Last weekend we had a class party with our new Sunday School class.  There were around 10 couples there.  We played the Price is Right, and it was a hoot!  The teacher put a lot of effort into making the games realistic.  I won some wind chimes and two paperback books, but I lost the showcase showdown.  We had an extra prize left over, so we played the Newlywed Game for the final one.  Alison and I got 6 out of 10 questions right, but the winners got 8 correct.

We've been walking with Kit almost every night for the past few weeks.  She is constantly tugging in different directions, but part of that has to do with the fact that she's still a puppy.  She's doing much better in the "accident" category, although she made a mistake last night as we were putting her to bed.  Alison thinks that she did it as a show of defiance, and I think she's right about that.

Alison was invited to play Bunco with some of the ladies in our class.  I've heard of women playing Bunco before, but I've never seen so much organization/rules in my life.  There are 12 women and each host once a year.  The hostess is required to make dinner, snacks, and desert.  The hostess also has to purchase 5 gifts with very specific dollar amounts (like $4, $5, $8, $13).  Those gifts go as prizes for certain things during the game.  I looks like the average hostess would spend over $100 when it is her turn, but it might end up being much more (dinner for 12 women?)  I think Alison is going to do it, so I'll probably mention how it turns out.

With the Singing Christmas Tree and Dr. Whitmire's retirement over, things are finally going to return to semi-normal. This weekend Alison and I selected the cake and hired the baker, chose a photographer and took our engagement photos, and registered at Target and Bed, Bath, & Beyond. We still have a few things to register for, but we've got the important stuff taken care of (like plates, glasses, silverware, towels, bedding, etc.) Alison's mother (and sister) will be picking out the final bridesmaid dresses this week, so then we'll be able to select matching tuxes and hire the florist.

Next on the list for me is to print our return address on the envelopes and start writing addresses on envelopes so that we'll be ready when the invitations come back from Alison's dad. Alison and I will also select the music for our reception, which should be a relatively painless process. :-) Things are coming together quite nicely, and I wonder what people that have longer engagements do with their time.

Speaking of engaged life, I'm really finding the engaged couples' class at Bellevue to be helpful. It's a twelve-week course on marriage issues that meets from 11:00 - 12:15am at Bellevue each Sunday. After week twelve the class starts over again, but you don't have to take the classes in any particular order. For instance, Alison and I started at lesson 8, and will stay in the class until we get lesson 7. The class mainly consists of engaged couples, but it is open to everyone. Our teacher said that probably 50% of married couples at Bellevue needed to go through the class.

We got to know several engaged couples better at a class Christmas party. Although most of them are younger than us by a few years, I still enjoy being able to talk about wedding stuff. I encouraged one guy that was contemplating taking a year off before getting his MBA to take the plunge and start right after he gets done with his undergrad. I told him it's like a bandaid (as Seinfeld says, "Right off!!!")