Dec. 2, 2006 - The Wedding Poinsettia

This past week my boys noticed some poinsettia decorations while we were driving through town. They thought it was a bit funny that someone would use flowers to decorate for Christmas. I figured out pretty quickly that they had never heard about these beautiful Christmas flowers, and therefore it was a good time to tell them about my mother's Christmas wedding as she has a very special memory of poinsettias to go along with that.

Since that day earlier this week, my boys have talked nonstop about KayTee's wedding poinsettia. Joel told the entire story to his therapist, Ms. Beth. Nathan has drawn pictures of poinsettias. And I've retold the story many times this week, and entertained question after question after question about KayTee's and Poppa's wedding..

It just so happened that we've been reading Allen Say's book "Grandfather's Journey" for our FIAR story this week. We have also read his books "Tree of Cranes" and "Tea With Milk" as go-alongs. All three of these books are stories from his family history. This gave us the idea to write out own family story. I'm sure it is easy to guess which family story we wrote!

I'm pretty proud of the final draft. Nathan is currently working to churn out some illustrations. It was a good experience and I think that we all had fun. Isn't wonderful how the neatest things will just fall into place? God is just so good with timing!

Here is is:

The Wedding Poinsettia

written by Joel (and soon to be illustrated by Nathan)

This is a Christmas story about my grandparents. My grandmother is named Kay McGee Terry, but I call her KayTee. My grandfather is named Malcolm Terry, but I call him Poppa. This is the story about their wedding day.

KayTee and Poppa were going to get married on December 20, 1968. It was going to be a Christmas wedding. There was going to be pretty Christmas carols played during the wedding and lots of Christmas colors decorating the church. Best of all, KayTee was going to carry a white poinsettia for her wedding bouquet.

The pionsettia is a traditional Christmas flower. Poinsettias bloom at Christmas time. You can find poinsettia blooms in red, pink, and white, but red is the most common color of all. These flowers grow in Mexico. They were first introduced in the United States around 1830 by Dr. Joel Poinsett, the U.S. Minister to Mexico from 1825-1830. He brought some of the beautiful flowers back to his South Carolina home because he loved them so much. After a while, the lovely Christmas flowers from Mexico came to be called poinsettias after Dr. Poinsett, and Americans have been enjoying these beautiful flowers every December since that time.

Now when KayTee was getting ready for her wedding, she called a flower shop and said, “I want a white poinsettia for my wedding.” After talking with a florist, she ordered a white poisettia from a flower shop far, far away. It had to be special-ordered because white poinsettias were not that common. In that time, brides were supposed to carry bouquets of white flowers. That is why KayTee chose to carry a white poinsettia wedding bouquet.

On the day of the wedding the florist called KayTee with some bad news. She said that the white poinsettia had not come in with the other flowers that KayTee had ordered for her wedding. No other flower shops nearby had a white poinsettia. The florist said that she was very sorry about it and that she could make Kaytee a pretty wedding bouquet out of white roses or white carnations instead.

Kaytee was very disappointed. She really wanted a wedding bouquet made with a white poinsettia. After all, her wedding was a Christmas wedding and the poinsettia was a Christmas flower. So she told the florist that she would carry a red poinsettia instead.

But the florist gasped and said, “No! You can’t do that! Brides should only carry white flowers! It might bring bad luck if you carried a red poinsettia!”

Kaytee said, “I don’t care! I want to carry a poinsettia. If I can’t have a white one, then I will carry a red one.”

That night the Christmas carol “O Come All Ye Faithful” played in the church, and Kaytee came walking down the aisle, holding onto her father’s arm with one hand and carrying a red poinsettia in her other hand. She was a very beautiful bride.

As far as we know, the red poinsettia did not bring bad luck. Kaytee and Poppa have now been married for 38 years. They have 3 children and 5 grandchildren and lots of love all around.

Then end

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