Love & Holiday Cheer

Awwwwwhhhhh, so the holidays have come and gone and come again, and here we are in the middle of the winter with the ones we hold dearest.

First off, I'd like to recap Carrie & Long's wedding! They had a reception banquet at Gold Mountain in Chinatown the second Saturday of December. I was nervous because it was my first wedding, I didn't have a date, and it was a Chinese wedding -- yeah, I don't speak Chinese.. at all. It turns out that I knew more people there than I had anticipated, and it was quite a delightful time :) Thankfully, Ann didn't bring a date either, so I didn't feel so awkward -- otherwise, I would have been the only one at my table without a date! It was a huge relief to know everyone at my table, and though we hadn't seen each other in years (literally) it was great to catch up with them.

The wedding was really cute! Carrie looked exhausted, but also VERY gorgeous. Loved all of her dresses, and I like the way she coordinated the colors for all of the decorations. When they were playing the love songs and I was watching the couple slideshow I almost started tearing.. so happy for those two <3 be="" br="" didn="" even="" for="" going="" happy="" i="" know="" most="" of="" on="" really="" t="" the="" there.="" though="" time="" to="" was="" what="">
This past Thursday was B's birthday, and he who apparently NEVER celebrates his birthday decided to finally go out! So we went to Slide, and got to see him drink more than two beers, which is a rare occasion in itself. We had a pretty good time even though it was house music. I guess it's a preview of what Tiesto will be like. On Friday I woke up with a killer sore throat. I thought I might have Strep Throat so I stayed home to rest. I pretty much slept the entire day and night, and I was so glad to wake up better on Saturday.

I spent the earlier part of Saturday preparing shrimp ceviche for the Holiday Potluck. It was my first time making ceviche, or actually making anything for a potluck, and it turned out to be a success! I was worried that the final product was too sour.. but everybody seemed to genuinely love it. At first I thought they were just being nice.. but people were eating it all up!!! There was LOTS of great food there, and Alex even brought a whole slab of prime rib! Tiana made us cute little party favors with bells and our names written on them, I got a snowman. SUPER CUTE! Lots of good eating for sure, and as always excellent company.

After the Holiday Potluck, we left Henry's to go to the Ugly Sweater Party. Somewhere along the way, the guys got the idea to do red-light musical cars (we had three cars). So if I remember correctly, my car had 3 rounds of new people. I wish the car I was driving had automatic locks though, I couldn't control the doors fast enough to lock anyone out LOL. When we got to the Ugly Sweater Party I felt a bit awkward because I didn't know the other people there. But an hour or so later I loosened up and ended up having a great time :) I met some new people, got a double kiss under the mistletoe from two lovely boys at the same time! There were even super cool fake tattoos.. and I wish I had gotten the ferocious-animal-hand one like Alex's but I was content with snowman. All in all, December has been a great week thus far! And we're only halfway through... Chad is back, Menie and Charles will be back in town later this week and I'm really just loving this holiday season and all of the loving people I've been spending it with.