Simply having a wonderful Christmas time...

(One must sing it aloud for proper effect)

Christmas was a good ol' time. We had a low-key, mostly uneventful gathering here at my house. It felt basically like Thanksgiving again. The usual difference when I was a kid was the heaping pile of presents I had waiting for me under the tree, but as it seems those days are long gone, it was just a big family get together with more delicious food-- hence, Thanksgiving all over again. Not that I mind, as Thanksgiving is the greatest of holidays. Highlights were Sonya's tomato-crab soup number, delicious rack of lamb, and a good glass of Merlot ("Did I NOT ask for Merlot???" -- my Martha Stewart shout-out for the Holidays). I also enjoyed breaking in Auddie's new DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) game, which was part of my X-mas gift to her.

Today was an unusual day-after-Christmas for me. After initially declining, I decided last moment that I would help Three Way & Co. (Three Way=Bac Diep=my aunt who owns a florist) with the flowers for a wedding today. Ok, to be fair, it was the offer of "make some money" that enticed me most. Surely, the waking up at 7 am was not what convinced me to do this. Auddie decided to join in (not knowing what she was getting into!) and we headed out to a hotel somewhere in Chantilly/Centreville/who really knows or cares? where the wedding was. For the first hour or so I got my hands dirty by cleaning dozens of dozens of roses. Then when the real flower crew got there (Kam [Tuti], Three Way [Bac Diep], Sonya [Co Huong], and Bac Anh) I actually started to learn some things.

As this was a completely last-minute wedding and the always wonderful Great Falls Florist was pulling a "lifesaver" task by covering for another florist who bailed on the wedding, time was short and perfection was not in the cards. Thus, they let me handle some flowers and even arrange them, too! By the end of the day, I was creating centerpieces of my own without supervision. Word of this probably shouldn't get out for the sake of the florist, but it's actually okay to talk about because I wasn't totally horrible. (Awaiting Kam's blog comment...) In fact, I was quite proud to be junior designer of the day and express my creative self through flora. The important part was, we got all the arrangements done by 6 pm for the reception and I was happy to have contributed. It was totally exhausting and stressful at times, but it was a fun experience and I learned a lot. A future in flower design? Perhaps, after some more instruction (some of the centerpieces were a wee lopsided...). If nothing else, I have totally newfound respect for wedding flowers and all the work and people that are behind them. Whew!

Oh, as for the wedding. It was a traditional arranged Indian wedding. Whoa! I know, right. Even crazier, the bride was a girl who had gone to Langley and graduated in '97. Whoda thunk it? You always hear about these things, but to know of people who could be your friend participating in an arranged marriage-- it's like, some type of weird culture shock, really. It was particularly interesting after having recently finished reading The Namesake, this really incredible novel by Jhumpa Lahiri about an Indian family and their experiences about immigration and subsequent acculturation in America. Quite a good read-- I recommend it (It was especially relevant to me because the theme of the whole book was centered around one character and his struggle with identity through his name... sound familiar?) Anyway, seeing the whole wedding thing unfold today was just really eye-opening. It always provokes some thought about your world view when you see how culture and traditions that seem so dated, at least to you, are still very relevant and significant for some people.

In other unrelated news, I cannot BELIEVE the earthquake/tsunami madness in Asia. It's just totally unbelievable. I can't even begin to comprehend the amount of death and devastation that took place over such an unexpected event. It freaked me out even more because it would not be uncommon for my family to be over in Asia, even in Thailand, at this time of the year. To see some of the photos of the damage and the people-- no words for it at all. What's worse, as my mom and I were discussing, is the fact that many of these countries and areas that were wiped out were already some of the poorest places in the world, and now this. Wow oh wow. Some Christmas for those folks. Must once again figure out a way to be grateful and thankful for my health and good fortune.

On that note, hope everyone had a holly jolly Christmas/Holiday. Many cheers.


Current Music: Chin Up, Cheer Up, by Ryan Adams
Current Mood: simply pooped