What's On Our Minds

Merry Christmas

Our holiday celebrations were great. I had to take Christmas Eve off because Tuesday night, I realized all that needed to be done before my family arrived Wednesday evening... and I freaked out.

So I stayed up until 2 AM Tuesday night wrapping Christmas presents. Wednesday, I got up and finished doing laundry and cleaning up the house. Then I relaxed while John went grocery shopping. He cooked while I made the family collage frame we were giving to his brother for Christmas. Then we watched a Christmas show and went driving around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights. Some people really go all out. Makes me feel bad that all we had was a little wreath.

As soon as we got back, my mom and brother showed up. My sister canceled, saying she'd come early the next morning. We had dinner and started opening gifts. (We usually wait until midnight on Christmas Eve, but John was impatient)

I got John a new atomic solar watch, the new Steven King Book he wanted, a Christmas CD, Rueben Studdard's CD, and some other little stocking stuffers.

John gave me a ton of stuff (because he didn't know what to get me.) He bought games for my PDA, earmuffs, new slippers, a straightening comb (I'd been looking for one, but I only mentioned it once), my favorite chocolate truffles and a cable hookup for my laptop (I can see what big geeks we are by describing the things we get excited over.)

Christmas morning my sister came and we all opened gifts with her. Then my mom, brother and sister left and John and I went to his father's house for Christmas... more food and more gifts.

Friday we went to see the final Lord of the Rings Movie, which we loved. Then we hung out and played Christmas Trivial Pursuit (another of my gifts) with his sister.

Saturday I wore pajamas all day and relaxed doing nothing. Sunday we slept in and then cleaned up the house a little.

Swim Class

We got our grades from swimming class. It was supposed to end this month, but John and I stopped going at the end of November.

Even though the teacher threatened to lower our letter grades for each missed class (we missed 3), we both still got Bs. Now can we swim is the question. So-so is the answer. Oh well. We're better than we started out.

Christmas Party

Last night we had a spontaneous party with a few friends. We conned them into decorating our naked tree. It was a lot of fun. After decorating the tree, we had dinner and then sang Christmas songs on karaoke. Then we played Christmas Charades (an early present from John) had some cake and then we opened gifts.

Bridesmaid Dress Rant

After Christmas shopping all day, I come home and find I have a message on the machine from Macy's. Apparently, my last bridesmaid just left the store, but the manager needs to discuss something with me.

Next message from 4th BM: "Don't punch me in the face but, Macy's told me that since I took so long to come into the store, there may be a rush charge--but don't worry, I'll pay for it myself."

So I call Macy's and the manager's telling me she would feel more comfortable if we rush the bridesmaid dress order since it takes 3-4 months to get them in. I told her in no uncertain terms, we would not be paying an extra FIFTY bucks a person (my BM thought it was only $50 for all when she offered to pay and I wouldn't hold her to that.)

The manager says she's going to call the manufacturer Monday to give me a definite time line to "base my decision on", but they would have had to tell me the dresses wouldn't show up until April 24 for me to agree to a rush charge when they never gave me a deadline for ordering the dresses...

So I called Macy's today since they never got back to me about the delivery date. Naturally, when I get on the phone with the manager, she tells me they ordered the dresses and, "of course, we didn't need a rush order."

Of course! That's what I told her. So the expected delivery date is mid-March. Hmm, but they would have taken my extra $50 per person if I had fallen for their scare tactics.

May 2004 Release

I got my new book covers today. They'll be hitting the stands a few days after the wedding.

Wedding Nightmare

Last night I had my first real wedding nightmare. I've dreamed about the wedding in the past, but this one really felt real. I was so relieved to wake up and realize it was just a dream. Here's the gist of it:

It's starts off with my having forgotten my wedding shoes. So, I try not be get upset and put on some brightly colored shoes that are wrong but will hopefully be covered by my dress.

Then John and I finished our ceremony and entered the reception. We went straight to the dance floor and the photographer (should have been the DJ, but you know how dreams are) said they didn't have our first dance song. So we got off the floor, thinking we'd do the dance a little later. (John and I have taken extensive dance lessons, both professional private lessons and group lessons, so our first dance is a big deal to us.)

Well, the dream zooms forward to after the reception in our honeymoon suite. I'm talking to John who is calming folding clothes and putting them in drawers. I start crying hysterically because we NEVER did our first dance. All the money we paid for lessons was wasted because we didn't perform the dance.

John is trying to comfort me, but doesn't appear to be upset. I start reflecting back on the reception, and I start freaking out because I never even saw the videographers. They never showed up. We never danced once during the reception, not even to fast songs. I couldn't remember speaking to any family or guests, and I wasn't even sure if our pictures would turn out.

I continued to cry hysterically because all of our meticulous plans were wasted--I remembered none of the wedding, didn't have dancing, didn't greet guest and wouldn't even have a video to show for it. I woke up wondering why none of my plans came to fruition.

Whew... I was never so relieved to hear the alarm go off.

Christmas Photos

Pose One

Pose Two

Thanksgiving Weekend

Our Thanksgiving was really nice.

Wednesday night we cleaned up the house and John started marinating the chicken he planned to roast.

Thursday, I woke up early and cleaned up some more (unfortunately, it seems I only clean when company's coming) and watched the parade. My mom and brother came over that afternoon, and we watched movies while John finished cooking. Then we had dinner and watched some more movies.

Friday, we ate brunch and watched television together. Then we played games and watched a movie until my sister arrived around 7 PM. We had dinner and hung out for a while.

Saturday, my mom and brother left early. John and I had an 11:15 appointment at Sears for our holiday card pictures. We took some cute poses with Santa hats on. Then we ate lunch at Red Lobster and did some spontaneous holiday shopping.

After shopping we went downtown to see a Wizards basketball game with a couple that John works with. We had seats in the nose-bleed section because John "won" them for $5 a ticket. I'm deathly afraid of heights, so walking up to the seats was a bit shakey for me. The Wizards lost as they always do and we went home.

Sunday, I lounged around and did nothing all day.