...When suddenly, Christmas snuck up and bitch slapped me.

(Per Manda's request, I'm posting something new. :) And I kind of wanted to post, considering it's been way too long. Again.)

The holidays came and went too quickly. With Matt and Jen's wedding, rearranging the house for little Aidan's arrival in a month (what?!), moving Tim into his new condo, and celebrating good ol' Christmas, it's been a big, swirling blur of stress and euphoria.

I can't believe I didn't write a single thing about the wedding! It was, by far, the most fun I've had at both a ceremony and a reception. Matt and Jen both were glowing the entire night - they're finally hitched!! My cousin, Ryan, and I stood up together. Quick side note (or not so quick): Ryan and I were together all the time as kids. I learned many valuable lessons through his generous outpouring of wisdom, such as the bottom of Uncle Danny's swimming pool doesn't smell like raspberries no matter how hard you sniff, and filling an empty beer can with the shavings from leftover 4th of July sparklers and lighting a match results in both pretty colors and scaring the bejesus out of Aunt Shar. We haven't seen each other in a year or more because he had to move to North Carolina, so putting us together for the wedding was either a decision made out of love or complete idiocy.

He made faces at me to get me to laugh during the entire ceremony. And, at one point, he came up to me and said "Pam, I don't know how to tell you this, but I think your sister is pregnant." Mind you, she's 8 months along.

During the bridal party dance, Ryan and I were together while my cousin Johnny and Meghan danced next to us. We made a quick decision to switch partners, so that Johnny and Ryan could seductively dance with one another, while Meghan and I danced together laughing our asses off. It turned into quite a trend - by the end of the bridal dance, everyone had switched partners to dance with either a relative or someone of the same sex (or both!). The older generation present at the reception was so pissed that we messed up such a lovely tradition, while the rest of us laughed so hard we were crying.

Tim looked meow meow meow in his uniform (as Manda would say - two paws up!). It's the first time I've seen him in his blues, and I wasn't disappointed at all *wink*. We're both such awkward slow dancers though - there were definitely bruised toes by the end of the night. But, those are the little things that I wouldn't trade for the world.

So yes - much love, laughter, and rum and coke at the wedding. Awesome.

Christmas was amazing as always. This was the first Christmas in probably two or three years that I felt "comfort and joy." Keeping all the gifts low-key, spending time with both my family and Tim's family (including his unbelievably fun little cousins) - as cheestastic as it is, it was nice to kind of count my blessings. It's been a rough year, so when things slow down a bit, I have to sit back and smile.

Tim is officially moved into his new condo!! The place looks gorgeous. Helping him unpack has been one of my favorite Tim and Pam memories to date. There's nothing like going through old photographs together, learning little things about him that even after a year of dating I still don't know (although the best moment was when he pulled this squished, crusty, missing-one-eye and overly loved crocodile from a box, saying "This is Izod!" I'm giggling just thinking about it). I'm just scared, because I promised him he could look through my old pictures - he's going to see Pam in her chunker "I don't care how I look" days. Yikes.

It's kind of fun to find all the little things that aren't quite right with the place. For example: he went to take a shower yesterday, and at one point I hear the quiet running of the water, and then I hear a strong gushing like the Mississippi just burst through a dam. Turns out the faucet came undone and flew across the bathroom.

Despite all of this, it's actually been a very slow couple of weeks. My hours at work were cut, and most people are busy around this time of year, so I haven't really seen many of my friends. I'm missing them all terribly...

Well, I believe that's all for now. I'm going to go do some research, and then knit a baby blanket. Oh yeah. That's how I roll, G.