I sit here this morning drinking tea made in our wonderful new Bodum Shin Cha tea press. What a clever design! What wonderful tea! What great prezzies we got!

Andreas is currently drinking his tea in bed, where he’s underneath a gorgeous deep red canopy that we fashioned from a beautiful gold-threaded sari we received from his cousin Kim, and the handmade quilt rack we received from his family friends Bob and Birgit. I realize a quilt rack isn’t really meant to be used as a footboard/canopy piece, but until we get the quilt I’m begging T. to make us, it’s the best way to use the beautiful piece of handcrafted furniture. (Tip: it’s really goood to have artisan woodworkers in the family!)

We had a few instances of overlap. We got exactly three blenders, one of which has already been traded in for some of the coolest kitchen gadgets ever (an avocado slicer! a flip-top garlic press! the bread knife we’ve been needing for years!). We also got two gorgeous wooden salad bowls, one of which will be used for salad, the other as a countertop fruit bowl.

We got one gift (which will remain unnamed) that appears to be the result of a wrinkle in the fabric of time. This gift was clearly destined for Susannah and Michael’s wedding, fall of 2001. It’s the most gorgeous representation of the theme of their celebration, and I can only imagine that a rift in the space time continuum resulted in the gift appearing at our wedding. To correct this anomalie of physics, it’s my honor to pass the wonderful gift on to Susannah and Michael, as a way of thanking them for everything they did to help us with our wedding, and as a little pre-third anniversary gift. I refuse to think there’s anything wrong with doing this, and I can only hope the gift-giver would agree. Etiquette dictates not telling them, so I won’t…but I really wish I could.

One non-wedding present that we’ve been enjoying is a new used car! We’d been driving Dre’s mom’s partner’s purple truck for the last couple years, but Dre’s mom recently decided that she wanted to take it back, because it would make hauling her woodworking materials much easier. So she traded us a fricking ‘96 Subaru Legacy in exchange for the ‘94 Ford Ranger. Dude: we totally got the better deal on that one, but don’t tell her that. We are in love with the new vehicle. I’ve never really liked driving a pickup around the city (too big! uses too much gas! too unneccessary except when camping or moving!), and a sporty station wagon with a nice rack is much more my style. Technically, we’re only trading for a year…Nancy might want the Subaru back. If it comes to that, I will probably have to try to buy it from her. Because I already love it that much.

…And the prezzies just keep on coming! Many of our friends were visibly relieved to hear that technically you have one year from the date of the wedding to buy presents, and the registry has continued to be hit in the days since this weekend. Thanks to every last one of you for all the wonderful gifts. Our home is filled with boxes and bows and cards that make me want to dance little happy jigs all over the place.