Of First Communions & belly dancing at weddings...

It was a quirky weekend, to be sure. You don't often see the two things I mention in the title of this post paired together, do you now? That's why you come HERE, right?! Never boring my friends, at least I hope not. And it fits with the overall theme of my life, I think, such as what we have here:

This is what happens when you have no idea that there is a spring picture session. Your let your child wear a baseball style tee shirt with a scissors print on it, and pineapple leggings.

Who came up with those background choices anyway?! At any rate, daily life in my house, right there. Things get forgotten, things get paired up in strange and interesting ways, odd handprints and random bursts of light show up everywhere. The struggle is real.

At any rate, I had wedding #2 of 2 this weekend, the one my troupe was slated to perform at, and we also had a soccer game for Henry, plus the usual weekend stuff like Mass and housework.

Saturday was the wedding. For the ceremony, I was the official "dress fluffer" for the bride, smoothing out her dress and veil before she walked down the aisle, and I felt very important. ;-) Hey, I take such responsibilities very seriously! That was in the early afternoon, and then Mike and I attended the reception in the evening.

So here was the quandary: I had to dance about an hour and a half to two hours hence. Wine with dinner or no? I really wanted to abstain, because drinking and dancing is never really a good idea, but to be honest, I was a bit nervous. :0 So I had wine with dinner. OK, *and* a few sips of a second glass right before we danced, because like I said, I WAS NERVOUS!

The issue was that most of the people there had no idea that belly dancing was going to be imposed upon them. I was hoping they were going to take it well, but one never knows.

So, the DJ clears the dance floor for us, and introduces us, and our entire troupe processes out in our formal dresses and heels, including the bride, to dance our long-standing Middle Eastern pop number.

When I took my place after our entrance, I looked anxiously out into the crowd. This was their face:

Shocked, But Not Unpleasantly Surprised, Face

Everybody was very curious and wanted to watch, to be sure. Which is good. And to be fair, that is usually the reaction we get. But just to give you a little insight into my belly dancing world, here are the other options:

Ambivalent, Perhaps Even Bored, Face (aka Why Are You Making Me Look Up From My Phone Face), of which I am very familiar from restaurant dancing.

And:

Concerned, And Just Looking To Be Offended, Face, which I sometimes see at festivals and other public events.

It's a dancing road of many reactions, let me tell you. But back to the wedding. It went great! Different from any dancing experience I've had thus far, and that's part of the charm of Middle Eastern dancing to me. Always something new! Mike was our spy out in the crowd, on his way back from the bar, who reported in that the word on the street was very positive and complimentary. ;-)

I loved it. A great time was had by all. A beautiful couple whose marriage we celebrated, I couldn't be more pleased for both of them.

Sunday, I was a little late in getting out of bed ;-) and we had Mass and a soccer game to navigate. And let me tell you, the addition of First Communion to our regular 11 am Mass nearly made us late for soccer, but so it goes. It also made us park what felt like a mile away, but who's counting?

The Communicants processed down the aisle with Fr. Joe, and Anne was very interested to see all of their outfits and what each was carrying. At Henry's school parish, the First Communion Mass is on a late Saturday morning, removed from the regular Sunday liturgies. So to have it be a part of our regular Mass was an unusual thing for my kids. It definitely made an impression. I explained to Anne what was happening, and she seemed quite interested. It seemed early to me for First Communion, since it was only May 1st, but then I realized that Mother's Day is next Sunday (doesn't that seem early too?!) so that must be why they placed it so.

When is First Communion at your parish? What are your plans for Mother's Day?