A Champagne Toast

Any time I go on vacation somewhere, I always bring gifts back for the fabulous women in my life. My mom, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law, Erika. And by "gifts" I mean wine. No matter where we travel, Jared and I always manage to find a winery nearby. So of course on our most recent adventure to North Carolina we made sure to stop for a visit at the winery of the Biltmore Estate. We purchased bottles of wine for ourselves and the mamas, but for Erika I got champagne. Erika and I have this fun tradition where we like to drink champagne together. Usually it's something really cheap like Andre, but when I find a fun bottle on my travels I always have to bring one back for us to share. When I spotted this bottle at the Biltmore Winery, I just had to buy it.

Two reasons. Number one, pink bottle. We all know I'm a sucker for anything pink. Number two, the name of this champagne is Pas de Deux and I just can't pass up a good ballet reference. Too perfect.

Last night, I invited Erika over so we could pop this bottle of champagne and celebrate two very special occasions. The first was to watch this season's Men Tell All special on The Bachelorette. Since Erika was the one who got me hooked on The Bachelorette, it's only right that she be there to toast a little champagne with me on this occasion.

Even though watching The Bachelorette together was the initial reasoning behind our champagne date last night, it ended up being the far lesser important reason of the day to celebrate. We also got to toast the arrival of the royal baby!

I know that a lot of people are sick of hearing about this royal baby stuff already, but I have to admit that it makes me excited. Just like I was really excited two years ago about watching the royal wedding. I know that I'm not British and I have no reason to be excited about the royal baby, but as much as we Americans want to believe that the new royal baby does not affect our culture it does. Plus, isn't it nice to see something positive and happy on the news instead of the normal depressing, hateful events that we have to see on our news everyday? I think so.

Let's be honest, this is a historical event whether you want to believe it or not. This is one of those moments where decades from now when this baby is an adult, people will all be saying, "Do you remember where you were when William and Kate first brought that baby out of those hospital doors?" And thanks to it being summer and me not working, I will be able to say that I was sitting here on my couch, eating my lunch and watching it on television live. It might not seem like an important life moment right now, but it resonates with me for some reason. Just like I vividly remember being 10 years old sitting on the bed with my mom at a beach condo we were staying at and watching Princess Diana's funeral. I feel the same way about Kate as I did about Princess Diana as a kid. I always admired her. I even had that purple beanie baby that they made in honor of Diana, you know the one I'm talking about.

With so many of our current cultural "icons" ending up in rehab, arrested or even dead from violence or overdose, it's nice to have a role model like Kate for our society to prove that just because you become famous don't mean you have to become a lunatic. Plus, I really love the positive attention that is being paid to the traditional family unit which is unfortunately becoming more uncommon in our culture. Ultimately, this is a happy and historical occasion for all.

Cheers to Will and Kate and their new bundle of joy!