The ceremony was held outdoors at the Nazareth Hall Grotto. The weather was calm and warm, and the decor and bridal gowns were all beautiful. Grandpa Murphy led the Prelude to the ceremony by singing the song Surely It Is God Who Saves Me. Jim and Darlene accompanied him. Charles and Jeanette sang the Irish Blessing.

It was a short and sweet wedding. There were lots of familiar faces in the Wedding Party: Susan was Matron of Honor, with Denise and Brittney both acting as Bridesmaids. Joe had Chris and Charles as Groomsmen. The Flower Girl and Ring Bearer were Sarah and Adam, niece and nephew of Joe. The other members were all friends of the bride and groom.

The Bridal Party presents… the Bride

Bridesmaid cousins Brittney, Susan, and Denise

Flower girl Sarah assists with the garter belt. Someone had to do it.

Darlene, Jim, and Grandpa Murphy show off their muscial prowess

Chris and Denise enter the outdoor arena

Ed escorts Karen down the aisle. Apparently they were being followed by a spy.

Karen and Joe, freshly married

Aaron and Denise kick back and take notes

The Tange-clan introduces their newest member, Joe Tangeman

Grandma and Grandpa Murphy join the family photo

The entire wedding party

Karen with siblings Susan and Chris. Chris likes tacos.

The reception was held at the same place, only indoors. It was a nice and fancy banquet hall. As I recall the food was good, the alcohol flowed, and our family lit up the dancefloor as always. Near the end of the evening, we were able to assemble a large family portrait of the Murphy clan – with only one cousin missing: Lori, who was living in Virginia. It was the last photo gathering of this sort that would included Grandma and Grandpa Murphy.

Nikki and Ashleigh protect the gifts fron Ninjas

The wedding party and their fancy-schmancy seating arrangements

Ed escorts his daughter for a dance for the first time after giving her away to the nearest Joe

A rather friendly cake feeding

Aaron and Carolyn, Denise and me - we’d all have upcoming weddings on the docket, but not in seating order

Carolyn takes a seat on me, after I have taken a seat on the nearest throne available

The traditional wedding milk sipping. Wait. What?

Mom and Bob, the next wedding victims

Our table with Jim & Jan and Bob & Darlene

Carolyn got me on the dance floor for a slow dance

Murphy family photo – the last of its kind

Karen and Joe now have three kids – Andrew, Abbey, and Allie – and celebrated their tenth anniversary earlier this year in 2011. I’d say that so far, it’s been a quite successful union.

2001 will continue with a trip that wasn’t as good as the one from where we’d just returned…

Speaking of work, we had a great Christmas dinner for management and the department heads at Bullwinkles that season. The boss Tim Quinlan took us all out and we were allowed to order whatever we wanted, drinks included. I recall having a blast with Donna, Grace, Sierra, Stephanie, Dave, Chuck, and the other department heads. The song Wedding Bell Blues played over the ruckus and Drug/GM manager Mark Wilson and I joined in. This was my first huge challenge, not to smoke at the dinner. I had pretty much temporarily given up alcohol up until now in order to suppress the craving. But I succeeded, even bypassing the cigars that Tim bought for all of those who wanted them.

I had a reunion of sorts with my ex-wife Lisa, who was in town from California for the holidays. I hadn’t seen her since she had left about six or seven months earlier. Carolyn was quite the sport and the two of us went out to eat with Lisa and her sister Erin at Bravo.

Christmas Eve fell on a Monday this year. Much to my delight and surprise, I somehow convinced my boss Tim that I deserved to have the day off, considering the number of households that I had to visit – which was true. Carolyn and I went over to her Dad’s house for the afternoon. We got there early before anyone else had arrived (I assume with Ashleigh and Briana in tow). I browsed the Catholic bible in the bright sunlight of the front window. This was my first Christmas Eve following this Gelm tradition (which included getting the yearly flashlights).

As always, the evening gathering was my ‘real’ Christmas, meaning when all of the gifts were open. Unfortunately, there isn’s much record of the event other than the pictures below. As I recall, Carolyn wanted to cook a whole turkey for the gathering, which I thought was a bit more of a headache than she needed. Sure enough, it took a bit longer than expected and Bob was itching to eat and getting on her nerves. Good thing I talked Mom into bringing some ham sandwiches as well.

Dottie, Grandpa, and Bob dig in before the turkey pops

This was the first year that we began to invite Grandma & Grandpa Murphy to what had traditionally been the Christmas gathering for Dad’s side of the family. But once we realized that they really weren’t doing anything on that night, we immediately started to include them. Carolyn & I had both Ashleigh and Briana with us, Mom and Bob were there, and Vicki came with Dad for the first and only time to a Christmas Eve gathering at my house. Bill & Dottie were in attendance as well and probably brought along Arline. And of course, Denise & her fiance Aaron were present.

Vicki and Dad polish off dessert, while Ash and Denise relax on the love seat. Notice the movie screen up behind Denise.

I had a bit of theme of the Ghosts of Christmas Past going that evening. We watched some of our old black and white family videos of our Christmases from 1979-81, and then later showed some Super 8 films of our Christmases from the early 1970′s. I also debuted the CD of the Squirrel Nut Zippers Christmas Caravan, which both Dad and Vicki really liked.

I join Briana, Denise, Ash, and Aaron at checking out our home movies on the boob tube

I don’t have a whole lot of memory of the gifts that I received but I do seem to recall that Carolyn gave me a CD rack (which is now in my basement) and a DVD rack (which now houses my Disney DVDs in my room). Denise got me the Verve Pipe Underneath DVD and Dad got me Paul McCartney Driving Rain CD. The Disney Treasures DVDs made their debut this year and I asked for, and received, all of them – two on Christmas Eve and two in the Gelm gift exchange. They included Disneyland USA and Davy Crockett that night.

Look at these greedy little darlings go mad as they dig into the gifts

Note that Uncle Al is playing behind Ashleigh. This was the episode that Denise was on and followed some of our home videos on the ‘family tape’ that we were watching.

Briana shows off one of her gifts. Yes, they were still making video tapes back then.

Denise is engulfed in gifts

Oh those adorable girls

It was nice to back hosting the gathering and Carolyn had fit right nicely into the hostess role that Lisa had vacated. I’m pretty certain that it was this year that I took Ashleigh and Briana over to Christi’s Mom’s house after our party and recall driving through Beavercreek through the thickest fog I have ever seen.

The next morning Carolyn and I got up bright and early and headed over to her Mom’s house for the traditional Gelm Christmas gathering. We had the traditional biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast and then broccoli soup and cheese bread for lunch. No broccoli for me though, thank you.

Here I received from Dustin (who had my name in the gift exchange - price limit $50) the other two Disney Treasures Mickey Mouse in Living Color and Silly Symphonies. He couldn’t understand why he was getting ‘kids’ movies for me.

We picked up Ashleigh and Briana and headed over to our fourth and final Christmas gathering at Mom & Bob’s place on Williams Drive in Franklin. Bob had everyone park in the backyard. We had another great Murphy family gathering which included the traditional carry-in dinner and gift exchange. This was likely the year (if not 2000) that I gave Tom an antique Pepsi bottle as his gift.

Mom & Bob’s house, all fancied up for Christmas

Aaron, Denise, Debby, Abbey, and Cathy’s fiery red hair

Debby and her sister Lori’s baby Abbey, who was a week away from being six months old

Briana comes between Aaron and Denise

Brittney, Diana, Ed, Bev, Charles, and Chris devour the Christmas dinner goodies

Ashleigh begins to distribute the gift exchange gifts under the commanding watchful eye of Mom

Grandpa Murphy kicks back and watches the festivities

Cathy, Diana, Grandma, Tom’s Dad George, Jan, Karen, and Bev wait patiently for their gifts

Abbey conks out on her Mommy

When the Christmas week was over, Christi came to collect Briana and gave us the opportunity for the first known photo of all three siblings, Ashleigh, Creed, and Briana – the ABC Crew

These are family Christmas memories at their finest.

We will continue in 2002…

Ashleigh’s sixth grade photo 2001-02

I first found out about the attack on the World Trade Center when Carolyn called me from work and woke me out of sound slumber to tell me that two planes had crashed into the buildings. At that time, no one knew that it was a terrorist attack. I was scheduled to work at 2pm that afternoon, so I was glued to the TV for hours that morning. Carolyn freaked out at one point and wanted me to go into work early so that I would be further away from the Wright-Patt Air Force base. I can still recall vividly watching the first tower collapse right in front of my eyes. Commentators on the event had no idea what had happened.

The closing management shift at the Miamisburg Kroger always included breaking down the supply delivery. I recall listening to the radio as I performed this task, hearing all sorts of strange tales from callers. One such story, verified by Carolyn, was that there was the sound of an explosion in Dayton – later identified as a sonic boom. One radio caller said that a plane had flown into a building downtown and yet another said that a plane had been shot down over our city. Needless to say, it was a very confusing time, but as horrific and disgusting as the events, I was never one to let any of it affect the way I lived.

I can recall nary a thought or mention of the these events as we moved on with our lives and attended the wedding of my Mom and Bob on September 29. The wedding and reception are detailed here.

Late summer/early Fall reading in our room. I was reading Carolyn the entire Bible.

A pretty Fall rainbow at the end of our cul-de-sac

Afternoon foot soaking with Briana and Carolyn

After Mom’s wedding, I took a week’s vacation. Although I had four vacations at this time, I generally would only travel for two of them. For one of the ‘relaxing’ ones, I would typically go over my birthday week. On October 2, I turned 30 – spending it quietly at home alone during the day while Carolyn was at work. However, she spiced it up for me a bit by hiding my gift all over the house, calling me periodically with clues to find them. Some of the clues included “In the beginning” (under the couch where we first ‘hung out’), “Fun and fancy free” (in our ‘fun’ drawer), and “Into the great wide open” (on top of the plant shelf). Most of the gifts were Disney DVDs.

I believe this was also the week that I was interviewed via telephone by Savannah Furman for her book Sons of the Desert – The Conventions. She would soon follow-up with an in-person visit all the way from Missouri to peruse my photos and attend the October meeting. Speaking of the Sons, I had crammed two meetings into September (a regular meeting on the 9th and a picnic at Dad’s on the 23rd) in order to catch up after I had gotten off schedule. I resumed with normal meetings on October 28 at Charles Sexton’s house showcasing a Halloween theme featuring A Chump at Oxford. I recall the Christi’s brother Keith came to this meeting. We rounded out the year with a Christmas themed meeting on November 25, featuring Babes in Toyland.

But one of the most significant events of my life happened on Thursday, October 4, while I was still on vacation. This was the first day in a long line of days in my endeavor to quit smoking. As of this writing the streak is now entering it’s tenth year.

I had a horrible cold during my vacation and when I ran out of cigarettes on October 3, I felt too crummy to go out and buy more. Once I had one day under my belt, and then eventually four, I decided to try and not smoke once I returned to work. This was the biggest challenge: to bypass our caged smoking area in the backroom at the store. Somehow, where all earlier attempts had failed, this one succeeded.

Carolyn driving us to church

Ashleigh was clearly up too early to go to church

Carolyn had a big weekend at the end of October. On October 26, she purchased her first brand new car: a blue 2002 Chevy Cavalier. The next day, she and I went to Oscar Beigel and Sons Jewelers and we picked out her engagement ring. It would be a year and a half before we would be walking down the aisle, but we now were officially engaged. Had I had it to do all over, I would have made more of a gesture in actually ‘asking her’. For us, the topic had come up many times, but I never did an official proposal.

Carolyn’s Cavalier

As the weather cooled and we entered holiday season, we enjoyed our first Halloween as domestic partners by sitting out in the driveway and handing out candy to the costumed kids. I moved my speaker outside and we listened to the sounds of Disney’s Haunted Mansion. It was one of the most fun Trick or Treat evenings I’ve ever enjoyed.

I’m fairly certain that Thanksgiving was at Darlene’s this year. I’m also fairly sure that this was the year that I volunteered to work all day on the holiday until the store closed at 5pm – with the stipulation that I would be off the three following days. I recall Tim taking me around the store, showing me what all needed to be turned off before I locked the doors, stopping at the bread slicer to pop a doughnut hole in his mouth – to which I could not stop laughing for the rest of our walk. So it was late by the time I got to Darlene’s house, hence my very fleeting memory of the holiday.

I spent one of those evenings, Saturday, November 24, at Kettering Hospital, along with Carolyn and Ashleigh. Christi was giving birth to her third child Creed. Fortunately, this was the last time that I ever had to see the Danny, the lowlife who was his biological father. It was just a few months later that he would be sent to jail for six years.

Creed was born premature and was the tiniest little thing I had ever seen. He was in an incubator for several days until it was safe to take him home. Carolyn and I brought Ashleigh to visit Christi and the new baby a couple of times at the hospital.

As you can see, there was quite a bit of activity and lots of memorable events packed into these few months that comprised the Fall of 2001 – although there wasn’t an overabundance of photos to prove any of it. We still had Christmas to get through, before moving on to the next year of our lives.

2001 will conclude with Christmas…

Denise and Bryan make their entrance

The girls and I follow suit

Mom and Bob step in from the bright sunlight

Mom and Bob did most of the standard wedding fare: the first dance, the dollar dance, the hokey pokey, the throwing of the bouquet and garter, and the cutting of the cake. Byran delivered a nice toast that started out along the lines of “it’s about time…” And Denise gave a bit of a tear-jerking toast that professed that we actually loved Bob, despite our good-natured ribbing of him.

The wedding party, which looks suspiciously like a family dinner

Mom gives her Dad a dance

Mom and Bob slice into the cake…

…And serve it from the opposite side

Ashleigh devours the wedding cake

Briana and Denise, who is somehow managing to keep her eyes open for this one photo

I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You was the song played for the first dance, which was the song that they first shared a romantic dance when they had met over ten years ago. Bob later missed this trivia question when they were asked on a Newlywed Game style show while on an ocean cruise.

We danced and partied deep into the night, having a blast of a time. Mom and Bob stuck around to help clean up the hall. Denise had arranged for them to go to a motel instead of going home, where Denise and Aaron were staying. They would be heading out the next day for a honeymoon in Gatlinburg.

Clogging? Irish dancing? A Riverdance? Not sure what Debby, Ashleigh, and Denise are up to here.

Briana gets into a nice, awkward position

Charles and Susan were approaching their first wedding anniversary

Carolyn and I share a dance while Jim spins the tunes

Briana and Charles get down, get down, hooo!

Dancing with the daughter, while Mom sneaks some more alcohol

Briana coaxes Carolyn back out onto the dance floor

I Got You Babe…

Return to the Fall of 2001…

Their first date was to a Monster Truck show and they each took along a kid: Denise and Bryan. Soon enough Bob had wormed his way into all of our lives and Mom had herself a new boyfriend. And so it went for nearly ten years.

Mom didn’t move in with Bob at his home in Franklin until the Summer of 2000. She still kept her Kettering residence but eventually sold it the following year, the year that they would finally tie the knot.

Mom and Bob’s ceremony resembled the one that I had had two years earlier to Lisa. By that time of course, my marriage had ended. But other than the impending doom that would haunt my marriage, the ingredients were all there: Pastor Lisa Hazen officiating the ceremonies at the Beavercreek Chruch of the Brethren, organist Raymonde Rougier, and even a vocal number performed by my Aunt Darlene and Uncle Jim, who sang The Irish Blessing.  

Bryan was Bob’s Best Man and I acted as the lone Groomsman. Denise was Mom’s Maid of Honor and Ashleigh was the sole Bridesmaid. Denise’s fiancee Aaron Ockerman (spelled in the bulletin as Aaron Auckerman) was the Usher.

Brittney helps Ashleigh get her hair ready for the ceremony

I assist Carolyn, the guest book Nazi

Grandpa and Grandma Murphy

Bob, Bryan, and me waiting to get this show on the road

Escorting Grandma Murphy to her seat

Bryan, Denise, and I pretend to walk down the aisle. I think I walked that aisle more than anyone.

Enter the flower girl

Ashleigh does her part

Walking my Mom down the aisle

There were two readings, one the traditional 13 Corinthians and the other not from the Bible. These were read in pairs, the first by my Aunt Diana and Bob’s sister Cindy, the second by my Aunt Bev and Bob’s sister Sherri. My girlfriend Carolyn took care of the guest book. The greeters were Sherri’s daughter Cara and my cousin Nikki. Bells were distributed by Sherri’s daughter Emily and my cousin Eric. These were to be rung as my Mom and Bob left the church.

The gals seem to be paying attention during the service

Mom gives Grandma a hug during the ceremony

Escorting Briana and Ash out of the sanctuary

The ceremony was nice and brief. Afterward, we gathered the front of the church for photographs (taken by Mom and Bob’s friend Dave). We took a few outside in front of the church as well. As Mom and Bob headed to their car, all of the attendees rang bells to send them off to the reception that would held at the Eagles Nest, which made the third time we had all been to a reception there in the last three years.

Bryan, Denise, and I wait at the piano for our turn to be photographed

Mom with Yaht and Little B

Denise and the girls

All of us

Informal shot of me on the steps with Briana and Ashleigh

Family in the making: Carolyn, Ashleigh, Briana, and me

Nice candid shot of Ashleigh chatting with her Grandma

Cute posed photo of Mom displaying the marriage certificate and Bob reacting appropriately

Nice family photo taken in front of the church

Denise and I, finished with our photos

Mom and Bob headed to their caddy, ready to be showered by…bells

The most classic shot of all. That is Bob’s ex-wife Pat looking in the car window as they take off. This shot couldn’t have been funnier if they had created it on purpose!

According to their service bulletin, Mom and Bob’s marriage mission statement was as follows: To join our lives and families together as one. To be best friends and lovers, and always be there for one another. to make our lives more complete by being together.

Fingers crossed, they are still at.

The day will continue at the reception…

Return to the Fall of 2001 here…