Santa came to see us! And he brought lots of goodies! See the big one? It was from my sister. The label said it was for my stepdaughter. She opened the box to find another wrapped box and a small bag. The bag was for her, the box was for my other stepdaughter. So she opened that box and found ANOTHER box and a small bag. This kept going until we all had opened a box and had a small bag. Nine people all together with one last small box. (Which was for my aunt’s roommate’s granddaughter.) We all opened our bags together and found crocheted scarves in each person’s favorite color!! My sister had been working on this since the beginning of November. She’s brilliant.

Here are my other gifts!

Santa was very good to me this year! And so were all of my awesome family members. I think my favorite gifts would have to be the chocolate pearls from my husband, my waffle maker from my husband and stepdaughters, my scarf from my sister (obviously!!) and the cookbooks from my parents.

My stepdaughters had a good Christmas too. They were both so thrilled to have so many gifts to open! It was fun to watch them open their gifts!

It was a great day. The best part of my day was watching everyone else open their gifts. I love seeing their faces. I surprised my sweetheart with a US Marine Corps NCO Sword. He wanted one for retirement but I surprised him.

Also, my husband and I, my sister and my mom surprised my dad with a share of the Green Bay Packers. He has wanted that for a long time. He is so proud to be an Owner of the Green Bay Packers.

And here is my favorite picture of the day! My sister always does this. I love her!

Merry Christmas from my family to your’s! I pray you all have a wonderful day and remember that Jesus is the reason for the season!

Last year was incredibly hard on me. It was my first married Christmas and my husband was halfway around the world. I was extremely emotional. It wasn’t a very happy Christmas for me.

This year my wonderful husband is home! I am so thrilled for that. I’m happy that he’s home safe and that we get to spend the holidays together.

This Christmas is still going to be very difficult for me though. It will be the first Christmas without my grandparents. It will be so different. I have spent almost every Christmas in my life with my grandparents. I honestly don’t know how to have Christmas without them.

I really want to be happy for Christmas. My husband is home. We’ll have two of my stepdaughters here with us. And my aunt is coming down here for Christmas. I have so much to be happy about! But I’m also missing a huge part of my life.

Friday Friday Friday! I hope everyone has had a wonderful week and will have a wonderful weekend! I’ve got a busy day so I’ll keep this short! Enjoy!

1. If I could be on any reality TV show, I’d want to be on either American Idol or Big Brother. I know, huge difference. Oh well!

2. This past Thanksgiving was the first without my grandparents. It was hard, but we did ok.

3. I’m looking forward to December because I get to spend my first Christmas married with my husband. I’m so happy.

4. One thing I’d like to accomplish this month is actually get our apartment clean and keep it that way!

5. To me, winter is a magical time. I love the cold weather because you can snuggle with your loved ones. I love all the decorations for Christmas. It really is my favorite time of year!

I love Christmas movies. Heck, I love all things Christmas. I could watch Christmas movies all year round. The best part is that this time of year several channels have Christmas movie marathons! It’s like 24/7 Christmas movies!! It’s fantastic!!

I absolutely love the Santa Clause movies. All three of them! They are probably my absolute faves. I also love Polar Express. I used to read the book when I was little so when the movie came out, I was so happy!

I love How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Elf, Christmas with the Kranks, Miracle on 34th Street and of course It’s a Wonderful Life! You get the picture!

What are some of your favorite Christmas movies? Have you started watching them yet?

Have you seen this? This was a school computer project from the small Yupiq Eskimo village of Quinhagak, Alaska. It was intended for the villages in the area but has spread to over half a million people! Pretty impressive for a group of 5th graders!! Go check it out!!

Hallelujah Chorus

Source

It’s that time again! As always, please remember to check out the other amazing MilSpouses. (Click on the picture!)

1. The best part of October was the beautiful colors! I love getting to see the reds, yellows, and oranges of the fall trees! My Fave time of year!

2. The worst part of October was not being able to have people over. We are still unpacking and there’s not really room for us to entertain yet. We’re working on it though!

3. For Halloween, I’ll be myself. Hubby will be working and I’ll probably be home watching tv. If I was gonna go out though, I’d totally be Flo from the Progressive commercials!

4. I hope that in November I can get most of my Christmas shopping done! I like to get it done early so that I can actually enjoy the Christmas season.

5. Wifey has posted MilSpouse Secret Santa. I  will not be participating. Only because I have already signed up for a couple others. Maybe next year!

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A few days ago was the 5 month mark for my husband being deployed. It’s been a long 5 months. Each month seems to last longer than the one before. Especially this month! I wish I could fast forward. Thankfully in a few short weeks my sweetheart will be in my arms again! I am counting down the days.

Since he missed Thanksgiving, and he’s missing Christmas, we’re having Thanksgiving/Christmas/our one year anniversary/his birthday all in one weekend while he is here. I’m so excited about it! My family and I are all saving the big presents for then. So it’s gonna be awesome. My sister and I are also trying to plan a small get together for a few of Matthew’s friends. Oh, don’t worry. There will be lots of pictures! But I will not be online much at all while he’s here. Not to mention the rest of this week, for Christmas. And after Christmas my bestie is coming to see me (YAY!!!!) so I won’t be online. And I’m working at a wedding on New Year’s Eve. So……. It may be a while til you hear from me again! (besides the quick message) I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy Friday everyone! I’ve been anticipating this weekend for over a month now. We have tickets to go see the Nutcracker tomorrow night! YAY! Me, my sister and our parents are going. I’m so excited. However, tonight, our parents are taking us somewhere. We have no clue where! I will definitely be posting about it later though.

Well, here are this weeks questions and my answers! Enjoy!

1. What is the best gift you have ever received or given?

The best gift I’ve ever received. Last Christmas. It was just a few weeks before we got married. My amazing sweetheart gave me a “New Army Wife Kit” as he called it. It had the Army Wife handbook, (yes there really is one!) a map of our current post, several things about military life, and a hat, tshirt and lanyard that say “Army Wife”. It made me tear up. I loved it! So special.

2. Do you celebrate holidays differently when your loved one is deployed/gone or do you keep tradition?

This is our first married Christmas, but this will be our 3rd Christmas together as a couple. Last year Matthew and his youngest daughter joined my family for Christmas at my grandparents house. This year, we will be going to their house again. I’m hoping to be able to Skype with Matthew as we open our gifts.

3. If you celebrate Christmas, do you put an angel, star or something else on the top of your tree?

We have a star on the tree. When we were younger, my mom put a red bow on the tree. Thankfully she’s upgraded to a star. Much better.

4. What are your three favorite websites?

Oh wow. That changes quite often, honestly. But currently, it’s Military Significant Other Support (MSOS) which is a message forum for, you guessed it, Military significant others. Spouses, girlfriends, even families. It’s a great site. I have “met” some of the most amazing women on there. They are really helping me get through this deployment.

My next fave would have to be SITS (Secret is in The Sauce), which is a blogging support site. More like a sisterhood, or SITSah-hood. Hehe. They have featured bloggers, blogging tips, memes, giveaways, etc.

And my 3rd fave would have to be Facebook. I know, it’s everyone’s fave! But Facebook and Twitter are the main way I communicate with Matthew. That, to me, is priceless.

5. On your man do you prefer… boxers, briefs or boxer briefs? Or commando?

I really think that if I answered this question on my blog (which is also connected to my facebook!) my husband would KILL me! LOL! You’ll just have to keep guessing.

The tree is decorated, the stockings are hung. Christmas is coming soon! Are you ready? I know I am! I thought I would share some pictures of some of my favorite ornaments.

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This one is new. My sister and I painted pottery during our staycation and this is the ornament that I painted. I’m proud of it. The other side says “Christmas 2010″

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This is my absolute favorite ornament. Matthew gave it to me for Christmas in 2008, just a month after we started dating. If you can’t tell, it says “Our First Christmas Together 2008″.

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This picture is blurry, but I got this ornament at the Ryman Auditorium, during our staycation. It’s a lot prettier in person!

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I got this ornament on our family cruise in 2008. FYI: I love unique ornaments that have special meanings.

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I got this one this year, at the gift shop at the ICE exhibit at Opryland Hotel.

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This one is very special to me. My amazing sister gave it to me. I love it.

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I gave this one to Matthew for our first Christmas together.

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OK, so this isn’t technically an ornament, but I love my nativity scene. If you notice, it’s under the tree. We have done this for as long as I can remember. I asked my mom one year why we did. She didn’t know! But I decided that it’s because Jesus is the greatest gift of all.

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This is our tree all lit up. So pretty!

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of my Christmas decorations! I’d love to see what your’s look like!