The Honeymoon is Over!

I have decided that instead of writing down a moment by moment breakdown of the honeymoon and everything we did, which would frankly be boring to read, I will write down my impressions of things that happened, little anecdotes and sketches and hopefully at the end of it all (and paired with our pictures on flickr) you will have a pretty good idea of why it was THE GREATEST HONEYMOON EVER!

Our first stop on the fantastic honeymoon tour was jolly ole England. We spent three whole days with family, hanging out, eating, chatting and especially drinking. On Saturday night, the night before Dan and I were going to leave for Crete, Max and Leslie organized a special dinner for the family at a lovely little Italian place in Ewell. For fear of taking over the place, and for fear of the shear amount of noise this family makes (which is so familiar!), we were put upstairs in a tiny little room that looked down over the main street.


We had already picked out our appetizers and main dishes the week before, so we all promptly sat down to drinking copious bottles of wine, eating bread, olives, and gulping down the delicious food. The dinner was wonderful. I had rack of lamb and Dan had some sort of delicious chicken dish. Bronwen, of course, ate a little bit of everything.

As the rugby world cup was starting at the tail end of the dinner, Max gave a toast and then Leslie, welcoming me to the family and expressing happiness for our future. Then the cabs arrived and whisked most of the men, and women who were interested, back to the house to watch the game. (It was England vs South Africa and England was expected to lose, which they did. But it was still fun!) The rest of us sat at the restaurant waiting for the next cab to arrive, and we drank amaretto and ate almond cookies and gossiped about the family. It was wonderful.

After the game was over, we all gathered in the dining room for cake and champagne and more toasts from Dan and I. It was then that the party really started. The alcohol was flowing and the volume level shot up significantly. "I love this family," I thought, "they are just as loud as mine and just as fun!"

We hung out drinking and chatting and laughing at me as I tried to pronounce strange English town names ("woochester" sounds good to me!), then finally decided to go to bed.

Needless to say, I was a little worse for wear the next morning and made a complete ass of myself throwing up in the Todd's front yard on our way to the airport. But as good families do, they made no big deal of it, and as we boarded the plane to Crete I thought about how lucky I am that I get to extend my family and become part of the wonderful, intelligent, caring and fun Todd Family Tree.

The Fantastic Freestyle Wedding of Daniel and Elsbeth

So that I don’t forget I want to at least record the craziness of Dan and my amazing wedding weekend. So here it goes.

Dan’s father and mother arrived at our house Wednesday evening around 6pm. Previous to that moment, I had driven to Atlanta, and returned, only to find my car’s wheel bearings had disintegrated somewhere over the 600 miles and the therefore need to be replaced, along with something called the knock sensor, which had caused my check engine light to come on sometime over the last four months. (The car bill totaled $490.11, and was paid willingly by my shiny new husband on the Monday after the wedding. Ha!) My soon to be in-laws, Dan, Bronwen and I walked to Fishbones where we had a light dinner and drinks before walking back home and going straight to bed.

The next day Dan and I went to work, and afterwards went straight home to prepare for the BBQ in the back yard. My mom and sister arrived around 6pm and we set about drinking wine and playing with Bronwen. Dan’s parents came over and we hung out in the back yard around the campfire with Chris and Ethan. I made salmon and salad and it was delicious. We ate and drank and then Lesley and Max had to leave to go pick up siblings. Nikki arrived and Dan went straight to bed. Nikki, Chris, Mary Alice, mom and I went straight upstairs to help me into my beautiful wedding dress. I pranced around collected cat hair on the train, while Nikki and Chris took pictures. We finally got the thing off and went downstairs to tag all the pashminas. Then Nikki and Chris went home and Mom, Mary Alice and I stayed up until 1am chatting and primping. Dan’s brother Matthew and sister Kate and her boyfriend arrived late that night from Dutch Antilles, and Costa Rica respectively and were checked into the O.Henry Hotel.

The next day was Friday. Mom watched Bronwen for a few hours in the morning so I could sleep in. The Todds came over without announcement (I was still in my PJs) and I got to finally meet Kate. We all hung out until lunch time when we decided to walk down to Fat Dogs to grab a couple pitchers of beer and lots of fried food. (I ate a veggie burger as I had to fit into a wedding dress in little over 24 hours!) Then back to the house to load up two car loads of stuff to take over to the O.Henry for the wedding: lanterns, dresses, shoes, toiletries, guest book stuff, pashminas, etc. There we met my brother Josh and his family, as well as my dad and step mom and brothers. By then we only had a few minutes to talk before we had to split up and get ready for the wedding rehearsal dinner. At 6pm we all met at Solaris to piles of delicious food and pitchers of white, red and rose sangria. Delicious food and wonderful company; my sister Connie and husband we the last to show up and we all ate and chatted until Dan and I handed out the gifts to our family. I gave to my family The Story of Ourselves and Others, Ted Chiang and The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, Aimee Bender.

By 9pm we were all over at Jakes Pub and Billiards with our friend from near and far: Nikki, Hannah, Chris, Aaron and Kate, the Todds, Mary Alice, and Connie and Tony, and Sunshine and Cavin. We closed out the bar and Dan I went home and straight to bed, but I heard stories from others of a long night at the O.Henry with new friends.

Saturday morning, wedding day, and I woke up with a wicked hangover. After throwing up a few times, I was able to choke down some toast and ginger beer and back to bed. I woke up at 1pm and got straight to work packing our suitcase, and entertaining friends and family. Sunshine and Cavin showed up with mostly full bottle of liquor that could not be transported to Vietnam and therefore must now live with us (awesome), and Cavin raced off to spend the day with Joy while Sunshine then took on the task of being my personal assistant for the rest of the day!

By three we were at the hotel. Here is what happened as I tried to check in:

“Hi, my name is Elsbeth Baldwin. I need to check in.”

The woman behind the desk typed in my name and looked puzzled.

“I don’t see a reservation here under that name.”

“With the Baldwin-Todd Wedding that is taking place here tonight?” I asked with perhaps a bit of hysteria entering my voice.

“No,” she replied.

“I am the bride!” I said. There must have been something in the tone of my voice, or perhaps it was the darts that shot out of my eyes and stuck into the wall behind her head but her eyes widened and she said,

“…my heart is beating so fast right now.”

“I am not a bridezilla,” I smiled, “but I do need a room.”

“What is the groom’s name?”

I told her and indeed it was under his name. We got our room key and went upstairs. There we discovered an amazing suite with a sitting room, a dressing room, a huge bathroom with Jacuzzi and a bedroom. It was the perfect room for the madness that was to follow. People streamed in and out of the room dropping off food and fetching flowers and practicing with I pods and pouring Champagne and running errands while my amazing sister did my hair and makeup. Bronwen was well tended to, and I am so thankful to all of my friends and family who made those 3 hours so fun and stress free.

At 6pm, my mom kicked everyone out and we cried, and practiced walking down the hall.

At 6:20pm we went downstairs where I ran into lots of people I hadn’t seen in years, and I saw my husband-to-be across the room. He looked so handsome in his charcoal suit with beautiful Piper and Bronwen on each arm.

And then it began, everyone I love was in that garden. I have never felt so happy, so surrounded by love, and so excited. The ceremony was perfect. The atmosphere was perfect. The reception was perfect. I loved it. I can’t think of anyway it could have been better (except maybe if it had been free!)

The next morning, I woke up early just to soak in the Jacuzzi bath and eat Godiva chocolates. I met our families for breakfast and we said our goodbyes, we loaded up our cars, checked out and headed home.

That afternoon we drank champagne, and ate barbeque sandwiches from Cook Out with the Todds, then crashed out at 8pm when the kids went to sleep.

Bronwen Discovers the Moon

Yesterday Bronwen discovered the moon. I was unbuckling her car seat and fussing about her dirty face when she looked up into the sky pointed and said, "wooaawa!" which I took to mean, "wow!"

My eyes traced her out-stretched arm up into the sky and there, right above the tree at the edge of the daycare parking lot was a mostly full moon, bright in the morning sun.

"That's the moon," I told her, "Moooon, can you say moon?"

"Toi daa ma bla blaa moo wooawa, " she replied, which I took to mean, "I've never seen that before and it is really cool."

"Yes, it is cool," I said, "Moooon, can you say moon?"

Bronwen wasn't interested in trying to say moon, but as I carried her into the building she craned her neck to try to keep sight of this new discovery.

It was then that I thought about the time when I must have first discovered the moon. How amazing it must have been to look up in and see it, white and mottled, resting in the sky like a banana slice floating in blue raspberry jello.