We just came off one of the busiest (and funnest!) (and bittersweet…) weeks we’ve ever had here. It started with inviting a favorite neighbor couple for dinner, which was fun because the house was clean and decorated and WE HAD LOBSTER! What a great evening, including yummy hot buttered rum. They are wonderful people, and of course I didn’t get a single photo. (I was, uhm, busy).
Then, two days later, Helen came to visit for a couple of days and that was a BLAST. Again with the hot buttered rum (plus additional yummy adult beverages) and gift exchanges. We also did a little baking. I made banana nut bread (it’s my wonderful recipe with cream and egg whites) and she made a cinnamon sour cream swirl bread. (It’s a pretty fun kitchen to do this with lots of counter space and two ovens!)
ALL of this bread is now GONE. Yep, GONE. We made all of this last week! I only had a total of three slices. That’s OK.
Throughout all of this, I knew that Nate had not yet returned from his “underway” that was supposed to be the full month of November, but was encroaching well into December. The evening of the day that Helen arrived, Nate texted me and said, “I’m back! Can we come this weekend and celebrate Christmas?” I remember staring at that text with wide eyes. I had known that we would be getting together to celebrate at some point before Christmas because of Nate’s limited Leave, but I was not prepared for the upcoming weekend! I had a mountain of boxes in our bedroom piled high that still needed to be wrapped. (In fact, I had barely finished my shopping and I’d been feeling pretty smug that I was so on top of it!) I had nothing planned for any meals to celebrate the “holiday.” Helen was visiting for two days and leaving Thursday, and the kids wanted to come Friday evening! Finally, I texted back, “Could you guys come maybe Monday & Tuesday of next week, since you’ll both be on Leave?” Apparently that wasn’t going to work for them, plus at least Nate had to report back to work mid-week. So we decided they would come Saturday afternoon and head home Monday. Whew! That worked out pretty well, but both John and I were pedal-to-the-metal, especially wrapping all day long on Friday. I’ve been having pain in my right hip after standing for any length of time (cooking is killer on it, as is marathon Christmas wrapping) so I had to take frequent breaks. Thankfully brief breaks, as the pain would subside within about five minutes and I’d be able to get back to it again, for a little while until it was time to sit. Ugh. I was so thankful that John really pitched in and helped in a major way. (And he’s had a wild couple of weeks, basically GONE every day either at the Hydroplane Museum or at his mom’s trailer replacing the flooring). The most wonderful aspect of his help was stopping at the store on his way back from somewhere and picking up Dungeness crab (plus hot buttered rum mix and a big bottle of rum!) I had plenty of snacky stuff on hand from Helen’s visit, plus banana nut bread! Plus, I also had steaks for our 2nd meal from Butcher Box, so aside from tidying up, changing guest bedroom sheets, etc., we were ready to go. Yeah, the floors could have stood another cleaning, but meh.
The night before the kids came, they went to Sandra’s Command Christmas party, which looked like a lot of fun!
It included ice skating! What a cool contraption for young kids to keep them from falling on their faces!
Here he is on his own!
CRAB!! (I forgot to take a “before” picture…)
So, the bittersweet? (Besides the fact that Christmas is now OVER and I keep forgetting that it isn’t for virtually everybody else…) Well, this will be the last time I see Nate for nine whole months. He leaves the end of the month on deployment. (Nope, not January).
In other news, John got his new truck! I haven’t had a chance to ride in it yet! And all it’s been doing is pouring down rain so it’s already dirty, having to traverse the muddy pot-holed road before getting to our road!
Woohoo!! I’m looking forward to a ride. It’s a small truck compared to his old one, but he no longer needs a big truck. Eventually (once they’re available) he’ll get a matching canopy. And it has a BUNCH of bells and whistles, that he had no idea it came with!
