364 Days till Christmas... 387 days till the wedding!

Christmas has come and gone and I'm tired. We had the big family dinner, and I ended up cooking and cleaning all day. We got out of bed around 7:00 yesterday morning. Tim had to run and get the kids and the roaster oven from hsi parents' house. I started cleaning/organizing and then showered and got Jess up to open her stocking. I started preparing the stuffing and turkey to go into the oven. I made 24 cups of stuffing, but there really should have been more.

I started a load of dishes and ended up doing 6 during the course of the day. As many as the dishwasher could do, but then we didn't get them all done. Crazy.

We opened gifts, then cleaned up. Later my mom and brother (and Elaine) came by to do gifts. They left right before 2:00 when I was about ready to lose my mind from all of the preparations. My mom had threatened to stay to face my grandma for the first time in 16 years, but she backed down at the last minute. I was relieved... I didn't think that I could handle that.

Tim's parents and brother's family arrived as my mom was leaving. Shortly thereafter, my grandma arrived. It was weird to see his brother and sister-in-law. She was very congratulatory on our engagement. It was nice to pause for a moment and think about that... but there wasn't much time.

We finished carving the turkey and the roast and getting the potatoes and gravies done. Steve helped carry stuff to the table. We got everything completed and as we were going to walk into the dining room, Tim grabbed my hand, pulled me to him, gave me a quick kiss and congratulated me on getting everything accomplished. It was sweet. I love that man.

At the end of the evening, I was so tired, I was ready for bed around 8:00. We stayed awake until around 9:15, but fell asleep shortly thereafter. I could barely get up this morning. I was dreading getting out of my warm cocoon and coming into a cold cold office. Honestly unmotivated to do much of anything.

This morning I started my first bridal registry... at Crate & Barrel (dot com). Yay. It is really early, but I saw some cute things that I really wanted. I may not end up using that one, but I found a soup tureen and some napkin holders that were great. We'll see.

My mom told me the other day that she would be able to give me some money for my wedding. This is a shocker. She has been so poor for such a long time now, and I feel bad for her wanting to give me money. But she is buying a house and going to have some cash left over. How exciting. Anything will help. Especially since my grandma hasn't said a word about buying my dress... even though she's promised that since I was a little girl.

Tim was saying that he was going to be getting a bonus at work. He said that it would be a nice little nest egg for the wedding. But practicality still wins out sometimes and I was wondering if it wouldn't be better to put towards new windows for the house. I don't know. I guess it depends.

January 16-18 is a wedding show at the Tacoma Dome. It will be interesting to see cakes and flowers and all of that jazz. I think that it will really give me a better idea of what to expect since I've never been to anything like that.

We'll see.