Home at last... I had a lovely time at my dad's place, but eighteen people and eight dogs (including five guest dogs) in a small space was a bit much for my poor brain.

Also, the dogs managed to steal one of the pies from the dessert table. By the time the theft was discovered, the pie plate was licked so clean you never would have known there had been a pie in there.

I am ridiculously full and slightly still tipsy, and the aunt who I was worried about making racist comments didn't make any in my vicinity, so it was all good. We found out my cousin got tenure at her university (the first tenure microbiology position in 19 years, so that's huge), and I got to give my other cousin's daughter the family diamond ring that gets passed to the next oldest single woman when the current recipient gets married (I had it, obviously, and this was the first chance I've had to pass it on since the wedding). It's pretty cool -- she's the 5th generation to have this ring.

Did I mention oh my god so full? SO FULL.

And my insane husband is packing for a camping trip all weekend. Madness. Tomorrow is only supposed to get to 40, with a low of 31 -- who wants to sleep outside in that??? -- but Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be in the upper 50s, with a low of 50, so that'll be better. STILL CRAZY.

the family diamond ring that gets passed to the next oldest single woman when the current recipient gets married

That's really cool!

Steph, the ring thing is really cool!

It totally feels like midnight and it is only 7:30 here. I blame it on alcohol and watching kids play soccer and yard hockey for something like 3-4 hrs straight. It's exhausting, you know.

the family diamond ring that gets passed to the next oldest single woman when the current recipient gets married

That's really cool!

The story is: the ring originally belonged to my great-great aunt (my grandmother's aunt), who was married 3 times. My grandmother's brother got married and had no money for a ring, so my great-great aunt gave him this diamond ring, but stipulated that the ring had to stay in his family, not his new wife's.

New wife died young, and so, for some reason, instead of the ring going back to my great-great aunt, my grandma held on to it. Eventually she gave it to her oldest daughter (my aunt), and when that aunt got married, she gave it to my mom, and when my mom got married she gave it to my youngest aunt. When my youngest aunt got married, she gave it to my cousin, and when my cousin got married, she gave it to me, and now I gave it to my cousin's daughter, which makes her the 5th generation to have this ring.

I was wondering what to do with myself tomorrow, then I checked the dollar movie website. Guardians of the Galaxy is there! I didn't miss it! Movie! And if I catch the first matinee, hopefully everyone else will be out shopping or still recovering from today.

Edit: Or they'll all be going to see Left Behind, which is also showing at the dollar movie. Poor Nicholas Cage.

And my insane husband is packing for a camping trip all weekend.

CJ is also camping this weekend. In the Rockies. I'm staying home, nice and warm.

Our Christmas tree is up, no decorations yet. I'll putter with the other stuff over the next 3 days.

Camping in winter! Crazy!

The pies all went off well--I think the pecan-hazelnut-bourbon pie was the hit, although that may be the last time I bother with hazelnuts. Hard to find, and harder to peel. I'll stick with pecans next year. But the bourbon and butter and sea salt was a great combination.

Very full now, and probably will be hungover, but I promised to go running in the morning with my niece & her friends. Woops.

Oh, and we found out that a spoon my BIL might have picked up at a yard sale twenty years ago is worth $200. Wow.

Wow, how did you find that out? Is it some sort of decorative spoon, or a serving spoon, or?

Went to a friend's house and ate WAAAY to much along with about 16 other peeps. Oh, and I had a Moscow Mule, which was deelish. After dinner, we sat around and all sang enthusiastically if not harmonically along with the musicians in our midst to various rock oldies. We had a mandolin, two ukeleles and a guitar all playing together.