The Week of Sickness + Merry Christmas!

The week of 12/12 started pretty calm. I began to take Devin and Luke on night walks so that Devin would be distracted by the lights while he was getting E-Stim. The kids did get sick this week and the boys and I missed the Drill Team holiday party. Justin and I did dress up and go to the Honor Guard holiday party. It was a very nice evening - definitely the best squadron holiday party I have been to. There were gift bags for everyone and it was just a classy evening all around compared to the AMMO parties we attended in the past.

 It seemed like Justin worked all the time this week - both weekends and late usually. Then with the kids sick and Luke skipping school, the days became very long. Devin was hit the worst. He woke up with his eyes crusted shut for 4 or 5 days in a row and I eventually whipped out the humidifier to make the boys comfortable enough to sleep. Long story short - we all felt like crap for over 7 days. Luckily, my Christmas shopping was done and we were ok to do nothing for awhile.

                                                           

When Saturday the 17th rolled around, Luke was all better so I took him to his friend Lily's 3rd birthday party and left a still-sick Devin home with Justin. The party was a great time to visit with friends and Lukas had a blast jamming with Lily and Julia. We ended up saying goodbye to Julia and her mom Shannon the next week as they are visiting folks on the way to their new base. I am very sad to see them leave, but I know we'll be visiting them soon!

Justin's parents and sister came to visit on the 18th for a few days. It was a nice opportunity to celebrate the holidays and Justin's drill team graduation. Justin took them for a tour of the Pentagon and we went out to eat at Ray's Hell Burger (one of my favorite places here!). Luke's holiday party for preschool was on Tuesday during Mike and Debbie's visit. Luke made a tambourine, had snacks and came home with alot of loot. I was pretty surprised at how much stuff they actually put together for the kids. We gave Miss Mia and Miss Caitland (yes, there is a 'd' at the end) their gifts - a bracelet with an apple charm and a nice chocolate bar.
Later that night Justin and I were able to go out to celebrate our 6th anniversary. We grabbed some sushi at a great place in Arlington and some Cold Stone for dessert. Great way to finish off the evening ;)

On Friday the 23rd, the UPS man came by with a special surprise - the kettle bells, rings, and jump rope that Justin ordered. Of course he tried to say that he was getting these things for me, but I know who they were really for. Nevertheless, the kettle bells are alot of fun and easy to swing around. You hardly know you are getting a workout from the light one.

The 24th was our 6th anniversary and we exchanged gifts bright and early. Justin started off by saying that he had been working on my present all year long. As I looked at him dumbly, waiting for him to hand me something wrapped, he pulled up his shirt and made a goofy face. It took me a second to figure out he was talking about his body and all the work he'd done at the gym. I laughed, but after a moment decided that this was a great present and far surpassed my previous best-ever anniversary present from Justin (the infamous bookmark and caribener clips). Anyway, I then handed a stack of envelopes labelled from January to December with one preplanned date in each. We will open the corresponding month's envelope on the first of each month and pick out a night or day to spend together. They range from at-home dates, to concerts, to other surprises I can't talk about yet. Yes, I stole this idea from pinterest. Justin seemed to like this surprise :)

OH MY GOSH!!!

My parents drove down for their annual Christmas visit on Christmas Eve and we all exchanged gifts. The highlight of my night was the awesome KEURIG! It is a pretty awesome machine that got a great workout while my parents were here. I love popping in a k-cup and having a cup of coffee or tea ready in 30 seconds or less. I also got a Miranda Lambert CD - which was another very unexpected gift because Justin dislikes the idea of using my Amazon wish list and this was on it.

Beautiful and amazing.. the Keurig.

Mom got some Poppycock and K-Cups and Dad got his yearly Sudoku Page-a-day Calendar (aka his Anti-Alzheimer's medication). I even threw in an extra surprise of roasted pistachios this year. I know, daughter of the year. I gave Justin a 'Buck Furpees' shirt, which he loved.

The highlight of the year for the boys were the legos: 4 sets and a gigantic box of miscellaneous blocks. Luke sat for hours just putting things together and Justin has been pretty cute helping. It's nice that the boys are getting old enough to start doing stuff that Justin thinks is fun besides wrestling.

Justin & Luke putting together a mini-lego Mater.

Proudly showing off his building project.

Enjoying the eisel from Nana & Grandpa.

Dad stirring the wine-reduction sauce. YUMMY!!

 My favorite part of Christmas is the delicious dinner that we always have. Dad brought a wine-reduction sauce for the roast that a friend made him and it was excellent! I have enjoyed the sauce over leftovers on roast beef sandwiches. Crab legs were amazing as well, but I am not very good at getting the meat out of the shells. There was also a pecan pie that a friend made fresh for us that day that didn't make it past dinner. It was very very good.


I think if delicious had a picture next to it in the dictionary, this would be it.

 We spent Christmas day watching the Muppet's Christmas Carol and playing on the playground. The day after we all went out to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and took a driving tour of the city. Lunch was an excellent seared tuna salad followed by a piece of Hershey's cheesecake. It was a nice, relaxing trip with the folks and I was very sad to see them leave this morning :(



It's now the afternoon on Tuesday. The tree is down and I think we'll spend the rest of the week reflecting on 2011 and making plans for 2012.