PART ONE:I have to start off by mentioning how absolutely amazing Bryan's Christmas (semi formal) dinner party was! Everything from the food, to the presentation, to the fact that I hadn't seen all of these people in so long made the sweet nostalgic sense in the air that is Christmas really 
come alive for me. We may have started the night out like little ladies and gentlemen, but once around the dinner table we were no more than the chatty group of kids we'd always been. Yes, we talked about college adventures for part of the night, but after 15 minutes or so our conversations definitely trailed off to high school, middle school, and even elementary and preschool stories. I can't possibly describe how much fun it was to have all of us gathered around the table again. It was almost like middle school lunch period all over again, only slightly more sophisticated!
The biggest discussion as far as college went was our friend Kenny. Unlike the rest of us who went to a normal college, Kenny went to West Point. The fact that he has many different uniforms that he has to wear amuses us to no end. As a matter of fact, it wasn't until Kenny's brother, Bryan, decided to show everyone his impression of Kenny's extremely unflattering school picture, that Kenny actually whipped out one of his uniforms and let us play around with him. We ended up dressing his best friend Brian Henzy (more commonly known as "Henzy") in it and decided it was more of a bellhop costume than a cadet outfit. Oh well. Everyone got their chance to rock out the cadet hat, but no one pulled it off very well. Oh well, we tried!By 10:00 everyone had left except for Henzy and I. Henzy, being Son #3, and me, being Daughter #1, were allowed to sleep over. And so the night continued where I got my first taste of Jack Daniels. It was Jack & Coke, but I didn't care for it much either way. Anyway, I threw on a pair of Bryan's sweat pants (because even at 5'10" I can fit into his sweat pants perfectly length wise and waist wise) and we all went down the basement to watch a movie. This was probably the most amusing part of the night: Here I am, the only female and three men and naturally you would assume my opinion of what movie to watch would not matter because, as a chick, I'm destined to suggest a chick flick. Not me! I took one look at the Ridge's movie selection and immediately threw out King Kong, O, and Cold Mountain. That's when I learned that only part of my previous assumption was actually going to be true. Yes, I got shot down, but who knew I'd ever get shot down by three guys who were fighting over whether we should watch Mean Girls or Ten Things I Hate About You. Please keep in mind that two out of these three guys have very masculine personalities. Considering I love both movies, I decided to sit back and let the men duke it out over which chick flick we were going to be enjoying. After 20 minutes of almost combative deliberation, we settled on Ten Things I Hate About You because Brian didn't remember how it went and Kenny never saw it. Heath Ledger......
When the movie ended, Henzy provided me with an opportune chance to use the video camera on my phone for the first time. Henzy jumped on Kenny's lap and started singing "I Want You To Want Me" in Kenny's face. Although you can't see much because it's too dark, I must admit that it's an extremely amusing audio clip, if I do say so myself! When that fiasco ended, we all went to our respective sleeping areas (Bryan in his room, me in Kenny's, Henzy on the pull out, and Kenny on the couch) and ended the night.
The next morning made for quite an interesting breakfast. Mr. Ridge was nice enough to go out and buy us bagels, but he only bought one plain bagel. Henzy grabbed the plain one, and then I was stuck. When it comes to bagels, I don't eat many different kinds. I found what I thought was a nice cinnamon raisin bagel and ripped off a piece to eat:
Me: "Hey Bryan, why are there red things in here? OW! IT'S SPICY! OUCH!!! WHAT IS THIS???!!!?"
Bryan: "DAD! I THINK YOU GOT A JALAPENO BAGEL!"
Mr. Ridge: "Oops!"
Henzy: "Here Val, take the other half of my plain one."
Me: (Through gulps of orange juice) "Thanks Henz."
And so the night/morning ended well. Bryan did a fantastic job! For as awkward as it was having certain situations there (such as having both Steph and Henzy who just ended their 4 year relationship at the same dinner table) everything turned out beautifully!
PART TWO:
I came home from the Ridge's house, immediately took a shower and got straight to work on my nonie's secret family recipe for homemade tiramisu. I was the only person in the family brave enough to attempt it without Nonie's guidance. However, I have to admit that I was pretty lucky that Nonie left all of her pots and pans to us. Had she not, I would have had to figure out how to create a makeshift double boiler. Thanks Nonie! It ended up taking about two hours to complete and decorate, but in the end it was definitely worth it!
Christmas eve without my Nonie turned out to be more successful than we all anticipated. Trust me, having Nonie here to help us with the cooking would have been very helpful, but we managed to pull it off without her. Between my two Aunts and my mom, Nonie's recipes for the spaghetti sauces and the 7 fish stayed alive. Go team!
One running gag of the night: My cousins Chris, Leah, Cameron, and Jack gave Jess, Emily, and I $5 worth of Jersey Lottery Tickets each for Christmas. We sat there and scratched off our tickets to see what we would win. Both Emily and Jessica won $10 each. I won nothing. I guess I wasted all of my Christmas luck on making my Nonie's tiramisu. Speaking of which, I got a thumbs up from my aunts. Evidently I accurately captured the goodness of my Nonie's secret recipe. Considering that was my only goal this Christmas Eve, I was very happy to hear that!
On a more downsided note, I was on facebook showing my cousins and Aunts pictures of Doug and I (because when Bryan showed up at the door to exchange Christmas presents everyone thought he was Doug) and when I was done with the pictures, I stayed on facebook for a while. I thought it was a good idea to wish the few of us who celebrate Christmas Eve a "Happy Christmas Eve". I was going through the list in my head and remembered Greg celebrated Christmas Eve. Ok, I don't know if it was the cosmo effecting my brain, but I decided to be the bigger person and do the right thing by spreading my holiday wishes. However, I changed my mind when I got on his page. Not that I care immensely what people think about me, but it kind of tweaked my upchuck reflex to see comments like, "Yo I heard what happened. You can do so much better than that chick." "You are gonna meet such better people than her." and "So much better, you could have done so much better." posted on his facebook wall. And some of those comments were from people I met or at least talked to once or twice. Maybe it's because I'm not used to being the person to end relationships, but that kind of talk hurts. Especially when some of these comments are coming from girls with pretty raunchy reps. I would really like to know what better than me is in their eyes, or what kind of lies he fed them. Where is this so-called "maturity" in college I've heard so much about? Oh well. I don't regret breaking things off with him at all. I followed my heart and that's all there is to it. It told me that I didn't need someone who told me everyday what I should be wearing or how ugly I looked. Something in me felt that actions like those were not particularly healthy for my already low self-esteem. In the end, your heart always knows what is best for you, which is why I am with Doug! And since I don't recall ever mentioning Doug and I as a couple in this blog, I must admit, as sappy as it may seem, words cannot express how happy I am to have someone like Doug in my life. It has changed me in so many ways.
For those of you who are still with me and not off puking somewhere from my sappy I-heart-my-boyfriend plug, the night continued after that! My Aunt Adele and Uncle Web were the last of the family to leave. Before she left, my aunt tried to teach me how to jitterbug. Granted, I'm an excellent follower, but she was attempting to teach me how to lead. I couldn't follow her worth a damn! She's told me she was going to do one thing and then she did something completely different! I know those kind of dances aren't supposed to be choreographed, but for the sake of teaching, it would have helped had she followed her own instructions! I tried, and my dad caught it on tape. Although I look like an absolute fool, it's a good thing he caught us on tape so that I can learn by watching instead of attempting to copy. I'll master it eventually!
Well I think I'm done here for now. Jessica got me a Happy Feet computer game that I really want to try right now. It looks adorable! Something tells me I might need an actual mouse instead of a touch pad to play, but I'll figure something out when the time comes. Merry Christmas Eve to all you Italians and Polocks! We're cool enough to celebrate Christmas Eve with our 7 fish!
To everyone else: Merry Christmas...tomorrow!
LaTeR
//edit:
Jessica gave me a flesh eating disease for Christmas. She gave Emily an ear infection. For more details go to: http://www.giantmicrobes.com
