorated cake. Mom and dad were there, which was great. I sat on the back deck with them to eat lunch.
Marc and Shannon showed up, which meant a lot more than they probably realized. I really enjoyed talking with Marc about a number of things, mostly internet-marketing and WordPress related. Autumn came over for awhile, but either got freaked out by how some of the kids were acting, or genuinely just needed to go home.
Willow and I went to the library at one point, because she wanted some “daddy time.” We didn’t stay long, but it counted, for her, as some time away from everyone else with just dad.
Ashley and her kids stayed until after 9p, and they were more than welcome. Actually, Ashley left to go to work for a few hours, while her kids stayed, and then she returned. She and Leigh talked a lot, and that was great.
I went to the store to get things for Mother’s Day prep. I hope Leigh likes what I have in mind. While I was there, I noted a number of new beers by the Fat Tire people, so I ended up buying “Abbey,” which is a good 7% ABV brew.
Now, all the kids are asleep, Leigh’s chilling to an episode of “The Medium,” and I’m sure we’ll be going to bed soon.
Edit 1:
I would be remiss to leave out that we missed the McCoys today. We all had planned on going to a Cinderella play today (and bought tickets) before we knew today would be first communion. We completely understood why the McCoys were not here, and we were lucky to sell our tickets. While they were missed, we know they were thinking of Gwen.
