You Know You Had a Good Time When Your Cell Phone Ends Up In Another Country

It's safe to say that I had a blast last week. We had tons of family and friends come to town and stay with us for Inauguration and boy did we get our celebration on. The weekend began with the girls' weekly ballet class and SIL and her family driving up from Atlanta to spend some time with us. What a treat! Chatterbox and Giggles were beside themselves with excitment at having their big cousins to play with. We all braved the cold weather (it was freezing!) and took the Metro downtown to the National Mall and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where the kids reveled in display upon display of dinosaurs. We topped the night off with Blazy's Pepperoni Lasagna and hit the hay. Sunday began with a kids' birthday party and then Hubby, his friend and I headed to a reception hosted by the Young Elected Officials Network and the Chestnut Law Firm, that we were invited to by Justice Jonesie. It was fun! We met lots of movers and shakers, caught up with old friends and enjoyed hors d'oeuvres, an open bar and good music. It was great hanging out with Justice Jonesie and her friend K again - good times. SIL was a doll and took the kids to Port Discovery during the day so that we could attend the reception. That night we tucked the kids into bed and left them in the loving care of my dad and stepmom who arrived that morning to help my sister move to the area (talk about a hectic few days). All the grown folks headed to an Inauguration Jam where we met up with my ladies' crew from lawschool. At that point, hubby and I had officially gone out more than we had in the past several months combined...

The next day was our "Party Like A BarackStar" Obama Brunch. We had tons of yummy food and tons of wonderful guests. My best friend Danielle and her friend drove down from Toronto and arrived in the wee hours of the morning. I do have to shout out the stars of the brunch: my friend Danielle's ham & cheese quiche (heavenly!); my Dijon-Tarragon-Chive Salmon; and...our Inauguration cheescake courtesy of Eli's Cheesecake in Chicago!!

In case you haven't heard of this marvelous cakery, Eli's Cheescake is a famous Chicagoan institution, well-known for its delicious cheescakes and succulent steaks. Eli's had the honor of making dessert at the Commander-In-Chief's Ball at the National Building Museum in D.C. for President Obama's inauguration - a 500 pound apple cheesecake! Eli's was generous enough to send me a complimentary (slightly smaller!) version of the cheesecake for my Obama Brunch. How rockin' is that? Feeling left out? Not to worry, you can order your very own Inaugural Cheesecake from Eli's here (really, is it ever a not a good time to eat cheesecake?)

But I digress. After the brunch (and an impromptu emergency trip to the pediatrician) we went to the Young & Powerful for Obama Black Tie & Awards Gala. It was fun getting all dressed up in our tuxes and gowns for the evening. We had a good time at the ball and afterwards, inexplicably ended up in our car stuck in the White House roadblock, unable to get out. By the time we made it home it was after 3:00am and no sooner did I rest my head on my pillow did I need to get up, layer up, and trek down to the Mall for to watch the swearing-in ceremony with 2 million of my closest friends. Ironically enough, we drove all the way into town in Danielle's car at 5am with no problem and even managed to park in a parking garage. We walked through the closed highway tunnel and by dawn we were on the National Mall, making our way as close as possible to a big screen. We ended up at the jumbo-tron that was 2nd from the U.S. Capitol Building! Great location. The ceremony was awesome and being in that crowd, waving our flags with millions of emotional folks was an experience I will never forget. We trekked back to our car (it took THREE HOURS) in the freezing cold. By the time I got home I was ready to collapse; which I did, and didn't wake up until the next day.

Which is precisely when I realized that my cell phone was in Danielle's car. And the car was already back in Toronto.

All in all, the week was great. Michelle looked hot to death in her lemongrass ensemble and President Obama is the leader of the free world. Last week will be a hard one to top.