As I mentioned in passing on another recent post, I had to go to a baby shower yesterday, for one of dh's cousins' daughters. Obviously, it is not my favourite way of spending an afternoon -- but I wasn't bothered enough by the prospect to invent an excuse to bow out. I figured that if I could survive a baby shower on the weekend of my 40th birthday while deep in the throes of infertility treatment, I could most certainly survive this, 14 years later. ;)
Still, I grumbled a bit as I got dressed (agonizing over my choice of wardrobe) and fretted about the zits that picked THIS weekend (of course!) to pop out on my chin.
Then we got a call from BIL. SIL's mother is gravely ill and is not doing well, and SIL decided she needed to stay with her instead of attending the shower. That kind of put things into perspective for me. Given a choice, I am sure she would much rather have been attending the shower -- and if I were in her shoes, I am sure I would have felt the same way.
StepMIL had already bowed out; she really IS sick. That left me as the sole representative from our branch of the family. It was very strange for me to be at a shower without SIL there -- we're always at these things together.
But overall, it wasn't an unpleasant experience. Dh drove me to the shower venue; we had just had a fresh dump of snow -- the fluffy kind that sticks to the tree branches and makes everything look like a Christmas card (almost pretty enough to make me forget that it's late February and I am thoroughly SICK of winter...!) -- so it was a lovely drive. Among the 50-plus guests were dh's aunts, female cousins, cousins' wives, their daughters and granddaughters -- I hadn't seen most of them since a family gathering last summer, and so we had a nice visit. (With all the baby & bridal showers I attend, I get to see them all more than dh does...!). They are a warm and welcoming bunch. Plus it was at an Italian restaurant = great food. There was even a choice of salad & entrée, which made it easier to accommodate my tomato allergy. Best of all -- there was wine!! (lol)
I gamely tackled a couple of the dumb games and activities (the word scramble, a quiz that was done as a team with your tablemates) and ignored some of the others. (One of the hostesses handed me a pad of post-it notes and told me to write down some advice for the mom-to-be for a scrapbook they were making. I just smiled and quietly passed it along, and nobody asked me about it again.) There was so much going on, so much chatter, I didn't even see most of the presents opened.
It was a little over three hours out of my life. I was well fed. I survived.
And then I got to come home, and watch the Oscars. :)
Next...!! ;)
You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.
Congratulations! YOU win. :) I'm glad you were able to represent relatively unscathed ... I'm sure they were glad you were there.
ReplyDeleteWell done! And yay for good food!
ReplyDeleteLoribeth, you ROCK! Well done for representing your family and doing so with style. The good food was the bonus.
ReplyDeleteMhmm, clearly I'm a foreigner, but why didn't Dh come along? his family was there as well, he drove there anyway?
ReplyDeleteWell done for surviving and taking care of yourself. And for enjoying the food.
@Valery: Showers (bridal & baby) are generally women-only things -- so it was just his aunts & the female cousins, etc. -- although the groom or dad-to-be often shows up at the end with flowers for the bride/mom-to-be. I don't drive -- and at any rate, we only have one car, so dh dropped me off & went out for lunch himself. I thought he would hang out at the local mall or something until I called him, but he showed up early...!
ReplyDeleteI haven't done a baby shower since Eliza's, so I admire your fortitude! This one sounds tolerable, as such things go. Wine for the win!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I know that pad of post-it notes must have touched a tender spot in your heart, but I've been reading your blog long enough to know that you would give as good or better parenting advice in some regards than many people who have living children. You didn't get to bring Katie home, but you know all the important stuff anyway--isn't it all about unconditional love?
Brooke said it first - but I completely agree! You would definitely have been able to give some fantastic, scrapbook-worthy advice to the mother to be. Don't pass it up next time.
ReplyDeleteBRAVO, Loribeth! I've never been to a bridal shower, so had no idea that there could be such a thing that the guests were asked to write down some advice for the mom-to-be. Glad to know nobody asked you about it again and that you met a welcoming bunch of people as well as eating lovely food and drinking wine.
ReplyDelete