when you smile

So, I'm sitting on my bed at home, laughing to myself about how I've been meaning to write another post for about 2 weeks but haven't got around to it. It's fitting, though, because like my last post, these are my final moments at home before I head back to Luther for Vienna and 2nd semester. I've, uh, been a little busy in the past month. Shall I share? I think I will.

Christmas at Luther was amazing. So special and so wonderful, even though my parents didn't make it up for a concert because of the weather. I made a new friend at C@L, though, and have been enjoying getting to know him. I remember the last two weeks of school as several things. I'll make a list because I'm really good at them:
1. Stressful - finals and 10 page linguistics papers and performances and juries and etc.
2. Exciting - going home for Christmas and my sister's wedding
3. Surprising - two things happened that I wasn't expecting and the timing was both awful and perfect.
4. Unforgettable - don't think that I'll be forgetting C@L 2010 anytime soon. :-)

I played in the Bach Cantata at First Lutheran on a Wednesday, took a shuttle to MSP early Thursday morning, and was asleep in my own bed in Georgia until 2pm on Friday. It was joyful and triumphant. :-)

I spent the week of Christmas running errands for mom, helping out with wedding stuff, and seeing old friends. I spent Christmas Eve in the kitchen, getting to know my mother's oven and surprisingly becoming very good friends with it! Together we made a whole army of Gingerbread Men, Thumbprint Jam cookies, Special K bars, Sugar cookies, and then some white chocolate peppermint and white chocolate/pineapple/almond bark. Exquisite. Best baking I've ever done. Also probably the only baking I've ever done.

Christmas was lovely. I MADE SPINACH ARTICHOKE DIP! I, KARLA DIETMEYER, COOKED. ON THE STOVE. WITH SPINACH!! :-) It was quiet and we spent 3 hours opening gifts, drinking the annual Christmas Blend from Starbucks, eating waaay to much food, and being astonished when it started to snow. Christmas miracle!!! It was beautiful until I decided to run around barefoot on the driveway. I didn't want to get my socks wet and I was too impatient to find shoes! Guess who woke up the next morning with a bad cold and proceeded to get my whole family sick? *insert guilty karla smile here*

So Mom, Laura, and I spent the week before the wedding with tissues and Advil and a host of other Get Well Right Now drugs while running around like crazy people doing final prep and checking things off the hundreds of lists my sister had compiled for the event. Family started arriving on Wednesday, and what I thought was going to be a giant party for four days turned into more running around like crazy people and running the dishwasher more times than I thought possible in a single weekend. But everyone was so helpful, and on Wedding Day everything was as perfect as it could be. It rained, but the sky looked amazing by the time we were at the reception hall, so those pictures will be incredible. Laura was absolutely the single most incredible bride I have ever seen. Gorgeous and classic, romantic and so, so grown up. I will never forget standing next to her at the altar, watching her say her vows, and seeing the look on Evan's face when the pastor said, "Laura, you may now kiss your husband!" Absolutely priceless. They are honeymooning in the Caribbean as we speak! I asked to come along, but they said no. Strange. :-)

Tomorrow I go back to my other life. LCSO leaves for Vienna on Thursday, and we'll be there for threeish weeks. Hopefully I'll get to post a little while I'm there, but I'll definitely post some pictures when I have time. So looking forward to good Viennese coffee and pretending to be European with Dan Fernelius.

Here's to weddings, traveling, coffee, contact lenses, Christmas cookies, tissues, the New Year, and love. Tschüss!