The Story

In case you were wondering how two of my children managed to acquire large bruising injuries in the same night, here's the story:

I was at a Romanian wedding reception, OKAY!?!? And the kids were hanging out near our table, which was near a railing for the ramp up to the tables, and Emily had already been told several times to stop flipping on the bar, and it's not my fault Connor thought he was a few inches shorter than he really is as he tried to run under it. AND, Dan was off helping to steal the bride--which, I might add, is a tradition at Romanian wedding receptions. AND I'd been hauled off to the dance floor by a Romanian woman, who found it VERY ODD that I would be hovering over my children rather than dancing...

I knew we were attending a Romanian wedding reception (one of Dan's co-worker's reception), and I knew the bulk of the guests would be Romanian (pretty much everyone but my family of five, and one other man, but he was recently married to one of the Romanian woman so I'm not sure he counts! LOL), but I honestly, NOT ONCE, even thought about what was in store for us that night, or how VERY VERY DIFFERENT this reception would be from anything we've attended in the past.

We were warned by another of Dan's co-workers (who is also Romanian) that people traditionally don't show up on time, and that we should arrive at least an hour late. Dan and I both felt it would be rather rude to show up an entire hour late, but aren't we glad we listened, because there weren't many people there when we arrived (an hour late). We'd also been told it would be nice to buy a bouquet of flowers to give the bride when we arrived. Thank goodness for helpful Paul, because how silly would we have felt showing up on time, and flowerless??? The stack of flowers in one corner of the room was rather impressive, and I would say the number of guests doubled (at least) within a half hour of our own arrival.

At this point, the food was brought out, and I will be honest that I steered clear of most of it, being entirely unsure of WHAT it even was. For the most part, it was bread slices and an assortment of meats and things (mostly deli meats I'd never seen before, and some gray-ish stuff that looked a bit like tuna, though Dan assures me it definately wasn't...LOL). I had some bread and some salami-ish meat (I say "ish" because it wasn't like any salami I've eaten before, but it was good and very similar). There was also some thin strips of breaded chicken (if it wasn't chicken, I don't want to know what it was), which was good.

The music was getting going, and a few of the women were starting to dance. SEVERAL people made suggestions that we put the kids in the upper room (visible from the dance floor and seating area we were in) and leave them be, but Connor's only 2.5 and not really a kid full of any sort of "healthy" fear, so between the two of us, we "hovered" over the kids pretty good. UNTIL Dan was offered some Palinca, which is moonshine made from fermented plums and is REALLY strong stuff. At that point, Dan was doing a fabulous job socializing with the men and I was on my own with the kid-hovering job.

Around 10pm, I was feeling ready to head home; it was already 2 hours past the kids' bedtimes,and we had a long drive home, still. One of the women (helpful Paul's wife, Carina) saw that we were preparing to leave, and informed us that it would be rather rude to leave before the cake was brought out. When I asked when that might be, we were told that it's generally brought out around MIDNIGHT, sometimes closer to 1am. Of course, we didn't want to be rude, but MIDNIGHT, with three small kids, and a LONG drive home??? It was right then and there that I realized things were VERY different from an American wedding reception, and felt the need to ask further questions:

Why is the cake brought out so many hours into the reception?
In Romania, a traditional wedding reception would last until 6-8am the following day. Which also explains why people aren't worried about showing up on time, because they'll still have PLENTY of time to celebrate with the happy couple. The cake is brought out late to give everyone time to arrive and to eat several meals.

SEVERAL MEALS?
Because the receptions last so long, new meals are brought out every few hours to make sure the guests are well-fed and having a good time. (FYI, two meals were served while we were there; the second being some sort of roast, mashed potatoes, and cabbage rolls. We were still full from the first meal, not having any clue there'd be a second one, so we didn't eat any of the second one).

The kids were having a BLAST, and short of being rude, it seemed best to just make the best of it, stick around, and enjoy ourselves. Carina pulled me out onto the dance floor, and any of you who know me personally, know that I am NOT a dancer, that I am extremely self-conscious being in any sort of setting where I'm being spot-lighted in any way/shape/form. I was honestly near tears from pure embarrassment of not having a clue what to do with my body. Not too long after that, the more organized dancing started up.

My computer is still "sick" (as reported by Kaci Thursday) and isn't currently allowing me any volume capabilities, so I have NO CLUE what the audio portion of this video is like; I'm just going for the VISUAL here, and there was a lot of this sort of dancing happening that night (and so you can see how I could be momentarily distracted from my mothering duties!) (PS mostly it was the women doing the dances, with the occasional man joining in from time to time)


As part of a group, where everyone was doing the same thing, it was far easier to let loose and go with the flow, and I ended up really enjoying myself. Emily was fascinated by the "circle dancing" and came running every time one got started (which was rather often, to be truthful!).

Around 11pm, Dan was asked to be a part of the group that kidnaps the bride. WHAT?!?! I can see your reaction was similar to ours. The guys adding Dan to their group thought that we were quite the funny pair to have never heard of that tradition (Dan and I, at this point, were still trying to decide if they were pulling our legs). But surely enough, they grabbed the bride and took off with her, and about 15 minutes later, they sent Dan in to negotiate for her safe return. It was pretty funny!!

The bride was returned, bottles of wine were given to her kidnappers, and the night continued.

sometime around 12:30am, the cake was brought out, served, and eaten. Thank you's and good bye's were said, pictures were posed for, more thank you's, more good bye's, and somewhere around 1am we were making our way out to the car (we were the second family to leave, and no one else was showing any signs of leaving, despite the fact that they couldn't find a place they could affordably rent out until 6-8am)

Somewhere mixed into all the fun/excitement were wounded children, who were promptly soothed and cuddled by doting parents, who were never out of visual contact with them for more than a few minutes at a time. And although we kept our kids out WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too late, they had a fabulous time, and I'm glad they got to experience something so different. Emily happily shared her version of things for her sharing time at school, which I think I will prompt her to write down in her journal.

And here's me, STILL (one week later) kicking myself for not having my camera with me that night!!!!!!!!!!!!