A Charmeng Life: The New Year

I spent the first part of the first day of the year at the Hilton. It was sluggish, but in a relaxing way. When John and I were waiting for our car at the valet, two gentlemen were dropped off at the Hilton carrying San Jose Sharks duffle bag. I’m almost certain they were Sharks player. Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about Sharks players so I couldn’t tell you who it was.

For lunch we met up with the same friends we had partied with for some good old Vietnamese food. YUM!…especially since the days going back to the cold tundra of Wisconsin were quickly approaching. The rest of the day was pretty much just gathering our things and preparing to pack. After the wedding, I was only home for 3 days, which was NOT spent organizing my things, but quite the opposite. I think we spent it opening presents and frantically packing. So needless to say, our wedding stuff and our stuff in general was all over the house. I now have a list of things that I need to get rid of or sell to other brides. I figured that they’ll always be there, so there’s no rush.

The only thing we really did was go to dinner with a few of our friends that we hadn’t seen the entire two weeks we’d been home, one being one of John’s groomsmen. Sometimes it’s just hard to coordinate schedules!

Don’t I look like a mess? I look like I’m preparing for the Wisconsin snow already!

After dinner, I think I spent the rest of the night playing mahjong with my family. We had been playing on and off during my break, and it was fun. We have a tendency of playing mahjong near NYE because my great-grandmother used to play during NYE and it kinda stuck.

As soon as midnight hit, my whole family gathered together to sing my brother about 6 different Happy Birthday Songs (including the birthday song from Chuck E’ Cheese, the birthday song from Comedy Sportz, and a birthday blessing).

We even broke out a Chevys birthday hat for him.

And a birthday hug from his sisters.

We were throwing a birthday party for my birthday that night, and we spent the entire day preparing for his party. Pretty much everyone that had come over to my house for NYE came to our house for my brother’s birthday party too. However, my brother had a bunch of friends over as well, making our house feel itty bitty.

My sister lighting the candles on my brother’s and my dad’s birthday cakes