Mr. W and I had a very low-key New Year’s. For the first time since we’d been together, he wanted to stay up (and did stay up) till midnite to toast the new year in. I asked why he’s bothering for this year instead of sticking to his 9pm bedtime like all the previous years. He said because the year we’re toasting in would be “our” year, the year we get married. =) I do not like champagne. I’ve decided.

New Year’s Day, we mostly stayed in and watched “Angel” and “Buffy” on DVD. As we finished Season 5 of “Buffy,” Mr. W’s daughter stopped by to give us Christmas presents. We hadn’t seen her for weeks. She gave Mr. W a big Jack Skellington coffee mug (he’s a huuuuuge fan of Nightmare Before Christmas). Before she gave me my present, she hid it behind her back and explained that it comes from the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch, one of my two favorite Disney movies, and said, “You know how that movie’s all about ‘ohana’ and family?” She handed me an adorable small figurine of Stitch playing a ukelele, which is dangling from a curved wire attached to a clear suction cup. “You’re gonna be family and he’s blue and your car’s blue,” she said.
I was touched. “Oh, now I love it even more!” I said and gave her a big hug. Starting this morning, Stitch hangs from a corner of my windshield, bobbing and twirling and playing the uke.

My mom made out really well this holiday season, too. It all started when one of the prongs on her engagement ring broke. She and my dad took the ring into a jewelry store and asked if they’re able to affix another prong. The jeweler examined the ring and said, “You know this isn’t real gold, right?”
My mom was shocked. “What? It’s 18K white gold! It’s even stamped so inside the band!”
The jeweler said he’s pretty sure it’s not real gold, the weight isn’t right, but they’ll test it in the store’s lab to make sure. My parents were shown samples of silver and gold, and what happens when a particular chemical solution is dropped on them. Then they watched my mom’s ring get tested. Yup. My mom’s ring is silver, with gold plating. They tested their wedding bands, too, which were purchased at the same place as the engagement band. Same shit. My parents had been swindled for the past 32 years.
Luckily, the diamond tested to be real, and of a pretty good quality. (They’d gotten the stone separately at a place recommended by some friends.) My dad had my mother select a new ring setting at the store, and the lab immediately switched the diamond onto a new very chic white gold band covered with small accent diamonds. Feeling bad for my parents, the salesperson took out a tray of good-quality Russian cubic zirconias, and had my mother select one to put into her old (fake) engagement ring, so that she could still wear it for sentimental value. For free. And then while my mom watched the diamond setting process going on at the lab, my dad wandered around the store and bought her an amazing 1.27 carat diamond solitaire which he had mounted onto a white gold pendant that looked to be a set with her new engagement ring. Money was earned to be spent, he said, and they’d been frugal and saved for so long that they can afford to spend some of it on themselves now that their child is independent and they aren’t saving for the next big thing. Besides, he reasoned, he didn’t waste the money; he simply changed it from cash into a different form. The diamond will hold value and can be resold later if need be. It’s not like he blew it all gambling or traded it for junk. True, true.

My mom got to pick up her new pendant this last weekend after she got recent liver tests back from her doctor. The cirrhosis is still there, but they have it under control now with the medication they’d put her on the past 6 weeks. The drugs did their job and they can now drop one of the prescriptions. So it’s a good start to the new year all around.