Thursday, December 25, 2008

Still Trucking in Tucson

Day 3 of our Tucson trip. Kelley had to go off to work again this morning. Rob was a saint (the only Jewish one!) and drove us to the mall to buy a new lens for my camera. This was remarkable because a) Rob hates malls and b) Rob hates Christmas (he did even before he converted). So I immediately sainted Rob based on his patience and willingness to take us to a mall two days before Christmas.

After the mall, we went to the shul to pick up Kelley for lunch, and I was put to work cutting out dreidels. The senior rabbi thought it was hilarious that I came to visit Kelley and she put me to work (I, however, was not surprised).

It was a rainy day, so after lunch, we retreated to the house, where we popped corn and watched the movie "Iron Man." It was relaxing, which was good, because we had to return to shul after it ended to attend a Hanukkah party.

The latkes weren't nearly as good as the ones Kelley made, but it was fun to see all the families there--almost 250 people! There were kids running everywhere. I told Kelley she was trying to kill Mark with the dessert (ice cream sundaes with chocolate sauce, donut holes, sprinkles and M&Ms) but she pointed out the people in charge of dessert also had a son with diabetes.

Mark and I played dreidel, and he beat me numerous times. Kelley had told us about her co-worker Max, who always carries a superhero action figure in his pocket. Mark asked Max who he had in his pocket today, and Max said, "I knew you were going to watch Iron Man today, so I have Iron Man in my pocket!" He let Mark play with him during the party.

By the time we got home, we were all exhausted. We were sitting in the kitchen winding down. I was holding Romi, when suddenly, out of nowhere, there was an ear-splitting crash, and I looked down to see shattered glass everywhere. Quick little Romi had sent his bowls of peas flying, shattering glass all over the floor. And suddenly, we weren't relaxing anymore. Romi thought it was pretty amusing to watch us all scurry around, vacuuming and avoiding glass.

And then it was quiet again. Kelley sat with the little Rome-ster quietly feeding him on the couch. I joined them for a quiet moment, which Romi once again shattered, but in a different way this time (read about it
here).

The next morning was our last together, which would've made me sad, except that it was Kelley's birthday. I'd been waiting all year for this day, which I celebrated by waking up and immediately shouting at Kelley, "I'm 39, and you're not!" Hey, it may only be a 6 month difference in age, and I'll be there soon enough. But I figured what good is a friend's 40th birthday if you can't tease her about it??

We celebrated Kelley's birthday by going out to lunch. Romi attempted to make us miss him a little less by ceremoniously throwing up all over the table, but we were kinda used to it by then, and were completely unfazed. Then it was time for us to head home, back to the land of Christmas. It was hard to say good bye, even if we'll see them again next month. I'll miss that sweet, happy little baby Romi in the meantime--I mean, who else am I going to smother in kisses and repeatedly proclaim the cutest baby in the universe?

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