What Does This Say?

A number of bloggers do a regular blog with something like 'ten things about us.' the idea is to tell their readers something about them so the readers feel like they know the bloggers. I can't do regular, scheduled posts (I guess that's One Thing About Me). I don't know that these lists really some up 'who we are,' either.

Ten things would take too long, so here are four stories about us:

1. Last night we had dinner at Granny Tea's, and then we went off to a piano recital. Three of the girls performed. It was the First Year Girl's very first recital, and when she got up, flashed the audience a blindingly beautiful smile and curtsied, the HM teared up a little. She is our youngest daughter, and we have now heard all of our six girls except the Cherub (who is profoundly retarded) perform at a piano recital.

2. This week we celebrated a birthday or two. For the birthday cake we had a dessert consisting of torn bits of angel food cake, orange jello, ice cream, orange juice, whipped cream and mandarin oranges. It doesn't really have frosting, and it's not of a consistancy to support candles. It's like a creme-sicle chiffon cake. We served it on paper plates and ate it it with antique sterling silver spoons.


3. We do not do Santa Claus. However, we do not put most of the presents under the tree until after the children have gone to bed on Christmas Eve. My parents did play the Santa game with us (and none of us suffered from it), and for years after they told us there was no Santa, they continued to put new presents under the tree on Christmas Even after we had gone to bed. My middle brother and I both agree that one of the worst Christmases ever was the year we got up on Christmas morning and the tree looked exactly as it had Christmas Eve. The presents didn't need to be elaborate (which is a good thing, because we're mostly talking cheap, broken toys and socks and underwear here). We were both teenagers.
Most Christmas mornings I wake up first, wait impatiently for the children to get up, and finally go get them out of bed myself because I can't wait for them to get up and start Christmas Day.

4. On our very first date we went out for pizza. I sprinkled red peppers on my pizza and promptly inhaled some of them- as in, into my lungs I took foreign objects of burning and desolation. For the next thirty minutes I coughed and wheezed, searing my chest with fire every time I took a breath. I fully expected to see scorch marks on my blouse at any moment.
The Headmaster finished off all the pizza except what I had on my plate. In between pieces of pizza he would say helpful things like, "So, where do you want to go next?" I wanted to tell him "To the emergency room," but I couldn't speak.
I finally got my breath back from the fire breathing dragon who had stolen it and finished my pizza. While I was eating he stared at me intently. I could tell he was concentrating hard and thinking of something romantic to say. I was half right. When I swallowed he cleared his throat and said, "Do you know you chewed that bite of food 27 times?"
After pizza we went to the mall. He proposed; I accepted. Three months later we eloped.