Christmas Ornaments

We have a tradition of buying Christmas ornaments from wherever we happen to travel. I love looking at all of them and remembering where we were when we bought them. Only problem is I think we’re going to need a bigger tree soon.

Here are our new ornaments for the year:

We’ve got (from top left, clockwise): Coronado (I say that guy is a SEAL, but Chris says no), Ireland, Helen (Georgia, where we went to Oktoberfest), Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Nashville (I like to say that he’s Charlie Daniels, but Chris says it’s just cowboy Santa Claus. What does he know?).

Apparently, we forgot to get an ornament from Beaufort, although both of us were sure we got one. Maybe we just put it up somewhere and forgot about it…

And our random non-travel related new ornaments this year:

The top is a fairy decorating a cake (no explanation needed). The next is a little old lady made out of hojas (the corn husks wrapped around tamales). My mom had an ornament just like that and my sister made me this replica last year. She’s hella crafty. And then the bottom is Jingle, the husky pup, who asked for a home for Christmas. Since Bones is half husky and we rescued her two weeks before Christmas, it seemed appropriate

But yep… if we travel at all next year, we’re definitely going to need a bigger tree.

A Random Round Up

Our backyard has a tendency to turn into a jungle because I don’t have the upper body strength to mow the hill in the back yard and by the time Chris gets home from work, he doesn’t want to deal with it. When I realized that I couldn’t see Bones if she was at the bottom of the hill, I decided something needed to be done and went at it with a weed whacker. It took me an hour and then I couldn’t move my arms for three days.

I got my candy from the Easter Swap – Jennifer at Life with the Haas absolutely spoiled me!

Shecky was convinced it was for her and Bones was disappointed I wouldn’t share

We’re still working on all this candy… thanks Jennifer!

I just got back from DC (no pictures!), where I got to visit with friends and met a rude parking meter maid who made me move my car when I parked at 6:25 because it wasn’t public parking until 6:30. As soon as I moved, someone took my spot. She didn’t make that person move. And then someone honked at me for stopping at a red light. Gosh, I can’t wait until I get to DC

Now I’m at home trying to recover from the plague I caught from the sick lady on the plane. You don’t want to see pics of me right now, so I’ll leave you with this picture of Shecky. You might think she’s rolling around, but no. She froze in that position and laid there without moving for a couple minutes. Wasn’t even chewing the rope, just holding it in her mouth. I think she wanted me to take a picture, so I obliged.

Cyber Christmas with Sespi’s Family

Our original plans were to spend Christmas Day at my mother in law’s house, but when we got there, we found out a couple things. Chris’s brothers and sister in law went to St. Louis the day after we got there, so we celebrated Christmas early; his mom and step dad were sick; his mom was working on Christmas; his mom’s idea of what was ok for the dogs did not mesh with our idea of acceptable dog lodgings (i.e. She wanted us to leave my little goat dog in the [unheated] garage… with lots of cords, screws, nails, and chemicals laying around. When we nixed that, we ended up having to crate them pretty much all day.)

But we did have a nice Christmas celebration and we went to Mass as a family, and then we decided we were going to head home and have Christmas just me and Chris at home. It’s been nice, but it would be lying to say that I didn’t miss not being with my family on Christmas – this was the first one I’ve missed. Last night, it occurred to me that I could videochat with them.

It was a novelty for my mom. When the video first opened, she got really close to the camera and said, “Hey, there you are! Can you see us? Can you hear us? I can’t hear you!” Cute It was nice to be able to at least chat with my family on Christmas Eve and see the delicious food they were making, even if I couldn’t eat it.

This morning, when they woke up, they gave me another call and I watched them open their presents. (They’re sending mine late since we weren’t going to be here for Christmas, so I didn’t get to open any with them.)

My mom and brother Michael deciding the best place to put the camera.

Mick opening a present, and my head turning sideways, because obviously if I tilt my head I can see the part that’s not on the screen… HA.

My littlest brother Anthony opening a present. I’m not sure what I’m doing with my hands.

Mick opening another present with my dad sitting next to him.

My sister Megan trying to make the ornament she bought for my mom work. It was the Griswold house from National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation and when it has batteries, it lights up and plays Hallelujah, Hallelujah… (you know the song I’m trying to describe right? I don’t know the name.)

Ant got an airsoft rifle, which he was thrilled about. I actually got him a skeleton face mask for when he goes to the airsoft place, but it was backordered, so he didn’t get it yet. Boo.

So thus ends my cyber Christmas with my family. Given that every body part of me aches right now and it takes all my effort just to get off the couch, it’s probably better that I just dialed them up on the computer instead of trying to fly out to California.

Next year though.

Milspouse Secret Santa & the Ornament Swap

Yesterday, I got my Secret Santa package from K at Our Navy Nest.

The first thing I pulled out of the box was a box of Apple Pie flavored dog treats, which Shecky instantly became obsessed with.

(Yes, that is Bones’ tongue. She was also very excited about the treats.)

So much that she went back to the package to see what else might be in there for her.

She didn’t really believe me when I said there was nothing else for her, but I managed to open the rest of the package without too much interference

I’m definitely going to be baking some Christmas cookies in the near future and experimenting with the egg mold. I’ve never used one before, but I’m intrigued And I love love love the maple candy! Thank you, K!

Today, I came home to another package on my porch — it was my ornament from Kendra at Uncork and Unwined!

She sent me two gorgeous ornaments from Germany, which I promptly put on my tree.

And… she sent me chocolate and assorted other goodies from Germany! So good. It’s probably for the best I don’t live in Germany, because I’d eat this stuff all the time. I took this picture right after I opened the box… but one of those candy bars may or may not have already been opened.

Thank you Kendra! I love my ornaments and the chocolate

It’s Christmas!

I don’t decorate the outside of my house because… well, I’m lazy. And I don’t like most of my neighbors and don’t want to give them any joy. Yeah, that’s sort of missing the spirit of the season isn’t it…

But here’s what the inside of my house looks like:

My sister made our stockings for us. Those teacher types can do anything with felt!

That bowl is full of Christmas tree peppermint nougats… it’s not anyone’s favorite candy, but it reminds me of my grandma because she always had them. Shecky keeps running off with them.

In a world where I didn’t have to worry about calories, this would be full of chocolate candy. But that world DNE, so it’s full of tinsel and ornaments.

They’re always infiltrated by the same guy…

My Christmas ornaments. Sisko’s head got cut off, which is sad because I like him. Picard is on the back of the tree because he’s a commie.

Chris brought her back from Spain for me She’s a little blurry, sorry.

And finally, our tree. I love our house right now

Christmas Ornament Swap!

I watched this swap hosted by The Mrs. happen last year and was sad that I didn’t participate so I’m hopping on it this year!

The low down: There’s a 10 dollar limit on the ornament. You can make it or buy it. You can toss in some Christmas cookies or baked goods if you want. You do not have to have a blog or be a milspouse to participate!

For more details and to find the sign up, check out Trying Our Best.

Christmas

We flew into LA on Christmas Eve morning and then came back to Augusta on Sunday afternoon — short trip, but we missed our puppy and Chris had to get back to work. Since we woke up at 0200 Christmas Eve morning (east coast time) and stayed up that night until about 2200 (west coast time), it was pretty much the longest day ever. You’d think that would mean that I would sleep in the next day, but I was up at 0500, watching TV and reading the newspaper with my dad until my mom and little brother work up at 0600. Chris very clearly stated that he was not awake and would not be awake for awhile. Traditionally, me and the three older kids have all opened our presents together, so I just watched while Ant opened his presents.

He got an XBox 360 and a couple different games, including Modern Warfare 2. I told him that Chris would probably play that with him and he immediately wanted to wake up Chris. Whoops… I got him to hold off for about an hour an a half at least. They played a lot over the weekend though. At one point, Ant told Chris that he’s starting to think of him as his “bro-sis” now. We will never be quite sure what that means but it’s probably a good thing coming from the kid who, when told that Chris was now his brother-in-law, said, “Yeah, IN-LAW. I don’t care about the law.”

I got my dad this Join or Die shirt from Ranger Up.

Mom got a Norman Rockwell Christmas ornament from Cracker Barrel — she gets an ornament every year.

Then by some magic, Mickey woke up!

And so did Chris!

Chris had a very Star Trek Christmas: Star Trek Uno, Star Trek Monopoly, Star Trek comic omnibus, and this Star Trek stocking that my crafty teacher-y sister made for him.

I had a very Russian Christmas: Russian vodka in a cool decorative Matrioshka bottle, Russian cook book, Matrioshka salt and pepper shakers, Matrioshka Christmas ornament, and a set of Russian/Soviet leader shot glasses (for shots of the Russian vodka, naturally). My younger brother and oldest sister went through the entire cookbook and made me pronounce things (anything с грибным соусом was a favorite). After I pronounced things, they would laugh and say, “OMG Carrot, you sound foreign!” My brother also started talking with a thick Russian accent and claiming that he speaks Russian.

My sister got Wii games –but not from me. I gave her a cookbook.

My brother got a leopard print Snuggie. I’m jealous… that thing is so warm!

There was a lot of food consumed (cookies, sandwiches, toffee, peanut butter balls, french toast, breakfast burritos, pan dulce, bagels, and more that I can’t even remember…) and on Sunday, as we were preparing to leave, my sister and family were sitting down to make tamales. If you haven’t ever made tamales, you can’t understand the amount of work that goes into those. We usually make them once a year in December and have enough to freeze to last awhile. They ended up making 24 dozen I think. My dad said when we used to make them at my grandma’s house, we would make 144 dozen O_o I spread masa on four or five hojas and then stole some of the meat for a burrito and left for the airport.

Oh, it should be noted that at some point on Sunday morning, Chris realized he hadn’t seen his keys since the day we got there. We searched all over my parents’ house and all over my sister’s house, but they were nowhere. We eventually just gave up, got a hotel room in Atlanta for the night, and called a locksmith in the morning to make a new key for Chris’s car. And of course, my mom found the keys the night we left.

It’s nice to be back home though. Bones was staying with some of Chris’s friends, who were happy to have her but probably just as happy to give her back. Now we’re just relaxing… Chris worked today, but has the rest of the week off. Our only goal is to finally go to Cracker Barrel and get two rocking chairs. Oh, and go to Sticky Fingers on my birthday for a free half rack of ribs.

Dog Sitters and Lost Keys

Last night was Chris’s Command Christmas Party. We had one of Chris’s friends volunteer to come watch Bones for us while we were gone so she wouldn’t have to be in a crate for the whole time in return for a Papa John’s pizza. Good trade. His friend really loves Bones. So much that the first time he came over, when Bones was nervous and didn’t want to play with him, he low crawled across the grass in his NWUs very slowly until he was right next to her and she let him pet her. That is dedication.

The Command Christmas Party was theoretically a half hour drive from our house, but Google Maps lied about where it was located — it left us on top of a grassy hill with no party in sight. Some guy saw us and told us where we were supposed to be, which was helpful until we realized that when Chris had gotten out of the car to talk to the other Navy person with the GPS we were following, he had somehow lost my car keys. On a grassy hill in the dark. The other person backed up and flashed her headlights and we all searched until we found them, then proceeded to the party, where I won a $25 gift card to Cracker Barrel. I’m pretty sure that I appreciated that prize more than anyone else at the party would have. We went there for breakfast this morning I also met the wife of one of Chris’s friends, who is from Latvia and doesn’t have a job here yet. I think we might hang out sometime and speak Russian. I hope so, because я подзабыла русский язык.

Chris’s CO came up and introduced himself. He told me I look very smart because of my glasses and that I must be smart if I was at MIIS. He told me to call him Mike. Not so much… that goes against every instinct within me. Captain. Sir. Not Mike. He also told Chris that he was very sharply dressed and should probably become an officer.

Then the CMC came up and looked at both of us and said, “Introduce yourselves.” I had no idea who he was and neither did Chris (they just had a change of command ceremony and he hadn’t met the new guy yet). I said, “Uhh, I’m Sespi.” And Chris said, “I’m CTI1 Chris.” and then the guy looked at both of us and said, “Do you have any idea who I am?” No. No, Master Chief, we did not. Then he just laughed and said something like, “Nice to meet you. I’ll see you around.”

It was weird being around the Navy people and having people assume that I wouldn’t understand Navy slang or what happens in the Navy. It felt a little condescending to have people talk to Chris and then look at me and say, “Oh, should we tell you what a ‘khaki’ is?” but I wasn’t about to say, “Actually I was going to be one, but I DORd.” So I just had to go with it. *Sigh* I need to get into the Reserves. Soon.

CHRISTMAS!

I LOVE Christmas!

(It’s true, I do)

I think our tree needs some more popcorn… I’ll have to string some more. It looks nice when the lights are on though… and when we first plug it in one of the seven thousand Star Trek ornaments says, “I wish you a most honorable holiday.”

This is the ornament I bought for us in Newport. Cute, no?

Cookies for the Command’s Christmas party for kids. I had nothing else to do and I wanted to play with cookie cutters and this is what resulted… they’re sugar cookies frosted with vanilla frosting and sprinkled with crushed up candy canes. I wasn’t sure how they would taste, but figured that kids would eat anything with sugar. They were by far the favorite cookie, which is possibly because they were the only homemade ones. One of the dads told me he ate about 6 of them

I love Nutcrackers and I love Navy. Put them together and you get these:

(Target for $12.99! They have all the branches… I want to buy the Army guy in ACUs too, or at least the Uncle Sam one so I can have a balanced set by my fireplace.)

(One of these things does not belong here, one of these things is not the same…)

So far this week, there’s been the Christmas festival on base and the Kid’s Christmas party. Still to come is the boat parade and Christmas Tree lighting ceremony downtown this weekend!