Last Week

I wasn't kidding when I said I was busy! I haven't had a spare minute to update the blog.

Tuesday morning I attended a planning meeting for our squadron's 70th birthday bash. It's going to be an entire weekends' worth of big events in February. Lots to do; J of course is most looking forward to the golf tournament if he's around. Then that evening I went to the squadron book club. We didn't read a book this month (thank goodness!) but we all brought children's books that we loved at Christmas.

Wednesday I volunteered with operation cookie drop. What an undertaking. Literally thousands upon thousands of cookies were baked and donated to give to the single airmen in the dorms here on base. We had so many cookies in fact, that we sent tubs of them to Afghanistan and trays to various offices around the base. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work as well. Wednesday evening I went over to some dear friends for dinner and helped to make Christmas cookies. Lots of of!

Thursday I was busy during the day. I helped host a Christmas event for the Officer spouses on base at a local tea house and then had my doctors appointment off base about my stomach. That was OK... going to have an ultrasound of my abdomen done, a follow up and then probably a scope depending on what they see or don't see. Oy. I'm ready for all this junk to be done; just find something, cure it and move on. I hate the doctors, I hate tests, I hate medications, I hate being sick... and I really hate talking about it all.

Friday was our squadrons Christmas party. it was at the same local country club as last year. Lots of laughs and the food was great. I didn't win a single raffle prize despite buying 35 tickets. oh well; donation to the booster club I guess. I did see a lot of people which was fun.

And Saturday. :) Saturday was the best day by far! Because J came home from his deployment!!!!!! So very blessed and thankful and happy.

Merry Christmas!!

Getting Crafty

 

My sister made a beautiful wreath a few weeks ago and posted the above picture to her facebook wall. I was inspired! So after several trips to various stores (Wal-Mary, Micheals, Jo-Anns) I finally rounded up all the items to make my own.

1. 12 inch plasti-foam wreath

2. wire ribbon

3. LOTS of ornaments in 3 different sizes

4. hot glue gun and glue sticks

Heat up the glue and pop the tops off the ornaments and go crazy! I started with the biggest ornaments around the outside and then filled in with my two smaller sizes. I think the only thing I did differently than my sis was to hot glue my ribbon in place first thing and add ornaments on top of it.

It's not a hard project, just sorta time consuming; so pop in your favorite Christmas movie and craft :)

'Tis the season to be hectic

I am so busy it's slightly obnoxious. Last week I had an event every single day. This week I have multiple events every single day. Here is hoping that I still have time to buy food, and clean my house and sleep.

Today I guess I can't complain too much, because the biggest chunk on my to-do list is getting my hair done :)

If all goes well I will also have the majority of the grocery shopping done for the next 2 weeks. (Yup, including the big Christmas dinner).

Time for breakfast, vitamins and Airborne!! :)

Deck the halls

The house is decorated! I even put up some lights outside (although I've yet to take pictures). Some ladies from our squadron came over last week to help me put up our big tree. It's an artificial one that goes together branch by painful branch and isn't pre-lit. Their help was much appreciated! Once the house was decked out I finally started playing Christmas music and burning my Christmasy candles and Scentsy :) It looks good, it sounds good and it smells good. I'm just missing J...

Breakfast

A steaming cup of Twinings Christmas tea, blackberries and hot waffles (albeit the toaster version) was breakfast this chilly Saturday morning. My house is decorated, the Christmas movies are out and I'm planning on baking lots of cookies today. Some to send with a crew deploying from our squadron next week. Some to send to Operation Cookie Drop here on base (which supplies single airmen in the dorms with Christmas cookies). And finally, some to stash in the freezer for Christmas at home. Come on over... :)

Seating Area

Our master bedroom is huge. I would have made the room smaller and enlarged the master bath and closet, but whatever. I like our room, but it doesn't feel very cozy. It's hard to make a big room cozy.

So I decided to take a set of chairs from some friends who were moving. I thought maybe one or two could make a new home in our bedroom. I tried them both, nope. Too big. I tried one, and it was so-so. Then I found a $12 table and things improved. Next stop: a small table lamp! But that will be after Christmas because I've got the perfect little tree to go on that table shortly.

First decorations

I bought a poinsettia and got our my manger. I love this set! I've been getting pieces for Christmas for a few years now and I think I've got it all now.

I'll be home for ... Thanksgiving

We may not be able to make it home for Christmas this year, but I got to spend Thanksgiving with family.



I didn't think I was going to make it home on time. I came down with the flu two days before my plane ride home. I'm not sure how I did it, but I survived a long day of travel and collapsed on the couch at my Mom's. Once I was recovered I was able to cook and bake up a storm for Thanksgiving. We drove to Indiana for the actual day and celebrated with my grandparents, an aunt and uncle and one cousin. It was fun. I also got to decorate my grandparents house for Christmas while I was there. It was a short visit, but a good one!

My cozy spot in the basement at my Grandparents

I spent the rest of my time at home bouncing between people; my brother and Dad and various grandparents and J's parents. I also got to spend a lot of time with my step-nephew while I was home. Such a cutie and so smart! It was fun. There was a lot of cards played, and puppy chow consumed. I got to help Mom and Luke decorate their trees while I was home. I just can't believe how fast the time flew by! Next time J deploys I am clearing my schedule and heading to Ohio for a longer stretch.

I got home on Monday and it was a rough day. Coming home to an empty house is horrible. Coming home to an ant infested house made it that much more horrible! I did not take pictures of the ants... but lets just say I walked in my door and the next 4 hours were spent cleaning.

I've been busy since I returned to California though. Aside from mass ant genocide, I had our squadron's spouse Christmas party, the holiday deployed spouse dinner and the list goes on and on. My only free day for 2 weeks is this Thursday!

I started slowly decorating our house yesterday. I'll put pictures up as I go. I'm going to wait to get too crazy until tomorrow however because the exterminator is coming this morning...

Canning Pies

I really wanted to send a little bit of home to J for Thanksgiving. One of his favorite things is pumpkin pie. I was bound and determined to get him some... so I canned it! Using 4oz. canning jars I was able to send a dozen mini pies. They turned out beautifully and made it to him without any problems.

 My pie ingredients. its just like making a normal pumpkin pie!

 I made a few without crust for J, the others are empty crusts waiting to be filled.

 The final pies! I boiled the lids and sealed the jars and ta-da!

And I'm back

I got to go "home" to be with family for a few weeks over Thanksgiving. What a huge blessing! I was so busy enjoying myself that I literally haven't been online for anything for a while now. I promise to post a catch up post and a few pictures and then get back to my regular posting. Having just returned home I've got lots of Christmas decorating and baking and planning to do, so there will be lots of that to come! Happy December :)