Hockey is a pretty big deal where I come from!  And by that I mean Canada!  When you spend at least four months of the year in the bitter cold, you tend to do whatever  you can to make the best of it…and hockey, along with Bailey’s and hot chocolate, is one of those things!

I grew up in London, Ontario, which meant that I spent from the ages of five to eighteen living half way between two major NHL powerhouses; Detroit and Toronto.  It certainly goes without saying that our loyalties went to the Canadian team but in that part of the province, it wasn’t necessarily a given.  I can remember being a little girl and our entire family meeting up at a relative’s house to watch the playoff games.  We’d walk through the door with armloads of subs, cinnamon rolls and Pepsi, then gather ourselves around the little television in the family room as our team fought to the death.

As I got a bit older, my interest in the sport faded quite a bit {I blame that on boys!} and for the next several years, my loyalties went right along with it.  It wasn’t until I moved to Ottawa to go to University that my relationship with hockey got rekindled once again.

Living in a city with its own NHL team {a fairly good one at that!} is very different from living near a city with its own team!  The difference being that hockey season, and especially playoff season, becomes marked on the calendar like any other major holiday!  The signs go up on Elgin Street to indicate that the red mile is now officially open for business and the energy builds.  It builds and it builds and it builds until we finally lose in game four or five of the playoffs and the entire city begins to start pumping anti-depressants into the water for the next couple of weeks!  It’s all just part of the full fan experience!!  And it can be a rough one at times!

It becomes especially difficult when you’ve become a full-fledged Ottawa Senators fan who ends up marrying a tried and true Toronto Maple Leafs fan.  It can be a bit tense at times {with the exception of when they end up playing each other during the playoffs…then it’s just full on war!} and a humbling lesson in gloating for which ever partner gets the last word…but we manage to make it work!

Now, having said that, the verdict is still out on which one of us gets to influence our son!!  So far, I {and all of my beloved friends} seem to have created a mini Sens fan!  Three cheers for us!

So when I met Lesley and Bill on a very rainy evening at Starbucks to discuss their 2011 wedding…only to have Bill lean over and ask “is it okay if I sit in the car to listen to the rest of the hockey game?!?!”…I knew that we were going to get along just fine!!  While Lesley and I plan out the details of their much-anticipated day, Bill and I talk about a different big day; the day that we hope to walk away with the Stanley Cup {preferably after beating Toronto in overtime of game seven!}!  And while it isn’t looking likely that we’ll be the NHL Champions any time soon {insert pout here!}…July 2011 is going to be here before we know it!!  So we thought we’d celebrate with a fun little engagement session!

Lesley and Bill, I can hardly wait for the big day…your wedding day that is!