For Love & Scotch

It was 12/12/1997. My mother and one of her cousins share a birthday. The cousin was having an all out party for his 60th, and invited my family to join in on the festivities. The first thing you should know is that Guatemalans really know how to throw a party. The backyard was gorgeous and looked like it had been converted into a restaurant. There was a DJ and live entertainment. The only problem with these types of family festivities is that since I didn't grow up there I didn't really know anyone. I had never met these people. They might have been family, but they might as well have been strangers. So, as nice as the evening was it didn't take very long to get bored.

M and I were at a table listening to the music and chatting. The next thing you should know about Guatemalans is that they love to drink. In fact when M and I were planning our wedding in Guatemala, we had decided not to include alcohol at the reception. Nothing against drinking but we just didn't have that kind of budget. Well, that did not go over very well with either side of our families. So, as a compromise, they foot the bar tending bill! Which totally worked for us of course.

Anyway, back to the birthday party. At every table was a bottle of Scotch Whiskey and Cokes. This way each guest could make their own drinks if they didn't want to have to go to the bar. M looked at the bottle and thought out loud. "You know that is what I should get my grandfather for Christmas...a bottle of whiskey. He's so hard to shop for." To that I responded, "Why not just take this bottle. It's not like we were going to drink it. Is that really stealing?"

Whether it was stealing or not, I still didn't want to get caught and have to explain my party faux paux to the family I didn't know - and didn't know me. So, I pretended like I accidentally knocked over the bottle and then it accidentally rolled off the table into my awaiting large purse.

As we left the party I passed by the door to the kitchen where the caterers had stacked all of the boxes and bins from the glassware and barware. Low and behold I found the box that the Scotch Whiskey came in. Well, wouldn't it look more like a real gift if it were wrapped in the original box? So I picked it up and pretended like the words on the box were just the most fascinating thing in the world. Then when no one was looking I ran out with it.

The two of us had SO much fun with our thievery that in the end we decided we just had to keep the bottle. By this point we had been dating for 7 months. We had been talking about marriage so early in our dating life that it was a very natural conversation to say we should keep this until our wedding day. So, we wrote a note inside the box cover..."Stolen from Mom's Birthday Party. Do not open till 2001."

We were married 05/19/2001.

The bottle remains unopened.

The fate of our stolen goods has yet to be determined. But, one of these days we'll celebrate, For Love & Scotch.