Left at home, but not dis-CARDed.

Jellyby, our shih tzu, is 50% sweetheart, 25% spoiled princess, and 25% psycho.  When she's with people, she's all sunshine and lollipops: loving, gentle, and happy.  

But dog forbid she gets left at home by herself.  

Without company, she becomes completely unhinged.  She'll squawk like a dying chicken, attempt to claw her way out of whatever room she's in, basically have a total, Telemundo-style meltdown.  

We've tried a dog shrink ("a canine behaviorist"), expensive medications (liver-flavored Prozac, anyone?), natural remedies (Mr. HC's still giving me a hard time about my purchase of the "anxiety wrap"), kongs and other puzzle toys . . . all to no avail.  It's okay, you can laugh: I have reconciled myself to the fact that I am more Meg Swan than Cesar Milan.

Anyway, this self-flagellation is just context for why we ended up not taking Jellyby with us to our wedding.  I wanted so much for her to be "Canine of Honor" -- I even bought a darling pearl collar for her from a fancy schmancy pet store -- but because of her separation anxiety, we just couldn't figure out what we were going to do with her post-ceremony.  So Jellyby stayed behind in Boston with her godparents, our wonderful neighbors, who spoiled her silly while we were off at our Chewish wedding.

I was determined to include our little drama queen in our celebration, somehow.  So I had Moo business cards made with a dozen of our favorite Jellyby photos.

On the back of each card, we printed a note asking our guests to upload photos to our Shutterfly wedding website.

Unfortunately, I didn't do such a great job making sure they were distributed in a timely manner to our guests, so half of the cards never got handed out.  But it made me happy to know that Jellyby made an appearance, if only in 2-D form, at our wedding.  And it gave me an excuse to get Moo cards, which, you might remember, make my heart go pitter patter.

Will you be including your pets in your wedding or honoring them in absentia?

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Why is this night different from all other nights?

Why was last Thursday night different from all other nights?

Mr. HC and I hosted our first Passover seder as a married couple . . . like the real grown-ups that we are now.  What made this Passover so meaningful is that not only was it the first event we collaborated on as part of our newly Chewish household, it also was the first Jewish holiday I have celebrated since my conversion to Judaism in March.  

We read from various haggadot (compendia of, among other things, the story of the Exodus); sang annoyingly catchy songs loudly and off-key; ate cardboard . . . I mean, matzah; and drank four goblets of overly sweet, oddly viscous "wine," which I think was Welch's grape juice that someone already swilled and spit out.

Source

We also got to use one of the most generous, lovely wedding presents we received: a pomegranate seder plate by contemporary metal artist Michael Aram.  We filled it with the customary seder accoutrements: karpas (parsley); z'ora (roasted shankbone, Jellyby the shih tzu's favorite); maror (horseradish); chazeret (a bitter herb, in our yuppie case, arugula); charoset (an apple, walnut, and honey mixture); beitzah (hardboiled egg); and salt water. These items have symbolic significance to the retelling of the story of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.

All in all, it was a looong, drunken, delicious, and raucous night.  Hope you all had a fabulous Passover, Easter, or long weekend!

Newlywedded bees: was there an event that you celebrated together as a couple that made you feel like you were really a familial unit?  Engaged bees: what holiday are you most looking forward to celebrating together?

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I'm ball, he's chain.

The reports are true: the Hot Cocoas are maaarrrrieeeed!

Thanks to Luna Photo and Leigh Miller for making two stale marshmallows like us look toasty.

The unexciting old fogeys that we are, we spent a few days lazing about our wedding hotel and then promptly flew home to work (dissertation = albatross).  But we had a blissful, loving, memorable weekend, and I can't wait for the pro photos to come back so that I can share the highlights of our Chewish Wedding Spectacular with you.  In the meantime, I have a few last-minute projects that I never got a chance to blog about, so you still have a few opportunities to read my blah blah blahs without having to see our silly looking mugs.

Kiss kiss, MRS. Hot Cocoa.

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