I didn't blog yesterday because it was a looong day--but also a very happy one.  I drove down to San Diego to attend Deanna's shower.  Deanna is my niece and she is getting married on August 30th to a terrific young man named Tim Brown.

Deanna's mom, Donna, is not only my brother Dean's wife (and thus my sister-in-law) but also my good friend.  It was such a joy to share this occasion with the family, to see Donna being MOB (Mother-of-Bride) so competently and with so much joy in her daughter's happiness.

I also loved the good natured teasing that goes along with being a Baldridge.  (Think of siblings pulling pigtails quickly and without malice and you have a good idea of the nature of our verbal sparring.)  I sat at the same table as my step-sister, Pamela; my sister-in-law (and birthday date sharer), Jeanne; my step-mother, Sally; my Dad's first wife, Pat--and a bewildered assortment of Brown family members who kept trying to trace the tangled knots of our family relations.  They were, by the way, all lovely women.

I was nominated for the task of writing down all of Deanna's exclamations and forming them into a funny-ish story about her wedding night.

I found out I can still blush.

Not a bad thing at 47.

It's also not a bad thing at 47 to be in love with your family.  To welcome with eagerness its expansion with the Brown/Baldridge union.  To celebrate young love--not easily won but sweeter for the victory.

I love being an aunt!  (To all my nieces.  And nephews.)

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