A Quiet Christmas with a New Tradition

I'd say the biggest disadvantage of being a military family, is being so far from other family at any given point.

Sure, we don't have to deal with the chaos, craziness, obnoxious relatives, loud relatives, politically incorrect relatives, racist relatives or any other combination you can think of.....but we also miss out on a whole lot of loving and living.

Since we are in a new location and just getting back on our feet financially, we stayed right here, by ourselves this year. Honestly, seeing how my husband is working on his week off...I really don't see how we will ever get a Christmas vacation while we are stationed here. Too many of his people want to throw fits and cause problems. He's constantly having to go in and put out fires. Right. Merry Christmas.

But hey, its not deployments.

Anyhow....we had a very quiet Christmas this year. And we actually had better weather than most of our other friends. It even snowed Christmas Eve in Texas...and not here. Hah! Not complaining about that!

I read on another blog how a family all got new PJ's every year for Christmas. Actually, mom made new pj's each year. Sounded like a cool idea so I tried my hand at it. I only made for daddy and MM. Songbird tells me the 23rd that she'd like some too. Uh, a little late kid. But it gave me the idea of starting this tradition for our family also. I was surprised that it went over so well.
Also from the craft room is the letters I modge-podged for MM's room.
Which matches her new bed set. Both girls wanted room make-overs when we moved here. I told them the answer is NO, or, yes, for Christmas as their large gift. They both chose yes, for Christmas. They picked out their sets and decorations so it wasn't a surpise gift...but it was what they wanted.
Songbird pretty much stuck to the same lime green, but added some new colors. Now her papa-san chair matches the rest of her stuff. She wants to finish it off with some purple accents of some kind. And MM is STILL ladybug crazy. Not a big surprise what she picked.

Christmas eve the girls get to pick one gift to open. This year Songbird picked out a pretty box...to find trouser socks inside! We laughed at her until we almost cried. Dad told her at least it can only look UP from there! (My child did all her caroling and Christmas parties in flats with no socks as she wouldn't wear hose under her pants and didn't know about trouser socks. Coming home one evening she took her shoes off and showed me her blisters. This was the point that I realized she didn't have or even know about trouser socks. And you know that "spend at least $10 and get $10 off from JCPenney? Yep, free trouser socks. And all her performances were over so they went under the tree.)
Grandma even sent the rat gifts this year. (Seriously.)
Gangsta dog. I mean rat.

MM enjoyed all her gifts. Its so fun to watch them at this age. Everything was the best gift ever! And a big thanks to anyone and everyone that supplied the consumables for her artistic fits. I can't keep this kid in paper, glue, tape, pens, markers, etc. She's a maniac.
She also likes to decorate her daddy.And this year, mom even got caught on camera.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their families. Although I do miss everyone, there is something to be said for a Christmas with no outside activities or responsibilities or travel.

See ya!