Delius Diaries

What a fun and special evening we had celebrating the 250th birthday of our U.S. Marines! We packed up and spent Saturday night south of Brussels in a chateau on the lake. The area was beautiful, the chateau was a little run down but a great spot for the party. This was Connor’s first black tie event, we were impressed with his interest level. We bought him a black suit and new shoes and he borrowed Scott’s gold bow tie. I must say he was so handsome!

Before we left we went to the gym and a stop at the Army barber shop for Connor’s haircut, he was not happy about that or the outcome. Teenage angst. But he moved on. We ate lunch at an Italian restruatnt on the lake, no English speaking! Haha, we survived and did not starve. Bucky went along with us for the night, he enjoyed a lake walk before we got ready for the evening.

The bathroom was commandeered by the two men, giving me the last few minutes to get ready. They always take longer! The evening started with a cocktail hour before opening to a large ballroom with assigned seats. Connor immediately found our named seat cards, he thought that was cool. We enjoyed chatting with the guests at our table. The food was very good, much better than expected. The ceremony and speaches were really nice as well. The desginate US Ambassador to Belgium was the guest speaker who has a long history of supporting Veterans. There were other ceremonial Marine activities with the evening ending with a fun band. I had hoped that Connor would dance with me, but he’s not ready for that. Maybe next ball. Tonight I asked him if he thought he would consider being a Marine (Scott’s dad was a Marine), he said “maybe, I like what they stand for and how they organize”. Who knows?!