Merry Christmas

I know Christmas was on the 25th but in our world it was today...we waited until LilBlue was here, she arrived, FINALLY, after a delay getting out of Dallas and after stopping to eat Mexican on our way back to Shreveport last night but we finally had our girl at home with us!

The BUD came out wearing his new long 

johns from Uncle G!

This morning we did stockings, then had a great leisurely morning of opening gifts, eating, more gifts, more eating, more gifts, movies, snacking (which is eating if you are wondering), more gifts and playing with new gifts. If was awesome, we laughed, we nearly cried, we ate too much, we laughed some more and then went to bed so we could have another big day together! We are thrilled to be together again, ALL of us and life is good!

Stockings were a big hit, lots of NEAT things!

 Uncle G is surprised with a new coffee machine!

MiB really gets surprised with a new goof board!

 Lil Blue helped with the handing out gifts on the second go round!

We had so much fun playing with MiBs goof board, there is also some GREAT video floating around on FaceBook. They also did multiple riders at one time, personally I am just very, I mean VERY thankful we did NOT end up in the ER. I was soooo thinking this would not end good, but again, thankfully, we did not make an ER trip! Whew, course there is always tomorrow!

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas! We are so thrilled we were all together and have enjoyed every minute and know our time is so short we are trying to pack a lot in and so far so good!

Thursday Thoughts!

This time next week all the wrapping will be ripped off, the turkey and ham will have lost it's appeal and we will be thinking more seriously about fighting off the holiday pounds that have crept on. Maybe this isn't true for you but for most it is.

This week has been full and fun. I am glad that we are receiving our first house guest tomorrow and then LilBlue will arrive soon too! That is what I am looking forward to most. I hope I continue to live in the season, to really enjoy the season, to continue to believe in the season, to not ever take for granted how very fortunate I am and to not ever lose sight of the real Reason for the Season...

My Thursday Thoughts this week:

•  I want less...
• I am so not creative
• I am sooo not a shopper.
• I do not receive or give well...
• I so enjoy the neighborhood WW.

PAR-TAY

The Barksdale ESG gathered this week for a great time of fun, food and fellowship. There was also a little cookie exchanging going on along with an ornament gift exchange (you know that kind you draw a number then pick a gift and it can be stolen three times then it's frozen type thing).

We enjoyed the evening with lots of talking, eating and a little business. We elected a new President, and a new Vice President. At this point in time we have a full slate of officers. It will most likely be short lived but we are enjoying the moment. I am not usually one to be involved in the basewide spouse group, I'm more of a group or squadron girl; however, it is necessary and needed so here I am doing my best...

 

 Conducting a little business!

 More business talk going on...

 Ornament Exchange

Baking, baking, baking!

It was a productive day. There are many, many mini loaves of pumpkin, cranberry bread ready to be iced and delivered. This evening I will take some to my gathering, then others will go as needed and some will be shared with neighbors. It was fun to make the mini loaves and the icing was a new thing for me but we had gotten bread with a "schmear" of cream cheese icing and I thought it was divine, so I did cinnamon cream cheese layer in mine. Oh MY, talk about a bit of heaven, oh yes!

 I mixed up two full batches!

The cranberries were actually a last minute spontaneous add...

AND they were quite delightful, they were a nice little tart burst in 

amongst the cinnamony pumpkiny goodness :)

 First batch...

They are all now baked and cooled and the first batch goes out tonight to be delivered. I put that layer of filling in these and thought I was going to eat all of them, oh heavenly days I love me some pumpkin bread and cream cheese anything!

Ready to go :)

Decorations...

Everyone that decorates for Christmas seems to have "special stuff"  We are no different. There are some things that make me smile...

 The Precious Moments Tree

 Our first PM ornament :)

 

 

 The centerpiece on the BIG table, I love it!

And of course at our house decorating for Christmas ALWAYS includes snowmen...LOTS of snowmen, I love snowmen. Some are squishy, soft and cute, while others are just rotund with a great look to them. They are all fun to look at and I enjoy displaying them throughout our home. They are special in that they will stay out even after the Christmas decorations are put away, in fact they stay out continuously til early February when the Valentine's decor is brought out.

 Some of my favorite snowmen...ah, heck, who am I kidding, I really don't have favorites I LOVE THEM ALL~

Have a great night, I think we are home, first time in I can't even tell you how many days. Tomorrow I have an evening event, then we are entertaining on Wednesday, I think we may be home on Thursday but I could be wrong, since my calendar is not in view, but I hope it's another home night for us, I am ready for several of those! And that is going to happen soon, very soon, WOOHOO!

Party Marathon!

Holy Moly it was the great party attendance marathon to match all others! We hit seven parties tonight and had a great time at each event. It was a touch and go all over the city and we shook many hands, gave out lots of hugs and holiday wishes, many of which were MERRY CHRISTMAS! We were honestly ready when we arrived at the last one and the name tags came off!

Believe it or not and ima not saying this in the complaining way but it is work to do this...I mean I really am not the outgoing person most of you think I am. I am the one who'd rather be the wall flower that no one notices; I have had to learn to embrace this smiling, howyadoin thing, it does not come naturally. I do think there are some people it does come more easily for then others, but maybe I have that all wrong... So why do I do it? Cause I know what it's like to be on the other side, I have been the only other spouse there and it's always made me feel so much better when there is another spouse around no matter. I am most certainly what I call in tune to "the new girl" or the one who needs to be encouraged a little to join in, and the inclusive attitude. Now, I do not always get it right, it's easy to see those you have already met and immediately be drawn to them, but we always try to make sure we find new ones and get around to the ones we have not met! AND trust me, it's OKAY, really okay, to come up to me and say hey, I say you at XYZ, or we met at ABC, how are you or anything else, cause I do try to remember you and your name but sometimes it can be great for you to approach me and remind me we met and usually I remember you and the encounter, but sometimes, I am sorry I do not... but trust me it is nothing to take personal, it's just we see and meet A LOT of you and we love to do that but we do forget some names and faces, it just happens.

So if you really do know me and you think I make it look easy (and I appreciate that you tell me that, really I do) but it's not easy no matter how I make it look!

No to share several photos from the Party Marathon with you!

 MiB with a DEFENDER and Red Sox fan (this was for RocketBoy from 3DD)

 Not the best shot but this ELF was hilarious at the BS gathering...

As we headed on over to party #4 we were still going full steam and ready to meet and greet maintainers, we were not really prepared for this crowd. They really party...

The winning play-doh sculpture...

  The losing Commander's hair cut!

This group had quite the evening of entertainment and games on tap. They had a competition to see which tables would eat first, then before the evening was over they raised money to "MoHawk" the Commander's hair. What a good sport, I saw him the next day and he had it fixed into an acceptable military cut but was sporting a hat :)

 

MiB w/ Lt Newcomer LOL

The funniest thing that happened at this event was while we were standing near the door getting ready to take our leave and a young man engaged us and continued to tell us how much he enjoyed the casino and that he often visited to play poker and how good the help was, etc, etc, etc and I whisper to MiB, "he thinks we work here" MiB says no he doesn't I said, uh huh and about 8 minutes later while he is still singing accolades of the place and telling us waaaay more then we should/wanted to know MiB finally gets it that in fact he does think we work here and let's him know we do not and we are from the Wing. He felt pretty silly, but he said I saw you were wearing name tags and just assumed you were the managers! LOL THAT WAS PRICELISS...

Me with the ROACH who thinks we are managers! 

Me with the EXTREMELY TALL emcee. 

This is TINY, LOL! He was a hoot, I walk up to him and look like a total midget, and say wow, you are pretty tall, he dead pans and says, yeah and you are incredibly short :) It was priceless, but I did go on to say I was vertically challenged, and he said yeah, so am I. He was hilarious!

From one maintainer event to another and sadly no pictures from the second one, don't know how that happened...but there was some happening stuff going on to say the least and shake weights, hoola hoops and marshmallows were involved and that's all I have to say about that! 

Finally home and over to the neighborhood gathering, which I so thankful for because there was a lot of yummy food. We were starving as we had not eaten all evening, but we did leave the house at 5:20 with a bowl of soup in our bellies, but at 9:44 we were ready for some party food and party food we did consume! The spread was phenomenal...was to go Maj GM!

I had to take a picture of these shoes for SS, she would have thought they were AWESOME :)

MoHawk Commander eventually stopped by this gathering as well!

Night all hope you had a great Friday night, we did and tomorrow is a brand new day :D

Thursday Thoughts!

I am getting sooooo excited for LilBlue's arrival and it still seems soooooo far away, I hope I can make it til then! Life this week has just been plain full. Full of GOOD things but full nonetheless and I am looking forward to MiBs return.

Since I had a full calendar this week, I did not get to accompany him on this latest trip. I am sad and I miss him and I am ready for him to be home. We have a graduation this evening so he will get in, change into his Mess Dress and we will take off for that. Then home again to rest up for the weekend which is jammed pack with Christmas parties and then more Christmas parties on top of that! I think we have 6 to stop in at tomorrow! Can you say marathon touch and go? LOL I am going to try to take pictures this weekend of all our partygoing! Last weekend I did not carry a purse to most of the events so I did not have my phone available to snap any shots. The few I did have are from MiBs phone so at least I had something!

That's it, that's all I got that can go public...life is good, we are still livin' the dream and I'm going to get out the door to finish some errands before MiB arrives back home! Be safe and hope you are enjoying and NOT stressing over Christmas. I have said it before and I will say it again, it ain't about what is or is not under that darn tree, breath and take in the true meaning of the season... It truly hurts my heart to know that people are going deeper into debt, spending what they do not have to do something that is so not going to REALLY matter in the coming years.

SO my thoughts today are...

• Love me some homemade soup!
• I am ready for a sunny vacation!
• Is is time to look at the next chapter?
• And, what will retirement look like???

Dropping In...

Tonight we dropped in on two Christmas parties, one waaaay south of town here, which looked like a pretty neat place, though not very well lit and a bit hard to find since it is off the main road and down around the corner. But we did find it and then did some well wishing to the legal folks who were having a fine time and about to enjoy what appeared to be a fine evening. I think it is a place MiB and I might like to return to and try out for ourselves, they seem to have a nice menu with several different options that sound pretty nice!

Then we headed back to the base and hit the second party of the night, made the rounds and visited with some awesome Airmen along the way. The funniest thing we encountered were the USGs. What are USGs you say? Glad you ask, they are the Ugly Sweater Guys! LOL They were a hoot.

 USGs

And I give them HUGE props for coming up with a great silly idea to peg the night's fun meter!I mean these gatherings are what you make of them and the fact that they took the initiative to make it a little more jolly was exceptional! Kudos to you USGs!!!!

Not only did you have the USGs, you have folks VERY dressed for the evening, I mean, we saw what was almost the equivalent to a tuxedo, seriously, there were also some really spiffy suits, some with suspenders and others with vest. The ladies were not being shown up as they had some knock out wear too! Cute dresses, holiday sparkly sweaters and some very nice jackets! It was a also a night for some tie wearing and there were reindeer, snowmen, jazzy Christmas patterns and some traditional ones too. Then you had this, well, I'm not even sure I can come up words to adequately describe it so I will add the other picture here...

 ???

Yep, I think we have one of the elves, and well, I'm not really sure who the other guy is or what I can call him...he leaves me speechless. LOL 

Goodnight! Hope you get to go to a Christmas gathering this year and that you look forward to it and that you have a grand time. I personally think they are a lot of fun and we enjoy going to all these around the Wing. We get to see lots of different gatherings that have had a lot of work put into them and for the most part there are some pretty neat ideas we see too, it's amazing what they come up with. I think most are having a really good time! I wish I had some of their energy, enthusiasm and creativity!

Food for CHRISTmas thought...

I recently ran across THIS blog...I think it is a MOST worthy read.

However, you may need to put on your big girl or boy pants as it might make you bristle. As for me I didn't  have any issues with it, after all, we were and still are some of those people who just don't and never have really BOUGHT into the materialistic side of CHRISTMAS.

In fact our kid is one of those who did not have the Santa experience and so far she has not been in therapy for it and we feel she is going to turn out all right! We told her he was just a fat silly Christmas clown. She also gets three gifts and she knows why.

We try to keep the main focus on the real thing. Just our way, it's not for everyone, we know it and we are okay with those who hold to other beliefs. But I still felt like sharing.

So I did, again, my blog, my thoughts...

Cookie Day!

Today is one of the FUN days! We collect cookies (preferably homemade) all across base for our dorm dwellers. Not only do the base folks give us lots of cookies we also get lots of cookies from the local community as well. In fact there were some really BIG donors that really helped us give to ALL our Airmen in the dorms!  Thanks so very much Barksdale community!!!!

We started with the packaging, a dozen cookies per plate please!

 Double Ks filling the plates!

 MiB filled plates with us, too!

 Lots of DIAMONDS there to help!

After the plates were filled they were taken to the baggers. We had a great group doing this and things went very smoothly. The baggers were busy that is for sure!

My neighbor and Ms MAC busy packing!

After the baggers bagged, then there was counting and sorting. Then came the delivering. That was the real treat. A contingent of myself, MiB, Chappy, KF and a few DIAMONDS and some dorm management personnel. It was a bit chilly here today which was perfect since we wanted to be in the Christmas spirit as we delivered the goods. However, I will tell you by the time we were done my feet WERE COLD. I was glad to get back in the heat to warm up! Anyway, some of the Airmen were in their rooms when we delivered and the cookies brought smiles to their faces. Others will return home to find them in their rooms! It was a fun day, one of those type of days you really feel good about! I like that, I liked today.

 Delivery Crew :)

Weekend Wrap Up!

The holiday season has kicked off! Started on Friday morning w/decorating for the BIG Wing WinterWonderland! Lots of pine cones, trees, branches, snowflakes and tea lights, it looked fab. Why I did not take a picture I do not know! Oh well. Some pictures from the event I do have!

 The newest STAR!

 The Munsy Neighbors

 Kentuckians!

On Saturday we started early on with an afternoon of Civic Leader socializing; then onto not one but two squadron Christmas parties before returning to the 'hood for the local wine tasting. Yeah, I have no pics of that either but the wine MiB and I picked out at World Market LOST! LOL that was classic. It was a pinot grigio tasting, we don't even drink white wine, we picked it out solely based on the picture on the label. I don't recommend that method cause obviously it lost :/ But the label DID have a cool picture of a horse on it!

The tree was really pretty!

 There were these SUPER CUTE little edible penguins!

 MiB helps out one of FLOGS wind blown flamingos get its hat back on!

Sunday we stayed pretty close to homes since it rained and rained and then rained some more. Though MiB did some work on the Christmas lights and we made a town run and stopped at the commissary as well!

 

But amongst the raining, the garage was dry so MiB spent some time in the garage starting on his new project...this I'm sure will make many future blog post...it's going to be a learning adventure and I can't wait to see how it all plays out...so stay tuned for that!

In due time something that will glide on H2O will come forth from our garage...

And amongst all this fun I made over 200 treat bags of various treats for the Airman Cookie Drive tomorrow. Cause ya know I just don't really do cookies...so treats it is, lemon squares, muddie buddies and smore's mix. All yummy stuff that will be devoured by our Airmen in the dorms!

Hope you had a great weekend! We were busy but life is good :)

Thankful for holiday decorations!

It may seem silly, but I am thankful for our holiday decorations. They are not designer, the are not all matchy, matchy, but they are ours, some are faded, some have had to be glued, some might even qualify as ugly...but they are all special in some way and they have great stories or memories to them.

 What to do with all this great stuff!

It's such a treat to bring out the boxes and boxes of our holiday decorations, to reminisce about when we got what and where, and how and why. It's so much fun, it's usually more fun with LilBlue around as she remembers things in such a way that always amazes us. But this year MiB is helping with the decorating, which is not usually the case. It's usually LilBlue and I or just me the last couple of years. Since LilBlue is not here to help it is a bit sad. But it's all part of the process of life. We are enjoying the memories of her anyways!

I have a few items on a list to look for to help complete the holiday decorating scheme. We have weeded out a few things this year, couple things were broken from this latest move and some things, well they are just too tired to use anymore. And as tired as they may be they cannot be gotten rid of, not just yet anyway maybe in another year or two but not this one!

The snowmen waiting to be placed!

In the dining room I am trying to have the blues and silvers of our decor and in the family room area the greens and reds. Most of the snowman things are going to end up in the entry and then there will be  the nativities scattered throughout. It's hopefully all going to come together. Right now we are taking a break to watch a little football after having had lunch. Holiday decorating takes time you know, you can't rush it!

 Ummm, yes, MiB was taking pictures! I was unaware...

So the fact that today's post has pictures at all is courtesy of MiB, thanks honey, you know pictures always make a post better in my book, even if the pictures aren't that great...LOL