"have you the wings?"

Family is one of the greatest things ever. Case in point: the "cousins" table at family wedding receptions. Examine the evidence:

Exhibit A: Salad plate full of M&Ms

My extended family (dad's side) has this thing about M&Ms. No, seriously. They are essentially our official family candy. We should get a corporate sponsorship or something. At my aunt's house in IN, there is an M&M-designed cookie jar that is actually full of M&Ms rather than cookies. We call it the Miracle M&M jar because - miraculously - every time we empty it, its supply is replenished! (Nevermind that the "miracle" is actually a "4 lb. bag of M&Ms in the pantry". Let us live with our illusions.) Any gathering of the family automatically involves the consumption of M&Ms in large quantities, and this weekend's wedding was no exception.

The cousins table started out sedately enough. However, sometime between the salads and the main course Braden - not a fan of salad - took his untouched and empty salad plate to the humongous M&M bowl at door (on the table with the name cards) and filled it up with the candy in question. Hereafter the M&Ms were known as "salad". We passed them around our table, the Peace CRC table, as well as the "aunts and uncles" table. The gesture was warmly received by all parties.

Exhibit B: "The Titanic"

The best wedding receptions involve fire. You'd be amazed at what we can do with a candle and ordinary table accoutrements. However, in the absence of fire we made do with water. Alyssa made this fantastic paper boat which went for its maiden voyage among the lovely centerpiece flowers. It was captained by a green M&M. Sadly, the vessel was not completely seaworthy - something about the absorption properties of paper - and eventually took on water and sank, prompting several "Titanic" jokes. For the record, M&Ms lose their candy coating when wet; the "captain" left behind a trail of green as the boat went down. So, naturally, Deanne "cremated" the captain by smashing his remaining chocolate center to smithereens on her plate.

And let's not even mention the game of M&M tidily-winks that I may or may not have started shortly after the boating incident....

Now, lest you think that my sisters, cousins, and I are complete hooligans, let it be noted that we are very nice people who do in fact know how to behave in social situations. However, we also definitely know how to cause a little mischief. And when you put all of us together, we definitely err on the "mischief" side.

So the moral of the story is that the cousins table is most certainly the coolest and most entertaining place to sit during a wedding reception.

Case closed.