Tradition

I am half way through our first Christmas apart in 9 years...

Tonight I definitely missed the butterflies from him pulling into my driveway every year and trying to rush me out the door to make our annual Chinese dinner with his grandparents and parents. We always dressed up so nicely and I couldn't wait for him to see me all dressed up and I couldn't wait to see him!

No Chinese dinner this year. He is gone and his grandfather is sick.

I missed sitting next to him on the couch as we plowed through our gifts from my parents. I miss him analayzing every one of my gifts and attempting to put it together, before he even finishes unwrapping all of his.

This year, my little brother's first girlfriend joined us.

Christmas morning at his house has been my ultimate favorite where we spend hours opening gifts and laughing at anything and everything.

This year because both of his siblings have serious relationships and must attempt the daunting task of splitting time, everyone must be on the road early tomorrow morning, we opened gifts tonight.

Before all of the festivities, I came close to throwing myself a pity party, before I realized some traditions fade, but I should enjoy the ones that stay.

My mom, sister, and I went for our annual mani and pedi on Christmas Eve and just gossiped about all the good stuff happening in our and everyone elses lives.

I made it half-way through my first Christmas without him in 9 years because of my crazy family, his sweet, funny family, and my beautiful puppies.

I know some traditions will go away, but as cliche as it may sound, the love in my family room and his living room tonight will never, ever fade.

Tis the season...

With his upcoming deployment running in conjunction with the holidays, I guess I am learning a alot about priorities. For instance, it looks as though a bomb went off in my house, a giant ACU/BDU bomb. And with family arriving tomorrow, I am surprisingly calm and ok with it all.

I also have yet to work out since our return home from Chicago. Oh well, right? And today, although we do not have a ton of money to spare, my friend Jeni and I "adopted" 2 little boys from the Soldier Tree here at the PX and bought clothes and of course toys. I loved the feeling of handing over a bunch of wrapped presents for someone else's kids.

Tonight we decorated our Christmas tree and although we have 1 actual ornament, I enjoyed our memory together while trying to place the bulbs perfectly on the tree.

And of course my kiddos. Something tells me they will help me more in the 12 months more than I have ever helped them. While in Chicago, God blessed my puppies with 3-4 inches of snow. Trying to get them inside was not necessarily the best present for me, but I have ton of pictures of digging, rolling, and running in the very cold, white snow.

Also, on a somewhat amusing note. We like being in bed between 10-11pm every night. Last night we were both upstairs in the office trying to get some paperwork, etc. done and Dakota would not stop whinning and spinning in circles. In between her temper tantrums, she would place her head on my lap and look at me as if I was doing something wrong. I finally looked at my clock and went, whoa, it is way past our bedtime. Once we headed downstairs to go to bed, all was right, in her world at least.

Bah Humbug

Since he will be gone for the holidays, I only wanted to decorate the inside of the house with two items, a Christmas tree and stockings.

We set out today to try and accomplish this feat.

I wanted to find the perfect tree, the perfect stockings, start the perfect tradition, make memories together...blah, blah, blah. I did realize one thing today, fake trees are expensive!

Shopping overwhelmed me. I did not find a tree or the stockings.

I gave up and gave him the pouty lip in our 4th store. I finally found a $2 miniature snowman. It cheered me up. And if you walk into our house, it is our only Christmas decoration.

Hurry up December 26th so I can buy cheap decorations for next year!

Tonight while cleaning the house and listening to Christmas music, we both kind of laughed at our snowman on top of the fireplace mantle.

And what do you know, we made our 1st Christmas memory living together...