PART EIGHTY-FOUR: WINTER HOLIDAYS

Christmas arrived quickly. Or, I guess I could say Christmas Eve. I joined Patrick in Buffalo the day before Christmas to celebrate with his family, and the next day, we would go back to Illinois to spend time with my family. The Kanes liked their new tradition of everyone getting together on Christmas Eve, and this way, we could spend the holidays with both of our families without having to pick and choose every year.
As usual, I had a ton of fun in Buffalo. I loved it there, and Patrick’s family was full of some of the nicest people I had ever met. I was close with his sisters, but we didn’t usually get to see each other except for holidays and big events, so I always loved a chance to hang out with them. Texting just wasn’t the same.
As far as gifts went, Pat’s family completely spoiled me. Sure, I was about to become a part of the family, but I still felt bad when they got me so many nice things. Erica, Jess and Jackie all pitched in on a Michael Kors purse for me. Donna and Patrick Sr. got me the matching wallet. Some of Patrick’s other family members that I saw gave me money and gift cards and they didn’t even know me all that well. But, then again, I guess I couldn’t say much. My family got Patrick gifts too, and they usually weren’t all that cheap.
Patrick and I headed to my parent’s house that night and had our annual Home Alone double feature with Brian and my mom and dad. Like the year before, my parents went to bed early but us “kids” stayed up for a while. We all went to bed at around midnight. I don’t know about Brian, but Patrick and I fell asleep quickly and easily.
I was woken up early by text messages from friends, as always. The wake up call didn’t impress Patrick very much, but I just smacked him lightly with a pillow and told him to get over it. We had to be up anyways, to wake up my parents. It was beginning to get difficult for us to figure out creative ways to do it, but we managed. In fact, this year was one of the most enjoyable and exciting wake up calls that we had ever done.
At promptly eight in the morning, Brian, Patrick and I all burst into my parents’ room, setting off air horns. At the same time, we began a hockey game in the middle of their bedroom. If it weren’t for the carpeting, we would have gone all out and worn rollerblades, but unfortunately, that didn’t work. Even so, it was a pretty effective way to wake them up. My mom freaked out, thinking we were going to break something as if Brian and I were little kids again.
Once everyone was up and my mom had calmed down since we hadn’t broken anything, we opened presents. Brian got really nice new Northface jackets for Patrick and I. My parents got me a few cute scarves and gift cards, and they gave Patrick an Under Armour hoodie and some gift cards as well. We went to my grandparents’ houses and I mostly got gift cards and money, as did Patrick. Normally, I would exchange gifts with Tess once we got home, but Tess was in Winnipeg with Jonathan and his family, so we had exchanged gifts early. She got me perfume from Victoria’s Secret, as well as some lingerie that I had said I liked when we had gone shopping before the holidays. She left me a note in the card that said: Try to save this for the honeymoon, will ya? In return, I had gotten her the new pair of boots she had been wanting, along with a couple cute pairs of boot cuffs to dress them up.

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New Years Eve was the usual - Jonathan had a party at his place and the team attended it. There was a weird vibe to it, though. It just felt strange to think that the next big party Patrick and I would be attending was going to be our wedding reception. It was hard to believe, honestly.
“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!” Patrick pulled me in for a kiss and I didn’t want him to ever pull away, but he did.
“Happy New Year,” he smiled.
“Happy New Year,” I answered, grinning back at him.
“Two years ago we had just had our first kiss,” he reminded me, not that I could forget.
“It was a pretty good first kiss,” I commented.
“True. But, I think we’ve improved our skills since then,” he laughed.
“Can you believe that our two year anniversary is in a week and a day?” I asked.
“I think the better question is: can you believe that our wedding is in three weeks and a few days?” Pat replied.
“I can hardly believe it.”
“Same here.”
“We’re not doing anything fancy for our anniversary this year, are we?” I wondered.
“I was assuming we’d go out to dinner at a nice restaurant. Why?” he questioned me.
“Let’s not go anywhere super nice. In fact, let’s not go anywhere at all. We’ve had so many parties and celebrations lately and we’re going to have our biggest one yet towards the end of this month. Let’s just have a relaxing anniversary, and we can save all the fancy stuff for the wedding,” I suggested.
“Alright, if that’s what you want. But if you change your mind, that’s okay too. I don’t mind spoiling you,” Pat grimaced.

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As it turned out, I didn’t change my mind. Patrick and I celebrated our second dating anniversary at home. I ended up cooking a delicious meal that consisted of shrimp scampi, rolls, broccoli, and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. We watched a couple movies (a romance I liked and a comedy he liked) and we cuddled and called it a day. It wasn’t anything crazy, but it was perfect. Honestly, just having an excuse to spend a whole day with him doing whatever we wanted was everything I could ask for. I had so much fun with him whenever we were together. I absolutely couldn’t wait to get married to him.

Notes