Christmas is here! The festivities started on the 23rd when the base held a Christmas lunch for all active duty personnel and their families at the club. Kyle got the rest of the day off and started his Christmas vacation. We loved getting to start our Christmas fun early.
On Christmas Eve Yoko San came to watch the kids like she always does on Thursday mornings. Kyle and I went out to do some last minute Christmas shopping for the kids, and had a day date/lunch date at our favorite restaurant here, Phada's Thai food. Honestly it is the best Thai food we have ever had. We crave Phada's at least once a week but rarely indulge in that craving. Since it was Christmas Eve we thought that was a good enough excuse to enjoy some delicious Thai food kid free.
Later on we went to our friends, the Walters, for a fun Christmas Eve dinner and party. The kids were extra hyper due to all the excitement and extra holiday goodies they had been snacking on. We wish we could have stayed and socialized longer, but our super energetic kids were exhausting us so we decided to leave and calm them down before Santa came.
After putting on their Christmas jammies we all piled in the car and drove around base looking at Christmas lights. We tried to find Rudolph's nose in the sky, but had little luck as it was very cloudy. It was stories, cuddles, then off to bed for our cute little kiddos. As naughty as they can be, ultimately Santa loves them and has them on the nice list ;)
Christmas morning! The kids woke up early, but I don't think they knew what was going on. We remembered to actually video tape their Christmas morning this time. Once they came down the stairs and turned the corner the kids were greeted by lots of wrapped presents and a whole set of "Little People" toys. Overwhelmed is the word I would use to describe Abby's reaction, and confused for Connor's. Abby's favorite part was unwrapping the presents...everyone's presents. Every gift she unwrapped, whether it was for herself, Connor, Kyle, or myself, she would react the same saying, "oh my!" and get really excited. Oh the innocence of a child.
We decided to split Christmas in half and open half the presents, eat breakfast, then open the second half. This helped prolong the excitement and anticipation. We all received such great gifts and are reminded how blessed and spoiled we really are. The best gift we had was being together as a family to celebrate the birth of our Savior. Being in the military you never know when a deployment is lurking in the near future, so you just have to take advantage of all the times you are together for holidays and events.
This was our first Christmas not going to either my family's or Kyle's. We were a little sad that we couldn't be with our extended family, but also excited to start our own family traditions. It will be fun to see how these traditions grow and change as the kids get older and more aware of what's going on at Christmas time.
For Christmas dinner we invited all the single pilots in the Squadron over. 4 guys showed up and we had quite the feast prepared for them. Together we all enjoyed Turkey, Ham, potatoes, stuffing, jello, rolls, salad, and lots of pie and goodies. We relaxed, socialized and enjoyed each other's company on the best day of the whole year. When the guys got ready to leave they each thanked us for making their Christmas special. They said that it was like being home away from home this Christmas. I can't imagine being completely alone on Christmas day. No family, no spouse, no kids. We were so happy that we could include them in our holiday and Kyle and I both agree that it is a tradition we want to do every year. Whether it is a bunch of single guys from the squadron or missionaries from our church, we will make a tradition and effort of inviting and including them to our Christmas feast. It makes the season of giving have so much more meaning.
The next day we woke up to snow, not a lot but there it was. The long awaited snow finally came. We may not of had a white Christmas but we had a white December 26th. The whole day it continued to snow, and did not stop! We gained 8 inches that day and the snow continued into the night. And so it begins.
We took the kids out to play in the snow, and of course build a snowman, or build Olaf I should say. It was Connor's first time in the snow, and his reaction was hysterical. He looked like the boy off the movie "Christmas Story" that was all bundled up in his snow gear unable to move. After 15 minutes of being outside, cold, and having limited range of motion, he had had it. Abby on the other side loved being outside. She made a snowman with Kyle, went sledding down the tiniest hill with our neighbors, and tried to eat the snow.
It's not that I don't like the snow... ok, you caught me, I HATE the snow!!!! I don't like to be cold, and I hate all the effort that goes into it. Scraping your car, warming up your car, shoveling sidewalks, sprinkling salt on sidewalks so they don't ice over, etc., etc. It is pretty watching it fall, but once it hits the ground it becomes this ugly dangerous thing that you slip and fall on. Kyle calls me the snow scrooge, and I will wear that title proudly. I will go out and play with the kids in the snow, but I have a 10 minute time limit!
And so begins our first REAL winter experience here in Misawa. I cant believe we will have to endure this for the next 3 months, and then again for 2 more year! All I have to say is I have never missed Arizona as much as I do now. Just driving past the giant snow piles around the base where the snowplows have gathered up all the snow brings tears to my eyes. They will continue to get bigger and bigger as we go head first into this snowy wintery season.
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