Getting married involves a lot of generational and family blending. My daughter was asked, a long time ago, to be the flower girl in her aunts wedding. Going to a wedding requires a special, the perfect, dress; usually a task best accomplished on ones own. Being a flower girl requires a lot of opinions on THE dress.
What I recall mostly about the day my daughter and I met my mom, sister and grandmother at the bridal shop was that I felt like I was bringing the toy with which they were going to play dress-up. I was there to pay the bill too, but mostly I was the toy bringer.
My daughter was a bit old to be a true flower girl but she was too young to be a junior bridesmaid. Flower girl sounded like a star role and who doesn't like to be a star for a day?
After many opinions were voiced, and hours of trying on dresses, tiaras and long gloves, THE dress was decided upon. It was a beautiful sleeveless, long white, pearl covered, mini-bride dress...perfect! Long gloves would be worn to adorn the illusion of a little princess. The bill footer vetoed the tiara...it was a $300 dollar non-essential item. The hundred dollar dress and twenty dollar gloves were plenty.
After the dress search, the searchers decided we needed a reward. One thing we could all agree upon was ice cream!
The boys who were with us that day, but not part of the perfect flower girl dress search, wisely had gone to shop "guy stuff" but joined us for this treat. Cold Stone Creamery is one of those ice cream places that mix in chunks of favorite goodies: chocolate chips, nuts, smashed cookies, candies, etc.
The future flower girl decided to have gummy bears mixed into her chocolate ice cream reward.
The eight of us sat down together to chat about what we had accomplished that day, what still needed to be done and just generally how we all were doing. A normal family get together: lots of chatting, not much paying attention to others eating habits. Grandma, who was sitting near my husband, reached her hand out to nibble on one of her favorite treats...gummy bears.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," my husband voiced.
"I can do what I want," quipped my defiant 80 year old, diabetic grandmother.
She was sure my husband was chastising her and monitoring her diet.
"Okay, "said my husband, "suit yourself."
On our travels home that day, my husband and children told me what had been happening at the other end of the table. My future flower girl had decided upon a treat that was really too big for her belly. Her father kindly finished her treat, but he's not a gummy bear fan. As he took a bite, he would suck the ice cream off each bear and leave it on a napkin near by.
My children and future brother-in-law watched in awe as their great-grandmother/grandmother-in-law-to-be ate every single gummy bear that their father/future brother-in-law had sucked clean of ice cream. Eeew!
Not a single soul told Grams what she did that day...ever!
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