Christmas and Beyond
January 13, 2008 8:40 AM

I have sat down so many times to do this and something triggers the girls to start climbing on me and suddenly need something. Maybe it’s the sound of the keyboard, sort of like when the phone rings and suddenly everybody needs your attention …

But right now it is peaceful in our house. Everybody is still sleeping. It is just me and my cup of coffee.

Way back to Christmas— It was really nice. The house was a bit crowded, but I love having a full house. Kendra was ecstatic when she woke up and Santa had come. He brought her a basketball hoop this year.

Juliana on the other hand was not so thrilled about the thought that Santa had been in her house. She is terrified of Santa. Santa brought her a new Dora bike. She wants nothing to do with it still. She is perfectly happy riding her old Princess bike, which she is really too big for. Juliana also received some new puzzles and a whole new set of Signing Time DVD’s. (We LOVE Signing Time if anyone is interested in awesome educational DVD’s.)

Gregory and Kaitlyn were able to spend a couple of weeks with us. It went by so fast. I am already looking forward to when they get to come again. They are such awesome young adults. One of my favorite parts of their visit was when I was able to spend time away from the house with just them. We went shopping and to dinner, just the three of us. It is really nice to have conversations that do not include “Hannah Montana” or “Dora.”

My parents were also here for a few days. My mom was not going to be able to get away from work, so she was a bit upset that my dad was going to get to be here. She called me on her way home from work the night before my dad was leaving and told me that for her Christmas gift, her boss gave her time off to come down and be with us. We realized while they were here that this is the first Christmas that we have spent together since Kendra was an infant.

The girls returned to school on Jan 8. That was long awaited by all of us. Kendra was really missing her friends and her teacher. Juliana started a new school when she returned. She will be finishing out the year there and then returning to our local school next year.

She has only been able to go one day so far. We are still fighting with this surgical site. She still has a bit of pus coming from it. As soon as this heals up and she gets back to school the remainder of the year will be just a regular year of childhood for her. She is taking the rest of the year off from any surgeries.

Thom will be leaving for deployment in a few months. This is supposed to be our very last deployment. He will rotate back to shore duty before his squadron deploys again. And then he will retire from shore duty. That is so scary to be thinking about retirement already. The Navy is the only lifestyle that I have known in my adult life. I am not in any way ready to leave the comforts of the Navy and return to civilian life.

I guess I better wrap this up. Kendra is awake now and I am sure it won’t be long before all of the peacefulness is over.

—Tami