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So, as a surprise for our family at the wedding reception, Rebecca's sister-in-law, Bradi, contacted Mark (in Russia) and asked him to send a video home of him playing horn.  It will come as no surprise that as soon as Mark's frozen face appeared on the video screen at the reception, there wasn't a dry Kennedy eye.  Even stoic, non-emotional Ethan couldn't hold back the tears.  If that was all we had seen, we would have been happy.  The video, however, was very nice, especially since Mark chose a piece entitled "Romance" which he learned when he first started playing horn. Wedding Video Before we saw the video, Mark had made excuses about his horn playing in an email and on the phone at Christmas.  I didn't understand why he thought I would even care (seeing as I didn't know anything about the video).  After seeing the video, I can understand that he probably wasn't too happy with his playing standard.  However, his mission president's wife

Everybody wants to see pictures of the wedding!  I understand--I do too!   This past week, I was sent a link to a gallery of the pictures.  I'm not sure if this is all of the pictures, or there are more, or if I need to buy them, or if Ethan and Rebecca will have access to all of them.  Really, I have no clue what's going on. So, I downloaded a few of my favorite pics from the gallery so that we could at least SEE some of them.  My friend, Kate, also grabbed my camera and took a bunch for me, thank goodness. I'll try and recap the day, although words just won't capture the happiness. Ethan and Rebecca couldn't have asked for nicer weather in Washington DC on December 28.  Sunny and almost 60 degrees! The temple ceremony was beautiful (and in John's words, the nicest one he's ever attended).  Someone (wink, wink) had arranged for Ethan's former bishop (from his singles ward in DC, and While this isn't the exact room where they were sealed,

With the cruise, Christmas and the wedding, December was really just a blur for all of us.  Too, I'm ashamed to admit that most of the time, while jumping from one activity to another, I forgot to take pictures.  However, I'm thankful for the ones I DID take, because they reminded me that we Kennedys did partake in a few festivities :-) In a perfect Larisa world, things would revolve around music, family and nature.  Hence, when the symphony sent out its annual poinsettia fundraising order form, I was all over it.  I'm not even sure how many poinsettias I ordered, but they filled up the back of my SUV.  Johannah had sold a couple of them to her teachers at school too.  Seeing that we were leaving the next day for our cruise, Ethan and I picked them up and took them straight over to Hannie.  I thought she looked so cute and festive, bringing a bit of holiday cheer into school. Too, after visiting Longwood Gardens with Johannah's environmental science class back in

Gone are the days of Kennedy Christmas tree trauma/drama.  It used to be deliciously horrible, finding the tree.  There were complaining kids, muddy feet, frozen faces and the elusive perfect tree that hid for a good 2+ hours in the labyrinth of lesser trees.  Now, when we go and find the tree, it seems way too easy.  The kids love it, we laugh and have fun, and the time passes way too quickly.  Little did we know that this year the tree story would be a drawn-out, painful affair. Ethan came home the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.  Traditionally, we cut down our tree the day after Thanksgiving, but he wanted us to wait for him to get home, and he wanted Rebecca to be here.  So, against our better judgement, we waited until Monday to head out to the Christmas tree farm.  Thankfully, John was post-call and had the day off, and because it's the first day of rifle hunting season in PA, the girls also had the day off school (I know, it's a comical thought, but a fact). I came a