Christmas Snaps.. and a New Comparison Shot



Steve has a long tradition of having a big Christmas party at his club every year.  This year was his 15th!  It's a really nice party -- a black tie sit-down dinner for 100 people in a very elegant club, and Steve does his best to make sure there are an even number of men and women (the only party like that that I know about in NYC... usually women far out number the men).   Steve planned the whole thing, from the guest list (though in retrospect, I should have jumped in there.. had a friend who was a little upset not to be invited because she viewed this as my party... Agh.  Kind of clueless on my part not to have thought of this -- there are locally-based friends who are invited to our wedding who were not added to Steve's usual invitation list.) to the menu and decorations.  He did a fantastic job, and it was a lot of fun!

 

With Steve in the library

The dinner tables

 Me!  In a R-e-em A-c-ra gown that I rented from R-en-t the R-un-way.  I loved it!

 

A fun shot of us with our feet up!  I love that Steve's socks match my dress!

 With my beardy fiance!  Yes, I did get the ring in the shot on purpose!  :)

And, to drive it all home, and put some perspective on all of this, I did a new comparison shot.  The one on the left was taken just over four years ago.  I was in DC with my brother and sister, had just broken up with PP, and was miserable.  This was a few months before my surgery, and I hadn't started looking into the band at that point (I was self-pay, so once I decided, I had the surgery soon afterward).  On the right was me last weekend.  I am 38 on the left and 42 on the right.  A size 1X, 20, 14W on the left, and a size 8 or 10 on the right.  The me on the left was uncomfortable in my skin -- my feet ached and my back hurt, and I was self-conscious about my weight.  The me on my right felt completely freaking fabulous.  What a difference.
 



Catching Up

Since I posted last, a few things have happened.  My dad and step-mom were in town for a very successful meeting with Steve's parents, and we had a heck of a good time. We went to see some Jazz at Lincoln Center (which is actually in the Time Warner Center...), had a great b-day dinner with my friends, and even made it up to MOMA for a spin and a fabulous lunch!

My mom arrived the following day for an extended Thanksgiving stay (just over a week), I cooked up a storm on Thanksgiving (Steve and Marjorie joined us for a fun dinner), and we had a great time relaxing and seeing Argo, which was off-the-charts good.

Unfortunately, I found out that my step-brother, Robert, died unexpectedly on Thanksgiving.  He hadn't been feeling well, and had not made it to the doctor yet, and then unexpectedly died.  I did not know him very well (our parents married about 10 years ago, long after we'd both moved from home), but I am very fond of his mom and of his young daughter, who is ridiculously cute and adorable.  My heart really goes out to my step-mom, my dad and Robert's family and friends.  It is so sad.  He also has a new baby girl with his current girlfriend, which just adds to the sadness of this.

I'll post more later -- Steve and I had our Christmas Party (really, it's his annual party... I just get honorary co-host status as the fiance!) last weekend, and we got some really nice photos.  I just would not feel right adding a party post to this sad news, so I'll post about it separately later on.