Too Heavy

So it is late but the guilt of not posting since I've been home is hanging heavy, so I've decided to heave that weight off of me by finally sitting down to one of the four possible computers in this house and blogging. So much has happened since I've been home, that this could prove to be my longest post yet, but again, it is late and I'm tired, so I'll just hit the highlights for y'all.

My brother's wedding was wonderful! The bed and breakfast, the old county jail, was fun as it was all of Ben's friends and our pastor and family that had this whole place to ourselves. Too many jokes were made about the groom's side of this shindig staying in the "Slammer," but they never really got old. We had just enough snow Friday night to make everything pretty but not too bad to travel in. The rehearsal dinner was yummy, although I was the subject of abuse for both of Ben and Eva's impromptu speeches with the excuse being I haven't been in the country for the last 4 months, so they had a lot of 'catching up' to do. Saturday brought on the big day and an early start with a 10:30am wedding time. Us girls just did our own hair and make-up and everything was going well. You know, the typical bridesmaid routine, hold the flowers lower than you think you should, try to pretend your feet don't hurt in your killer shoes (pain is beauty, pain is beauty, pain is beauty . . .) and try not to cry as I have a direct line of vision to my brother so sincerely promising to love and protect, honor and cherish the love of his life for well, the rest of their lives. I blame the tears on the fact that I hadn't seen him since Easter!!! The rest of the wedding again, fairly typical, pictures took way too long, good food, sweet toasts, cake, yatta yatta and bang... they are off for the honeymoon and oh my gosh, my BROTHER IS MARRIED! But all along it just felt right. We were all excited but not giddy or overwhelmed because we have all had this contentment about my brother and Eva so it all just seemed natural I guess is the best word to describe. So they have now safely returned from a fun-filled week in Orlando and face the reality of work tomorrow and are ridiculously happy, which is actually really cute.

CHRISTMAS! Merry Christmas to y'all by the way. Christmas was nice here, even though slightly different than our traditional way to celebrate the wonderful holiday. First off, Ben was gone, the 11:00pm service at church was slim and didn't last until midnight, Aunt Sylvia had knee surgery and didn't come to Christmas Eve service with us, then Christmas day was actually celebrated with my dad's sister and husband, aunt Sylvia, Grandma and mom and dad. Every other year it has just been the 4 of us. And this year I thought I would tackle Christmas dinner all on my own, well most of it at least. My part of the amazing meal was the turkey, corn casserole, the pie, the veggies and cheese sauce and the potatoes. Mom had much more hair on her head this year as she typically gets fairly stressed about preparing Christmas dinner. Everything turned out great! I was so proud of myself! Sylvia graciously donated a 20.83 pound turkey, so 'Norman' was a doozy after our 10 pounder named 'Hamilton' in Ireland. Don't ask why I name the turkeys, I'm not sure of the reason myself. So on to the good stuff... the presents! Mom crotch ed a beautiful butterfly blanket for me that was by far my favorite gift :) Other nice things came in small packages, aka, jewelry and checks, but that blanket was amazing and I know there was so much love put into every knot of it :)

Preparing Christmas dinner was a lot of work, but so was going through all of my stuff in storage in the barns and moving into my apartment at Purdue. Mom and I had fun painting and 'speckling' my loft and then I had more fun than one should have with dad loading the truck with all of the furniture and my stuff and hauling it up three flights of stairs! I'm really proud of us for getting it done, but my arms are still slightly limp from all of the heavy lifting. But my room looks great and is only going to get better when I finish bringing over the rest of my stuff when I officially move in next Friday. Black and green are my colors and ya, its going to be awesome!

Wedding, Christmas, moving in, those are the biggies that I've been up to, but I've squeezed in some time for some shopping, saw Avatar and Sherlock Holmes, and rode Chip today over at New Castle. It's been a pretty packed 'break' so far and it's no where near to being over. New Year's Eve tomorrow night with Grandma; trip down to Kentucky to spend more time with the newly weds (I think they just want me to bring more of their stuff down honestly since they couldn't fit it all in their car); meeting up with friends; putting 2009 into the scrap-book; and gosh-darn it, I'd like some time just to read and chillax!!!!!

So there folks, the weight has been lifted, I feel no more guilt, Hallelujah!
Happy New Year Y'all!

Britt