I tell you one thing, you wouldn't catch me playing Clara.

I guess if one were to look at our weekend objectively, in terms of what was accomplished and what triumphs were celebrated, one might deem it successful. We finished the errands that needed finishing (though some were less fruitful than others - no pants yet, and the yarn I needed to finish a gift was discontinued in May so I had to find a replacement which, unfortunately, paled in comparison). The kids from the angel tree we picked out will be getting some good presents. We had a nice brunch with Dan's family and did a small gift exchange. I finished a good number of giftmas presents and will easily finish the remainder in time. Dan finished step one (which was the big, long, time-consuming step) of the invitations. We got a few more addresses confirmed, the laundry's almost finished, and each of the kitties got quite a bit of attention.

Yet I feel that there was so much more that needed doing, so much more we could have done, so many things that just Have To Get Finished before we leave on Thursday. I could have foregone the procrastination part of the Bridesmaid's Dress Experiment (more on that later) and instead just jumped right in, damn the torpedoes. I could have been knitting in the car. I could have started packing instead of taking a break from knitting to play on the internets last night. But sometimes people need breaks, right? Everything will get done, at least everything that's really important. I hope.

I'm not used to having three separate major events competing for space and time in my brain. Wedding, Christmas, Italy. Wedding, Christmas, Italy. One thing I'd considered was packing for Italy in a separate bag, bringing it to California and just not touching it until we got on the plane for Rome - essentially bringing everything for California in one bag and for Italy in another. I haven't decided yet whether or not I'm going to do this. Operation Pack for Two Trips starts tonight. I'm actually kind of glad we decided not to buy presents for people until we get to California, so we have that much less to deal with in terms of schlepping it on planes and making sure we have things in time. And something I'm super excited about is that we have tickets to see Mark Morris's The Hard Nut on Thursday evening - a production I haven't seen since I moved to Colorado, and one I've been talking up for years, so Dan's excited about it too. We listened to the Nutcracker Suite in the car on the way to Dan's parents' house and I challenged myself to remember which dance went with which piece of music - I remembered most of them.

I never had the chance to dance in a production of the Nutcracker; the studio where I took classes didn't perform it until after I left (my sister was in it, though). They had to wait until they had a boy old/strong enough to play the role of the prince. If I had been in it, though, I probably would have wanted to play the role of the Snow Queen. She is so much more awesome than the Sugar Plum Fairy, and I don't think I have the comedic chops to play the Rat King. But then again, white leotard/tutu is far less figure-forgiving than other costume possibilities. Maybe I'd play the sugar plum fairy after all.