"Saturday After Thanksgiving" Weddings

Twenty years ago, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my sister and her husband were married. Fifteen years ago, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Shayne and I did the same thing. And yesterday, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we were blessed to attend TWO lovely weddings here in town. (Ironically, both at the same Catholic church and within a couple of hours of each other.) Ironically, the 60 degree temperatures were exactly what Shayne and I were so blessed to have on our wedding day too! When our priest asked back in the early fall of 1991 if we had any special requests for our wedding Mass we said, “Yes" and we asked him to wear sandals. With cooperative weather, he did! He also worked it into his sermon. Thanks, Father Ted!

(May 2006 in Philly: Christi tries to convince Caroline of a scientific principle; Her teacher sticks her ground despite Christi's insistence. It cracked me up!)

Congratulations to Christi’s (and Shayne’s) amazing, lovely and wonderful 4th grade teacher and my good friend- Caroline, and her new husband John! We are so happy they’ve found each other and can enjoy life as man and wife! We are so happy they found each other (Thanks, Gail!!) and we wish this wonderful couple the very best as they begin their new life together and always!

Congratulations to Jason and Tammy as they begin their new lives together. We wish them a long Christian life together full of joy, happiness, and good health! I don’t typically cry at weddings, but when I saw Tammy walk down the aisle, she looked so gorgeous entering the church, my tears simply gushed. That happened again later at their reception when we sat down and read an incredible announcement placed at each table.

The framed announcement said something to the fact that wedding favors are pretty and thoughtful, but soon forgotten. This bride and groom wanted to make a more lasting gift in honor of their wedding guests, so they made a donation to the Christi Thomas Memorial Fund for the little girl who lived life to the fullest and helped others along the way. We are incredibly humbled.

Their timing was prefect; Shayne and I have been getting things together with the Gillmor Trust – the non profit group handling Christi’s Memorial Fund. We will soon be announcing how some of the Christi Thomas Memorial funds will be spent late this spring to help other kids in some of their pursuits. We are very pleased and excited about how things are coming together!! More about that later!

I also hope to soon let you know if CHOP and/or CHLA were able to grow Christi’s tumor cells in hopes of establishing a new cell line (You remember: "FU NB2006" hee hee) for neuroblastoma research. Dr. Maris said that there was only a 20% chance of it working, but I’ve been praying hard for success and for a cure for all of these special kids. While I originally didn’t think I wanted to watch them extract so much blood out of Christi’s dead body, I ended up feeling very different about it, after she died, when the real time came. With Dr. Maris, Dr. Hogerty, Nurse Pat, Social Worker Dana and Nurse Amy, Shayne and I stood and talked about the special times we shared with them and with Christi while the procedure took place. They are amazing people and we will forever be grateful for their incredible love, care and talent! We do miss them – and all of our support group who really came to be like treasured family members.

The day after Thanksgiving my brother-in-law and my niece and I decided to do something we’d never done before and to get up super early and try to see what “sport shopping” is like at 5 AM on the day after Thanksgiving! Gil woke us up at 4:15 AM and soon we were out the door and waiting in a HUGE line wrapped 75% the way around Circuit City. I don’t know if I ever laughed so hard, but we had a fabulous time together and we were back home (back in bed) by 6:15 AM. This morning at church when Father Kent made reference to how excited people were waiting in line out in the cold for hours, he said to just imagine how God must feel waiting to greet us in Heaven. Shayla missed the message of the priest and thought Father Kent was talking about me – being the crazy lady out shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. Before heading back north, I (along with Ashley's help) had the cousins all make gingerbread houses and then mom treated us to see "The Santa Claus Three" movie, which was darling! Christi loved Santa Claus One and I know she would have giggled throughout most of this film.

(PHOTO: March 2006 Cami, Christi & Julie - who shaved her head to show her support for Christi & also for her cancer-fighting cousin. Too sweet!)

We had a very special treat after church today – one of Christi’s best friends (Cami) and her sweet mother stopped by. Their timing was perfect as the wonderful Grandma Nee Nee cooked delicious lasagna for us to celebrate Thanksgiving together this afternoon. Shayla and Cami happily played for a very long time together. It was the sweetest thing! Like I told Julie when she called a few nights ago to invite Shayla to their church’s Victorian Tea next week, when Christi died it was like a light was switched off. I remember walking out of CHOP thinking, "We’ll never see any of these people ever again," but I never imagined that we’d also be cut off from Christi’s friends and their families too. In near tears I confessed to Julie how much I was missing chatting with Christi’s friends and their mothers. I also had a few “C” notepads of Christi’s that I was able to give Cami. I know Christi would want her to have them! They were both such paper and doodle girls!

Without Shayla I never would have done this, but I knew we had to do it for Shayla. Tonight we got out some of the Christmas decorations and decorated for Christmas. I saw Christi’s nativity set early this morning when I pulled the boxes out and sat in the basement and cried. Tonight, I didn’t plan to even get it out, but Shayla asked if she could set up Christi’s nativity set this year so I had to agree. “To Christi, 1998, Baby’s Second Christmas, Love Aunt V” was written on the box. “Because You’re Three” was written by Aunt V on the box of the three wise man. Putting the decorations on the tree was no different. When I was pregnant, my mom gave me a gorgeous stork carrying a baby ornament, “1996” is written on the back. “Baby’s First Christmas 1997” is printed on another so sad. I never knew how pulling FOUR Christmas stockings out of a box could be so sad. We decided to go ahead and hang all four! (PHOTO: Christi (2) & Shayla (7 months), December 1999)
Then I didn’t realize I pulled out the box of framed Christmas photos, but low and behold I did. I looked at this gorgeous little blond so happily wearing such gorgeous little Christmas dresses, smiling with her little sister and I sobbed. Soon Shayla joined me. She’s been our little rock, but this all was just too much for her. At one point tonight we couldn’t find her. Soon we found her curled up, hiding under a blanket. Another hiding place turned out to be under the Christmas tree and there were others. My heart breaks for this little girl who doesn’t want to be without a sister here on earth.

She did feel very special Wednesday morning. Not too long ago she asked me if I could buy her a new winter coat this year. I told her next year I would, but this year she still has a hand-me-down of Christi’s that will fit her. She was fine with that. When I got it out on Wednesday morning she tried it on. Apparently, Christi had collected a few rocks because Shayla put her hands in the pockets and happily declared with a huge smile upon her face, “Christi left me some stones!!” (Shayla likes collecting rocks and pebbles too!)

(One short year ago: Christi sets up her treasured Precious Moments Nativity Set)
(PHOTO: Shayla, age 7 1/2, decorates the tree, Nov. 26, 2006)
(PHOTO: Christi, age 8, decorates the tree, Nov. 26, 2005)