The wedding reception for MJ and Kent was on Saturday. Since the party was to be in my folks backyard, MJ has been obsessing about the weather since last week. 

I got a call from my sister Margy on Friday morning. 

"Mom and I are at Costco.  We just got patties, buns and all the fixin's for burgers.  We've been cleaning the house all day and we're not going to mess up the kitchen again so can we bring it to your house for dinner tonight?"

I said yes and told Jay.  "How many people are coming?" he asked.

"I don't know.  Mom, Dad, Margy...about ten, I guess."

"Better pick up a case of beer."

Well, it turns out Bill had a wedding to go to, so he wouldn't make it. Down to nine.

 In the middle of the afternoon I got a call from Andy.

"Hey, what can I bring for dinner tonight?" he asked.

"Ummm...you mean besides Vi and the kids?" I asked. Up to thirteen.

"Yeah, do you need anything?"

"Well, Mom and Margy got the burgers and stuff...oh, wait, they forgot the cheese.  Bring cheese."

"Cheese, got it!"

About a half hour later I got a call from Woody, asking what time we were eating.

"Well, we're eating around six, I think..." I said.

"Great!  If Joe gets there before I do..."

"Joe's coming?"

"He told Mom he was coming."

Suddenly we were up to twenty two. 

"Is Katie coming?" I asked him.

"No.  She, Mike and Bill have that wedding."

"Is Kathy coming?"

"No, just me and Katelyn."  Twenty three.

"Great.  Could you pick up some more beer?"

Despite the fact that I had told him "ten" before he left the house that morning, Jay showed absolutely no surprise when he got home that night to find thirty two close relatives eating, drinking and  roaring around the house.  Katie and Mike couldn't come but they did drop off their kids.  When Mom and Dad showed up they brought enough groceries to feed the sixth fleet.  Every one of them was carrying bags of food; burger patties, buns, salad, fruit, you name it, they were hauling it up the driveway and last but not least was Cary, toting a bowl of chocolate cake.  You don't know the true joy of cake until you've carved the tops off six cakes and dumped them in a bowl for all to eat like potato chips.  Zack manned the grill and cooked the burgers to perfection.  Everything was under control when Jay and Ty got home.  People kept showing up until around nine o'clock.  After they ate, the kids went down to the park for a while and some of the grownups sat out front to watch the sunset.  Most of the party remained in the back yard.  It was really fun but didn't last too late.  We all knew we had a big Saturday coming and everyone wanted to get a good night sleep.  I assured MJ one more time not to worry about the weather; everything would be fine.

I woke up at 3:30 a.m. to the sound of crashing thunder, pouring rain and the sound of the tree in our front yard trying to break my bedroom windows.

In fourteen hours we had 170 people coming to an outdoor reception at my parents' house.