Merry Christmas!

I hope Christmas day found you well and good. This was our first Christmas without my dad. It was hard, but still very good. We started new traditions and kept other favorites.

After our Christmas day activities...opening presents, making and eating breakfast, eating chocolates, playing games, reading the Christmas story, etc...we got ready for the day. This year we added an old favorite tradition with a twist. We had Christmas dinner with some family friends. But the twist was we did a progressive dinner. We started at my house and had appetizers. Then we went to their house and had the main course. Last, we went to my mom's house for dessert. It was so much fun. We had such good food and the company was great. I hope this remains a tradition.

So our first Christmas was successful. I hope yours was good also!

Christmas Homecoming

Today the soldiers of the 11th Signal Brigade returned home from Iraq. What an awesome Christmas present for their families! The military always does a lot of pomp and circumstance for any celebration and of course, this was no exception. The building where I work is next to the road that goes from the airfield to the field house where the soldiers would be reunited with their families. The people in my building who were working today were asked to stand along the road and wave flags, yellow ribbons, and "Welcome Home" signs as the soldiers were bused to the field house. However, as with anything in the military, everything is always late. We were asked to stand outside by 10:45. By 11:15 they still hadn't passed by. Everyone was getting pretty punchy by that time, so someone in the crowd decided to do some practice cheering for passersby. A man in a van got a great cheer as he drove down the road. He got so confused, he stopped in the middle of the road, then slowly inched forward. A construction worker got another great cheer. The garbage man....a Channel 4 News van (too bad they didn't have their cameras going)....a random city bus.... It was pretty funny. Finally we heard the police and firetruck sirens blazing. After a few minutes, they passed us, followed by 50 Harleys from the local Harley Davidson Club. Each of the motorcycles had large American Flags waving behind them. It was really impressive. Finally, the buses full of the soldiers passed by. We waved and shouted and waved our flags, ribbons, and signs. It was really fun and very emotional. I wish I knew about this before I came to work today so I could have brought my camera and took pictures of the impressive site.

Welcome home, heroes! And Merry Christmas!!

Strong winds and trash can lids are NOT good for the complexion

Today was trash day. I think my neighborhood is the first on the trash man's route, because he always comes around before 7:30am. It was about 7:10 and I heard the trash man in the next street over so I rushed outside to push the trashcan to the curb. It was really windy and stormy this morning, so I had to fight the elements as I hurried to get the trash out in time. Once I got it to the curb, a huge, strong gust of wind picked up the trash can lid and pushed it back quickly on the hinge. I was standing behind the trashcan at the time and SMACK ... the lid hit me square on the nose. OUCH! My eyes started watering, my nose ran. Luckily, it didn't break my nose, thank goodness!! It hit me right between the eyes on the bridge of my nose ... it swelled up pretty good and I had an immediate bruise. I put ice on it to take the swelling down, but I have to live with the bruise until it goes away on its own. So sad! If I put enough makeup on, I think I can pull off the I-got-a-little-dirt-on-my-face look. No one will even notice! :o)

Holiday Celebration and Baking Contests

Every year in the building where I work, they have this HUGE Holiday celebration. The day begins with carolers roaming the hallways singing songs of the season. Judges taste yummy morsels of cakes, cookies, candies, and pies to determine the best of each category. Judges also determine which office decorated their door and part of the hallway the best and most festive. There is an auditorium program where Santa comes and carolers sing and the winners are announced for the different contests. Then at 11am, each organization eats a potluck lunch together. These potlucks are set up in the hallways near the main doors of each organization. Then at noon, the masses can graze one another's tables and meet and mingle around the building for an hour. To give you perspective, the building where I work is HUGE! They say it is the biggest Army building in the world. Thousands of people work here. So when everyone is roaming the hallways...you get the picture.

So that was my day today. But it was a lot more than that too... First of all, I was one of the carolers singing in the hallway and in the auditorium. This group has been singing together for about five years now. Each year we sing for this Holiday Celebration. It's always fun to have the Commanding General get up and lead us in one of our most rowsing numbers. This year it was "Go Tell it on the Mountain", and the general even danced a little to our music. She is a really good sport. Every year people really seem to enjoy our songs. And we enjoy singing for them.

Second, I entered three of the baking contests....Cookies, Cakes, and Candy. This year, there was only one winner for each category. In years past, there was 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. I knew it would be harder competition this year, since it was winner take all in each category. I really wanted to enter the contest, but I couldn't decide which was my best baked goods, so I entered three of the categories. I am no good at making pies, so I didn't need to worry about that category. I've been baking all week in preparation for this contest. I couldn't decide which cookie was my favorite, so I made two kinds. Actually, a friend of mine and I were talking recently about chocolate chip cookies. He is on the hunt for the best recipe and I told him I think I found it. That conversation has been going through my brain, and I wanted to see if anyone else felt the same way about these cookies. So I decided to enter these chocolate chip cookies and also another favorite...Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Cherry cookies. I made a Buttermilk Marble cake for the cake contest. And very yummy and extremely easy Saltine Cracker Toffee for the candy contest. When I brought my stuff to the cafeteria where they had everything set up for the judging, I saw A LOT of cookies and cakes, but not very many candy selections. I thought my candy had a good shot. I also thought my cake would do well. I wasn't sure about the cookies because there was so many really tasty looking ones on the table. But I was hopeful.

So how did it go? Did I win anything? Yes I did! Tyler...I am not alone in claiming I found the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. That's right!! The chocolate chip cookies WON!!! Thanks Christy for that recipe!! You have an award winning cookie there!!

It would have been interesting to see how my other cookies, cake, and candy placed. But I know they are good, so I won't be bitter that a Rum Cake beat my Buttermilk Marble cake or some fudge beat out the most interesting combination of salty and sweet in my Saltine Cracker Toffee. I am just really excited that I am a baking contest winner! YAY!

Hello World!

Hello everyone! I haven't been very faithful at writing in my blog lately. I've just been trying to deal with everything that's happening plus with all the chaos that the holiday season brings. Thanksgiving was pretty good...different, but good. It was just my sisters and my mom. We had some good food, good cries, and good laughs. In the end, we overate but still enjoyed each other's company.

Now we are anticipating Christmas. My lights are hung around the outside of my house (and I mean around the whole house since you can see the back of the house from the main road), my tree is decorated, and I almost have all my other decorations up around my house. I really love this time of year. I listen to my favorite radio station, 94.9, that plays only Christmas music from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas day. There are some really fun songs on that station, some not so good songs, and some extremely beautiful ones too. It really is beginning to feel like Christmas. Yay!

Here are some random pictures of my Christmas decorations:

The snowmen on my piano

My collection of Santa's from around the world

My Christmas Tree

One of my many nativity scenes. This one was made by my home teacher.
The pieces are cut from one piece of wood so it's like a puzzle to put them back
together again when I put it away. The pieces fit nicely in the manger that's set up
behind the set. It's different, but I really like it.

I wanted to show you my outside lights too, but it's too cold to go outside to take pictures. This is the first night it's been cold, windy, and rainy, so I am not used to it yet. It's been relatively warm up until now. I like it when it gets cold! :o)

I'm an Aunt!

Yay! I have some good news to tell you! My sister-in-law had her baby this morning -- a little girl. Victoria Noelle (I think that's how to spell it). My brother called me this morning with the news. I was so excited about the baby that I didn't really listen to the weight and height. But I think he said she was 6'6" and 19" long.

UPDATE: Yes, I heard correctly. I got the height and weight right. :o)

I can't wait to meet my newest niece. That makes number seven -- four girls and three boys -- and all the kids are just so precious and darling. But I'm not biased or anything. :o)