Alaina's Bat Mitzvah: The Day After

Sunday, November 22: After sleeping like rocks, we headed down to the hotel breakfast area for brunch. Up in our private area, the hotel staff had put together a lovely display. The nests are lox, the martini glass holds capers, and I like the look of the paprika.
Although those white disks look like baked goods, don't try to grab them! They're cream cheese, molded into shapes that resemble biscuits. I had to stand there and make sure people didn't try to hold them.
I like how they used Saturday's kids' table decorations to display (just a few of the many) leftover cupcakes.
In addition, we had free range of the hot breakfast buffet, a fruit bar, and meats and cheeses. The beef tenderloin made a reappearance, this time under the auspices of "corned beef hash." There was lots of giggling over this. Personally, I wouldn't blame the hotel staff, as we had pretty much harassed them the entire weekend, and they still managed to smile at us.

We rolled out of our rooms and piled into Kim's living room to recap the evening and enjoy being in a real house (we had pretty much spent 36 hours in the hotel). Sheryl and my mom looked through my sign-in book.
Kim has 3 cats. Two keep to themselves, but Gizmo is such a cuddler! Except when he decides to bite.
He had a snuggle with me--I realized how much I miss cuddling with animals in this job. (There are sometimes animals in the office, but only the heads of potentially rabid backyard critters, and they are not good to snuggle with). Gizmo settled down in my lap and rested his face in my leg. After a long time relaxing on me with much purring, he bit me. Kim says it's a love bite. I say he's spending too much time with Kim's friend M.
Eventually, my parents and Claire's family left for the airport, and Alexa went back to South Carolina. I had a mellow evening with the D's and S-H's. Alaina and Molly recorded Alaina's gifts and did some math.
Kim taught me how to style my hair and use a diffuser on a blowdryer. I am indeed impaired when it comes to blow-drying. It was a fun and relaxing evening. Around 7pm we figured we'd all be asleep by 9, but somehow Jill, Molly, Kim and I stayed up late talking. I was so glad to have the extra day to spend quiet time with my extended family.

Overall it was a most excellent weekend! Thanks to the D's for hosting and making it all happen!