Future Family Festivities

Holiday vacation officially began on Friday afternoon for me, but I’m not flying to Charlotte until tomorrow morning. Jose and I spent the weekend making a quick trip up to Fort Worth for his mom’s cousin’s daughter’s quinceanera. If you don’t live in Texas, I won’t be surprised if you don’t know what a quinceanera is: the celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday which marks the transition from girl to young woman.

(As a side note, I’ve been told — depending on who I asked — that the mother’s-cousin’s-daughter relationship makes Elissa either Jose’s first cousin once removed or his second cousin. I’m not really sure which. Point being: Jose’s family is large — and they are all close. I don’t think I could even name a single one of my parents’ cousins.)

I’d never been to a quinceanera before so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I can now safely say that it’s almost exactly like a wedding without the groom. There was a church ceremony, followed by a cocktail hour, followed by dinner, followed by cake and dancing. There was a guestbook, a gift table, a photographer and videographer running around, centerpieces, flowers, alcohol, a court of boys and girls in matching dress… You name the wedding element, and it was probably a part of the quinceanera.

We both had a lot of fun eating, drinking, dancing, and hanging out with Jose’s super-extended family. Along with the usual group of aunts, uncles, and cousins, there was a whole new side of the family to meet — and another round of names for me to try to remember! Everyone was staying in the same hotel, so we had an “after party” in the hotel lobby. I was fading fast and went to bed around 2 a.m. but there were at least a couple guys that saw the sun rise. Crazy. This morning we were all invited over to Elissa’s house for breakfast and more family time. My eyes hurt from all the camera flashes.

It was a fast but fun weekend. We got back to Houston around 5:30, and I’ve spent the rest of the evening preparing to leave town for two weeks. Somehow I always find a bunch of loose ends that need tying before going on vacation!

Jose’s present had arrived yesterday and was waiting on my doormat, so after a quick wrapping job we did our own Christmas since we’ll be apart on the 25th. I got Jose a handheld aviation transceiver — i.e. a fancy walkie-talkie that receives and transmits on aviation frequencies. He loved it. It takes 12 hours to fully charge (did not realize that — BOO), but after letting it charge for a few hours, he fired it up and we caught snippets of two radio calls. It only picks up line-of-sight transmissions so when he’s at home he can only hear the calls of whoever happens to be flying overhead, but he’s already looking up the Houston air traffic control frequencies so he can scan them when he drives me to the airport in the morning. It’ll also be great as a backup radio for when he’s flying.

My Christmas present came in two parts. On Thursday night he brought me the beautiful roses pictured above, and tonight he gave me a pair of awesome pearl earrings (with a tiny diamond accent). He loves to get me sparkly things, and I certainly don’t plan to complain about that anytime soon. Since they’re pearls, my first thought was “I can wear them at our wedding!” Indeed, he bought them with that in mind. I have the best fiance ever.