caerula's Diaryland Diary

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wedding and holiday update

We had a white Christmas after all. Just barely, but the weather gods managed to pull off beautiful soft snowfalls on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. And it was lovely.

Well, the wedding is over, and Minnie and EngineerBoy are (presumably) lolling about in St. Lucia as I type. The ceremony and reception came off beautifully, except for the minister screwing up and forgetting the giving away of the bride part and a few other things that Minnie had specifically changed in the ceremony. Which was upsetting at the time, and annoying in general, but not anything that ruined it, and not anything anyone who didn't know would notice. Minnie was fearfully calm all day Friday and Saturday, until she got dressed and saw herself in gown and veil and everything. Then she burst into tears, but my mom was able to calm her back down. She started crying again when she came down the aisle, but once she saw EB she was fine. EB said later that when he saw she was crying he got nervous that she had changed her mind. The decorations and flowers were beautiful, Minnie looked gorgeous, and everything went very smoothly. No bridesmaids popped out of their dresses -- although there were a couple of moments when it was narrowly avoided -- and a good time was had by all at the reception, particularly Hypo, my psychotic aunt, who got seriously blotto. And thank god it's over.

We got home around 3 in the morning after the wedding, and got up around 11 on Sunday and opened a few presents with YMB. Spent the rest of the day lolling about -- played YMB's new Harry Potter trivia game, YMB played with his legos, and we all played with my new PS2 game, SSX Tricky. It's vastly entertaining to me that with the two boys in the house, I'm the one who got a new video game for Christmas. But, I find myself irresistably addicted to those stupid snowboarders. I can't explain it. And I kick butt at it, too.

After the Dementors picked up YMB Blue and I returned the tuxes to the rental places, went to dinner at Big Boy's, and hit Meijer and Target for last minute stuff and necessities. Both insane on the evening of the 23rd, but better than having to go grocery shopping on Christmas Eve. Blue had to work audit both Sunday night and Monday night, so Monday morning he got home and went to bed, then we went over to Mom & Dad's around oneish for dinner-and-presents. Minnie and EB came, and Kitty and ControlFreak were still there, so we had everyone together for once and everyone was really well behaved, even CF. It was just like Christmas, only more relaxed. Dad loved his quilt, even in its unfinished, unquilted state. The siblings were both happy with their games (Jenga Truth-or-Dare for Kitty, and Moods for Minnie), and Mom was in hysterics over the Gallery of Regrettable Food book, and loved the Mandy Pantinkin cd. We couldn't afford to do much in the way of gifts this year, but it wasn't a big deal to any of us this year anyway, what with the wedding taking up every spare moment. Mom and Dad got all of us spa bath mats, with the massagers and jets and stuff, which I can't wait to try out, and we girls all got cute fuzzy slippers as well. Minnie and Kitty and their hubbies all had to leave to go to the various in-laws Christmas Eve celebrations, and Minnie and EB left early yesterday on their honeymoon, while Kitty and CF made the grandma rounds and then left to drive back to TC yesterday afternoon. Blue took another nap, poor thing, and woke up all sniffly with a cold. I hung out with Mom and Dad for a while -- Dad went back to sleep too, inevitable, and Mom and I tried to sleep but Dad's snoring in his chair kept us up. So we chatted, and cleaned up a little, and lolled around until Blue got up and we went home around nine.

I thought it would bug me, Blue leaving and me going to bed by myself on Christmas Eve, and the thought of my parents getting up by themselves on Christmas Day. But frankly, it turned out just fine. Mom and Dad seemed fairly relieved to have everything over with the change to sleep in and not have any major obligations on Christmas. Blue left for work around 10:30, and I stayed up snowboarding for a little while then fell asleep on the couch. Got up and stumbled to bed sometime in the middle of the night, and was woken by Blue bouncing on the bed at 8 am, wanting to open presents. So we got up and opened presents -- Blue loved the electronic litter box and played with the controls for an hour, after he stopped cracking up, and I am extremely excited about my foot spa and my "Sound of Music" DVD.

I also got a Charlotte-proof CD player for my sewing room -- the one I have now has a pop-up lid, and Charlotte loves to walk on it and make the lid come up, which of course is detrimental to the actual CD-listening experience -- and several pairs of socks. I love socks. We opened presents and ate candy and played with our new toys for a while, then went back to bed and slept until noon! At which time we had to get up and get ready for dinner-and-presents at Blue's Aunt Mary's.

We finally made it to Aunt Mary's around two, and fortunately hadn't missed anything. There were -- let me see -- six kids age six or under there. One four year old in a football outfit complete with helmet and shoulder pads, which made him a little dangerous. Two six year old girls giggling and running from all the boys. One six year old boy trying to stay out of trouble. One three year old with an extremely noisy laser gun, and one two year old permanently attached to his mom like a growth. They are very fun, although I did develop something of a headache by the end of dinner.

We did the gift exchange -- Blue and I got what we'd asked for, which was gift cards for Borders and Lowe's -- and my MIL gave me a really nice makeup kit which I will probably never use. She's still trying to transform me into her idea of a girl, I guess, someone who wears makeup and jewelry. Oh well. Blue got the inevitable sweaters from his parents, the guys went off to watch football, 15-year-old cousin Holly and I took naps on the couch, the aunts went off to cook, the kids ran around like fiends, etc etc. Fairly typical.

Dinner was unfortunatly also typical, read inedible. For some reason they serve everything cold -- the veggies, the rolls, the ham (according to Blue) -- everything. Fortunately we eat in the basement on a variety of folding tables scattered all over, and no one except Blue and Holly were close enough to realize I was hiding everything under my salad.

We called YMB at the Dementors and got filled in on everything he got, of course. He sounded like he was having a great time -- why not, with everything he asked for handed to him on a silver platter -- but he also seemed kind of sorry not to see us. Specifically, actually, he was sorry to miss Sophie's first Christmas with us. Hey, whatever works.

We went back by my cousins' house on the way home last night, and saw SmartKid and Buttercup, the Diva and Bubbles, and their parents, along with Grandma and Auntie. Everything was fine until Buttercup inadvertantly did something or other to hurt the Diva's feelings, who then started screaming that she didn't feel good and wanted to go home. Ah well. We left shortly thereafter and came home and collapsed.

And now I'm back at work this morning -- a half-day today, all day tomorrow and Friday, and then a WHOLE WEEK OFF! Yay! I won't know what to do with myself. But I'm sure I'll come up with something. I'm having lunch in a couple of hours with one of my comoderators from the List, in town for the holiday, which I am really looking forward to. Then I suppose I'll go home and crash again, unless Blue makes good on his threat to make me go see "Lord of the Rings" with him this afternoon. We'll see.

10:13 a.m. - 2001-12-26

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