It's the most wonderful time of the Year...Christmas!!!

It's that time of year again. All the excitment builds up and everyone is ready to go home and visit family and friends. At least I was. It all started out not so good. We were supposed to leave on the 23rd but my car was not wanting to make the trip. On Monday the 22 my car broke, the exact same part that broke last year the exact same time! Well the first thing I did was of course panic and cry because I didn't know if I was going to make it home or not. It was after 5:00 and EVERYTHING was closed. I talked to my parents about all the possibilties, dad coming and getting us, flying, renting a car. But for some reason I thought it would be best to wait til Tuesday and see about getting it fixed. So first thing that morning Aaron and I got up and I called this small local car repair place right off post and told the lady I needed my car fixed because I just wanted to go home and see my family for the holidays. She was so nice and told me to get up there and they would take a look at it. So we jumped in the car and headed off. As soon as we got there her husband (the owner) took a look walked to the back of the shop and made a phone call. She came out only to tell us that it was defintely the part I thought it was and there was a new part but it was in Lake Charles and wouldn't be in until the next day (Christmas Eve) and they were going to be closed. See this is where you think it gets worse but it's the opposite! She said her husband said he wanted us to go home to see our family and that he would come back early the next morning when the part arrived and put it in for us! BUT that's not all, he only charged us their price, nothing extra AND he kept our car over night so he could take the old part out and have the car ready to be repaired the next morning. I asked for a phone to call a cab and she wouldn't let me. She put us in her car and drove us to our house. And said I will be back first thing in the morning to get you and take you to your car! Needless to say she made me cry. I asked her if she was always helping people like this and she said her and her husband felt like this was the right thing to do. Their older daughter was gone, maybe on bad terms I don't know the whole story. But they wanted me to be home for the holidays just like their daughter should have been. The next morning she picked us up and I could not thank them enough! She hugged me and said tell your parents how much you love them when you see them. And that's something I will NEVER forget! This was truly a Christmas Miracle!!!

We finally made it home on the 24th! Just in time for good (haha) food and LOTS of presents! First we went to my grandma's house and had dinner and presents there then headed to my parents to open even more! I loved everything I got and I'm sure Aaron did too! We ended up staying up most of the night into the morning playing RockBand with Micah. She got so many things, mainly games, Wii, RockBand, Nintendo DS! Then Christmas Day we got up and had a nice huge breakfast and of course nice HUGE lunch to follow. So we spend a little time eating when we go home! Nothing like mom's cooking! Later that night we went to the movies, it was a fun family outing. The rest of the trip was filled with hanging out with family, shopping, eating, and playing with all our new toys! I don't want everyone to think I forgot about the Kimmel's. Last year we spent Christmas with them so we decided to go to Missouri this year. Next year I'm sure we will be back in Ohio. It seems like every year gets better and better. It's so different from being a kid. When you're younger you think of everything you are getting and how excited you are to open presents but now that I'm older I love watching my parents and everyone else open theirs. I had so much fun this year and I can't wait til next year! I'm so thankful for my family and miss them so much already!

Aaron & I. We got so much!!!


The Mom & Dad

The Girls


She got everything she asked for and more!!!

The Boy and their toys!

hmmm Leaving!?!?

Being in the military has its ups and downs. Moving to new places, seeing things you would never have before, meeting new people and making great friends. Those are the things I love about it. Although I haven't been all over the world yet and seen a lot, I have made some great friends. Monique and Adam! Adam just got out of the Air Force in December and is moving on to much better things! They moved to Idaho where he will be going to a school to fly helicopters and Monique will be getting a job with her degree somewhere amazing I'm sure. We had a lot of fun times here. Going on a cruise would be on the top of the list. We had so much fun and made so many great memories! Then there's the parties, 4th of July (yay both of our cars made it out ok :>) shopping, RockBand (at the tacp house of course) game nights which will be really sad not having Adam and Monique there enforcing all the rules! I will never play Taboo and not think of them. And the CrAzY trip to Lafayette---helicopter, train, hookah bars... We had so many fun times and I'm sure we will be seeing them, maybe on a cruise! I'm sad they moved away but I'm so happy for them!

Cruise to Mexico! Going away party...Adam did the Buffalo

Wild Wings Challenge Blazin...

This is the "real" Adam & Monique hair twirling and all!

Christmas Party!

This year the Christmas party was at Tunks in Alexandria. We had a lot of fun hanging out with friends and playing dirty santa. We got a movie and some kind of tool. It was "supposed" to be formal I guess you could say. Everyone looked very nice in there dresses/skirts and suits. Umm well some of the guys didn't have any so they made a trip to the store and got some fancy outfits!

Bartle, Collins, Lake & Cisco

Getting ready for Christmas

With only a few weeks to go Aaron and I decided to go to Shreveport to do some shopping and have some good food. haha that's hard to come by down here. We started out shopping close to Barksdale and ended up downtown with some of the guys and girl that he works with. We had a lot of fun and ended the night with a lot of craziness and caaa awwwing....haha! The next day was beautiful. We went down to the River Walk, had lunch and shopped some. After all that excitment we headed back to DeRidder where we went to the singing Christmas Tree. It was so cool. It was like 10 levels of people and the church was huge, we were on the 3rd balcony. The lights lit up and changed colors with the music. The next day we went to church on post and had lunch and went to get our Christmas tree. They give them away on post I believe they called it Trees for Troops! It was very nice and I love the smell. We got it stuffed in the car and went to the house to decorate! It was a lot of fun we watched Christmas movies, decorated the tree, hung the stockings (from the counter top) and put out the nativity scene.

Taa Daa!!!!

Bellydancing...WhAt?!?!?

OK SO I have been wanting to do some sort of exercise but I'm not sure what yet. One of the other Air Force wives, Laura asked me to go to a bellydancing class with her. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Of course I agreed. So I talked Jennie into going with me. We arrived at the gym a little early only to hear people inside screaming like they were in the worst kind of pain. Come to find out it was a lady I know who's boyfriend is a TACP at the other Air Force office on post teaching the class. She had invited me before but I didn't know if I could handle it. It looked very intense, but maybe I will give it a try. Should know it would be it's called Bootcamp! It was finally 6:00 and time for class to start and we had no idea what to expect. The first 45 minutes we got through fine, with only a few giggles. We did a warm up and started different dance moves, simple enough. It's when the running, jumping and spinning started that we decided maybe we should sneak out the back. But we decided to give it another chance. Half way through the class they took a break and the teacher told us that the class had been going on for a month and they were doing a show. And that we were more then welcome to stay and "dance along" but it might get a little more challenging for us. We gave it a shot and left after the first dance. It was like something you see in the movies. We were running, skipping, jumping, shaking things, it was crazy! AND the teacher gave us some of her skirts with jingles on them to wear! I was laughing so hard I could barely stand much less dance! Needless to say I think we are going to wait until the next one starts and go back at the beginning! Maybe we should stick with Salsa lessons!