First Family Day Weekend in Saskatoon

With some apprehension to how a 3 month old would do in the car we packed ourselves up and headed to see my mother and family in Saskatoon for Family Day weekend.

Much to our surprise and glee, Sophia was excellent for the 5 hour car ride sleeping the whole way with the exception of a bottle break in Lloydminster.

Grandma was a great host and many of my siblings, neices and nephews got to meet Sophia for the first time including a very pregnant Nikki.

No visit is complete with out Mom's home-cooked meals. Sophia had the best seat in the house.

The weather in Saskatoon was pretty temperate so Chrissy and I took Sophia out for a walk along the South Saskatchewan river valley in the Downtown.

The first of many visits back to the promised land...

Christmas 2014

After being away on our honeymoon for Christmas last year we were looking forward to being able to celebrate the season here in Edmonton with Chrissy's family and in Saskatoon with mine.

Chrissy loves having a Christmas tree up and if I would let her she would keep it up for 11 months straight only taking it down so she could re-decorate it

All through our year long honeymoon adventures Chrissy and I sought out Christmas ornaments to decorate our tree with (note - the bows in the picture above were pew decorations at our church ceremony). When we laid out our decorations it truly dawned on us that we had a good year of travel.

Chrissy was tasked with stringing the ornaments while I made sure the hockey game in the background got watched.

All through December, Chrissy and I tried to get out and about to see the many displays set up through the city.

Probably the most impressive display was this crazy home in the Northeast of Edmonton. My camera couldn't get the full display in one shot so I stitched a few pics together.

Christmas Eve for us was celebrated with Chrissy's family at her Auntie Joyce's house in Saint Albert and like any Ukrainian event the perogies were out in full affect.

After way too much food and too many presents we settled in to get up early for Christmas morning breakfast at Chrissy's parents place. After stuffing our faces we headed out directly to Saskatoon and arrived at my brother Lawrences place just in time for supper. It was us at our most gluttonous.

Saskatoon was remarkably cold and dry so to get our exercise, and celebrate my brother Randy's birthday, we headed out bowling with the family.

My niece Amelia destroyed us all. Our only solace was found in enjoying copious amounts of mom's cooking in the good company of my family. I know...pretty rough life.

Our visit with mom got extended as she accompanied us back to Edmonton to see Monica's new house and to hang with the grandkids. It was great having her in town as it seemed to really extend the Christmas season.

Overall it was a pretty great first Christmas at home as husband and wife.

2 Weddings, 2 Provinces, 1 Day

This summer Chrissy and myself found ourselves in a fortunate, yet somewhat impossible situation. Two very important sets of people to us were getting married and we were invited. But the rub was that they were on the same day and about 500 kilometers away from each other.

We had a delicate decision to make; which wedding should we attend?

• Do we attend my oldest niece Nikki's wedding - the start of a whole new generation of weddings in our family, or
• Do we attend Andrea's wedding who is one of Christina's longest term friends (I hesitate to say 'oldest' with women involved) and who asked for Chrissy to be a bridesmaid after standing up at our wedding less than a year ago?

After some debate we decided that Chrissy would support Andrea as a bridesmaid and that I would head out to Saskatoon for my niece Nikki's wedding. In our short time being married we have learned fairly well to compromise; Or at least Chrissy has. After all, her saying yes to marry me was the ultimate compromise possible for a beautiful and successful woman. True to my nature to pursue her, I would not settle. I would endeavour to attend both weddings.

Nikki and Luke 

Leaving Chrissy in Edmonton I headed out early in the week to Saskatoon to hang out with friends and family. 

Mom and Grandkids

Before too long the big day was upon us and we headed out to the Forestry Farm for a late afternoon (4PM) wedding.  The predicted rain showers were seemingly put on pause and the assembled guests were in good spirits as we awaited the arrival of the bride.

Brother and Grandmas of the Bride

The assembled Kehrig clan

Right on time Nikki emerged from behind the trees escorted down the aisle. My brother Lawrence looked quite dapper in his suit escorting her but it went without notice compared to how great Nikki looked (only now do I actually notice just how well Lawrence was put together).

Both Nikki and Luke looked fantastic and their happiness and excitement was apparent to all those in attendance. Everything about the ceremony fit their personalities perfectly.

It's hard not to look at them and see their relative youth. As someone who was a bachelor for some time I am almost jealous that they found each other so early and get to spend so many of their years together. Marriage can be a challenge but certainly we will all be there to support them and they could not have a better couple to emulate then Nikki's parents, Lawrence and Betty.

Andrea and Ryan

Immediately after Nikki and Luke's wedding I raced back to Mom's place to change out of my suit into comfortable driving clothes and I hit the road. I left Saskatoon just before 6 PM heading west on the Yellowhead Highway. At this time Chrissy was just arriving in Vegreville for drinks before supper and had 12 hours under her belt in makeup/hair prep, a ceremony in Edmonton, and pictures at the Ukranian Cultural Heritage Village.

Thanks to my heavy foot I arrived at the hall in Vegreville around 10PM just in time for the first dance of the night.

Andrea and Ryan both looked great but I had my eyes set on a certain bridesmaid. Maybe, if I played my cards right I could get her to come home with me. 

The bride and groom are both of Ukrainian heritage and have both had long association with the Shumka dance group.  As a gift to the happy couple and the ~350 assembled well wishers in attendance we were treated to a special performance.

The athleticism of the dancers was of course outstanding and the fusion of the music, motion and color propped up the energy of the guests for the rest of the night. 

In fact it wasn't long until the guests got in the action forming a kolomyka (soloists dancing in a communal circle). And it wasn't long after that when the bridal party decided to kick up their heels.

Chrissy and I spent the night visiting with friends and the odd slow dance interlude before we realised that it was getting near 2am. With the clean up for the night done we caught the last shuttle bus back to the hotel and were pleasantly surprised when the guests of honor jumped on with us. Pretty impressive that they lasted the whole night!

And so ended the multiple wedding in multiple provinces day. Each wedding was completely different yet lovely and fitting to the couple in its own right. Chrissy and I wish both couples well as we look forward to many anniversary celebrations in the future.