It’s not even the end of 2008 yet, but the beginning of 2009 is already looking very busy for Ron and me! Wedding planning has been kind of slow recently but things are definitely going to start picking up after the New Year.

First things first: wedding rings. We’ve been looking around for a few months now—any excuse to go into a jewelry store, right? At first I thought I was dragging Ron into every jewelry store I saw against his will. Then last week he actually suggested that we visit a jewelry store in Center City that was going out of business. Of course, I happily obliged. We stopped by and even though everything was discounted, the selection was pretty slim so we didn’t find exactly what we wanted.

We’ve decided to make an appointment and go back to the jewelry store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where Ron bought my engagement ring. The staff is very helpful and will give us 15 percent off our bands. This also works out nicely because one of Ron’s groomsmen lives in Lancaster, so he can pick up our rings and hold on to them for us until the wedding. There’s no way I can have my ring at the apartment because I have no self-restraint and would definitely want to prance around with it all the time.

Eleni and Ron's friends, Mariko and Jeff.

Last weekend, Ron and I took a road trip to Albany, New York, to visit two of our dear friends, Jeff and Mariko. Jeff and Ron are best friends from college. They met freshman year through the Ithaca College Television News (I’m being serious). Jeff was news director during their senior year, and Ron was the main anchor (nerd alert!).

Not much has changed since then—both of them are still working in the news, and their favorite thing to talk about is still . . . you guessed it, the news. They’re borderline obsessed when they get together. Mariko and I let them carry on about the news for approximately one hour each time we all get together, and then we put a moratorium on it for the rest of the trip. She’s much nicer than I am, though, and sometimes she lets them get away with more than just an hour.

Ron and Eleni with Eleni's parents at a recent wedding.

I feel like I say this every year, but how can it possibly be December already? Don’t the holidays just creep up out of nowhere? Maybe it’s because I left my job, moved to Philadelphia, found a new job, and started cohabiting with Ron Burgundy, but the past few months have really flown by. Doesn’t it seem like the older you get, the faster the time goes by? I always heard adults say that when I was growing up, but I never believed it.

So seeing as Ron Burgundy and I had a long-distance relationship for four years, we haven’t spent many holidays together. This is the first holiday season we’ll be able to spend together. But because the news is always on, Ron had to work on Thanksgiving and will have to work on Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Oh, the joys of working in the news.

Ron Burgundy here, and I’m guest-blogging with a honeymoon-news update.

Breaking news: Honeymoon delayed until early fall 2009.

Tonight we have word that the engaged couple is rumored to be planning a trip to Europe after a brief stop on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Sources say there might possibly be a stay at George Clooney’s Lake Como mansion. (Just kidding!)

Okay, okay. I promise those will be the only two paragraphs I write in the style of an overly urgent cable-news update. Eleni and I will officially be honeymooning in Europe next fall. Right after the wedding, we’re planning a two-night stop on the Eastern Shore.

Eleni and Ron out to dinner during a vacation in Greece.

Approximately two weeks after I got engaged, I joined Weight Watchers. If being in a wedding dress and posing for pictures that you’ll look at for the rest of your life isn’t a big enough incentive to lose ten pounds, then I don’t know what is. Ideally, I’d like to lose a few pounds and do something about my arms. I enjoy food way too much to do anything more drastic than that. And Ron Burgundy and I love to go out to eat.

So I joined Weight Watchers in April and was in a constant state of hunger for about six weeks. Okay, I may be exaggerating when I say it was a constant state, but I definitely missed French fries, potato chips, and chocolate. I did lose seven pounds, though.

Then summer started, and chips and salsa and margaritas sounded much more enticing than any Weight Watchers recipe. My mantra started to be “Once I move to Philadelphia, I’ll start going to the gym and eating healthy.”

It seems like Ron and I got engaged just last week—I can’t believe it’s been seven months already! We’re enjoying living together, and I’ve been settling into my new job as an account executive at an advertising/marketing agency just outside of Philadelphia.

With the move to Philly, I haven’t had much time for wedding planning, but the good news is that two girls on my account team at work just got engaged—one two weeks ago, the other this past weekend. They both have gorgeous rings that are so sparkly I can hardly concentrate on work. Because you already know how much I love talking about weddings, these two engagements have started to provide for a lot of fun conversations (in between important meetings and projects, of course).

Since Ron Burgundy and I have been engaged for six months, we decided it was time for us to live in the same city. I was sad to leave Washington, but excited to finally be with Ron in Philadelphia (and also to watch him on the news, which makes me giggle). I can’t stay away from DC for too long, though—I’ve already been back twice in two weeks. And I’ll be back many more times before the wedding for food tastings, dress fittings, the bridal shower, etc. So even though I’ve moved, it won’t really feel like I’m gone.

Ron and I drove down to DC last weekend for the wedding of our very good friends, Jessica and Matt. Jessica and I have been friends for 13 years—half our lives! We met in middle school and then went to Madeira together for high school. I was thrilled to be her maid of honor.