Stella (Tia) got her grove (Bryan) back

Thursday, December 20th the school gods decided to give Bryan a break and make that his last day for the term. The pukeys made him miss 2 days of clinicals, but due to the laziness of his instructors, they didn't want to have to make up the days with him. It's SO nice to have him "back." By Friday he was his normal, silly, picking on me self which I had so greatly missed.

We've been doing our best to have tons of play time in amongst selling the house and working (me). To celebrate him being done, we had a really fun date night going out to see Sweeney Todd (bizarre yet good) and having dinner at this very "Portland" upscale pizza place with the most fantastic tiramisu I've had in a long time. In addition to Sweeney Todd we went to see Juno last night (great flick) and we've rented Waitress (not that good, but I was still entertained) and Eastern Promises (which I have no idea what happened because I couldn't understand their thick Russian accents). Bryan has also watched I Am Legend and part of The Bucket List online. Yes, we've been movie junkies!

The movies were interspersed between a few episodes of Six Feet Under (which we love) and lots of cable...namely marathons of Flip that House (we were sucked into this until 1am one night!), Say Yes to the Dress (okay, that was me that watched a pathetic FOUR hours of it, but I did at least unpack while I was watching), Stand Up on Comedy Central, and some marathon on TLC about people at this fat center in New York. We clearly missed having cable :) I'm not ashamed at all to admit how much TV we've been watching, since come mid-January Bryan will be back to school and the TV will stay dark just like it did last term.

Christmas was a low-key affair, since we had adopted a family for Christmas. However, our parents still managed to spoil us royally. I guess the "no gifts" thing is impossible for moms! Christmas Eve we went to Sherri and Kevin's where we had a fantastic meal! Appetizers of cheese and crackers, strawberries, cold shrimp, and a fig/feta/hazelnut thing that was so good. Dinner was lobster, risotto, homemade mac and cheese, a fancy salad with raspberries in it, and bread. Dessert was homemade lava cakes. Of course the champagne was flowing as well, which was delicious with a splash of the marionberry wine added in that we had brought. It was a scrumptious meal and it was really fun to be around young kids on Christmas Eve and remember the excitement.

Last night (New Year's) we had a fantastic meal that Bryan made which consisted of cheese and artichoke quiche as an appetizer, fruit he picked out just for me (fresh pineapple and raspberries), steak that he did an amazing job of cooking, butternut squash, and rolls. Dessert was eclairs with chocolate frosting on the top. After the late dinner, we went to see Juno, then came back to watch the ball drop and toast with some Eye of the Bee, our favorite wine from a local winery (expect it to make an appearance at our reception).

When we weren't eating or watching TV, we were unpacking. Supposedly, after a last minute panic by the buyer that cost me $100 because I was too tired to fight anymore), my house finally closed. That was the 27th, and I haven't heard from my attorney or my real estate agent that it actually did close, but I know if someone had gone wrong the bitch..err...realtor would have called. I still need to write to her boss and tell him what a horrible person she was. I'm just thankful it's all done.

The sea of boxes has been downgraded to a creek of boxes, which is at least moving in the right direction. I hope to have everything unpacked before the trip to Portland next week for my dad's 80th birthday! Can't wait to be back home where the high is higher than 18 (which is the forecast here for the next 2 days!).

The wedding is, well, frustrating to say the least. Still no date, no plan, and no location even remotely decided upon. Every idea is shot down by at least one person. We're hoping to make progress when we are back home.