Merry Christmas Eve

The day before Christmas Eve the hubbs and Chris took their 3 boys and went shooting. Leaving Becky and I home to bake till our hearts were content. We had a Christmas Eve dinner planned and decided to do our dessert baking the day before. 

Christmas Eve morning I helped out at the PX with Becky and our Battalion Commander and his wife with the Christmas wrapping. We didn't think it would be that busy but boy were we wrong there was so many people that came in to get their last minute Christmas gifts wrapped. By 1pm when our time was up we were both warn out. Thankfully I didn't have much to do to prepare the rest of my side dishes to take over to Becky's. I was able to relax and enjoy the day a bit with the hubbs. That evening we loaded up the car and headed around the corner. Thank goodness we both live on post. No drinking and driving people. Be the passenger and enjoy it. Totally kidding!!!! 

Absolutely love this girl, we had so much fun getting everything ready for our dinner. She way out did herself on the appetizers and yummy treats to enjoy while we waited on the turkey and ham to cook. The boys B'Sed and well were boys telling army stories and drinking beer. It was such a low key laid back evening. 

So blessed for another Christmas home together. Love this man to pieces. He's all I need wrapped under my tree. 

Finally dinner was done and ready to be served!!! Now that's a spread if I do say so myself. 

Of course I had to try a little bit of everything, Holiday meals are my favorite :) 

After dinner we decided to play a little domino's or as we call it Mexican train. We used to play all the time when I lived at home and haven't played since Hawaii. It was so much fun and a great way to let our food settle before diving right into the wonderful assortment of desserts we made. 

Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Peppermint Cheese Cake and Reese Fudge Brownies. If that doesn't make your mouth melt I'm really not sure what would. 

It was a great evening, I'm so blessed we've made such great friends here in the South. 

A "Me" Day!!!

                                                             I took a much needed me day to get somethings taken care of before the summer semester started. You see I've already got my vacation days for summer planned out, so that leaves me with nothing. Unfortunately our vacation days from the school year do not roll over to summer. Its a use it or loose it kinda thing. Well you don't really loose it you get paid for those hours you have left but its not your normal rate. ($7.50hr NO thank you) I started in January with 3 & 1/2 days of vacation (for the full year you get 7 days, I started half way through) and I've used my days very sparingly, only taking off when I needed to. I knew I'd be taking a lot off in the summer so I figured I'd save them if I could. The week before last I asked about how much time I had left, 11.25 hrs. not so shabby a day & half pretty much. I asked about them rolling over and that's when I found out it doesn't work that way.
I talked to the hubbs about it and we agreed if I could find a sub then I'd take the day off and get somethings done around the house. If I couldn't I just wouldn't worry about it and I'd get paid for the time I had left. Whelp I managed to find someone at the last minute for today (Friday) which worked out perfect because the hubbs had the day off as well. We've been so crazy busy this week that we have hardly spent any time together other than when we go to bed. lol
I woke up this morning to the hubbs cooking us breakfast, pancakes at that. Yummy, I was just planning on having a bowl of cereal but I'll take pancakes instead. We spend some time getting somethings picked up around the house and the back yard cleaned up. (it was much needed after all the rain we've gotten.) We ventured out to do a bit of shopping picking up a few things he needed for his class he is taking tomorrow. I finally used one of the gift cards I got my birthday and splurged on a new pair of TOMS. What can I say I'm a sucker for a new pair of shoes and I just can't say no to TOMS. Checking out a few other boutiques in the area I was able to pick up a little something for the Spouse and the hubby scored a new wallet. He's been on the search for one and we frankly he is kinda hard to please when it comes to that sorta things. Have you ever heard of the Mighty Wallet's they are pretty neat you should check them out. (The Mighty Wallets are made of a single folded sheet of strong micro fiber material that is tear & water resistant, super strong and last for a very long time. It doesn't have any stitching and is easily custom fitted. They offer many different collections as far as the theme you are wanting.) The store we got his from didn't have a big selection but he got one that fits him pretty well.

From there we went and grabbed a bite to eat at a new place to us. We are on this kick of trying new restaurants, kinda stepping out of our comfort zone. It turned out to be really good, we got in just in the nick of time to still partake in the lunch menu. We already had dinner plans to try a new place tonight so we wanted to eat light for lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon at home, the hubbs cleaned his guns and I worked on a few projects. Later in the evening we had dinner at a newly opened Italian place up the street called Pasta Fresca. They recently moved locations and had their grand opening this past Monday night. Let me just say we were told it was better than Olive Garden and the locals don't lie. They know there stuff and it was fabulous!!!!! We ended the evening at a house warming party with a soldier that the hubbs went to D SGT school with. H and her family just PCSed here and invited us for the evening. She is a hoot let me tell you, thankfully I'd met her twice before tonight so I knew what to expect. So far the weekend is off to a great start just, today was just what we needed to get thing under way and some much needed US time. This week has been so busy and we haven't had much time together, so I was grateful the hubbs had the day off.

This afternoon we also picked up the hubbs picture. Each Drill SGT has their picture displayed in the bay so the BCT's know who their Drill SGT is. Isn't he so handsome, I think so!!!! I'm starting to really dig the campaign hat. lol.

~DAY 218~