Joyeux Noel!!

It's been a busy few days/weeks over here at Hagan House!! I feel like I haven't really had the chance to blog about the Christmas season due to classes ending, Reserves things, and just everyday hiccups that always pop up this time of year... So I thought I'd spend a little time this evening catching you all up...

Patrick remains deployed and we're able to talk at least once a week, but usually twice per week, plus emails in between. We are continuing our "Table Topics" game, where I send him a question every day and then we each answer it. Patrick normally takes a little longer to answer (he's pretty busy) but he's only two questions behind this week, which is pretty good! We're learning a lot about each other, and I am even peppering in questions relevant to the holidays we're not able to spend together. For instance, I learned that my husband was the Grim Reaper for Halloween as a little boy and that his favorite Thanksgiving food is a "toss-up between dressing and stuffing"! Boys....they don't know anything, do they?!?!

We've also been battling lots of leaks at HH!! First our kitchen window began to leak after our Nor'easter last month. Then I got a call that the same storm took out some skylights and ceiling plaster at our rental property. Then the kitchen window, previously declared perfectly sound by a contractor and determined only to need some siding tacked down, began leaking again. Then I decided that it wasn't cold weather, but rather a slow leak, that was deflating my right rear tire, since it was always the same tire and since I was filling the darn thing up every two weeks. So, our property manager is arranging repairs to the rental, the same contractor from last month came today and found that I did have a problem at my kitchen window (from a vent that wasn't sealed properly), and I took my barely six-month old car to a mechanic today for a tire patch (yep, they found a nail!). Hopefully nothing else starts leaking!!

Thankfully, I have a little bit of anal-retentiveness, so my Christmas shopping was done quite early this year, to include wrapping (if you've been following my Multitude Monday posts). I got our Christmas poem in the mail shortly after the first of the month, and I am just about caught up with the laundry! I managed to ship four boxes to Patrick for Christmas in time for the FPO/APO deadlines, loaded all the Christmas CDs into the stereo (in the car and the house), and got the decorations up in only two days! I finished the semester with two A's and knocked out four days of my 12-day Annual Training requirement for the Reserves; I'll do another week in early January. Slowly but surely I'm making deadlines and ticking things off my "to do" list for Nursing School requirements, as I know January 20th will be here before I know it! Yes, December has been a very busy month!!

Today, after I got all the leaks under control, I baked six dozen cookies which will be delivered to the ships' Quarterdecks at the Naval Base on Christmas Eve. Growing up in a Marine family, this was a tradition my parents started when my older brother and I were younger. Every year, just after Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, we'd bundle up and take a plate of cookies to the Marines at the Main Gate of whatever base at which Dad was stationed. Dad would declare, "Merry Christmas, Marines!" and we'd give them their cookies. It was such a nice gesture of gratitude for the men and women serving our country and away from their families during the holidays that I've incorporated it into my Christmas repertoire. The only difference is that this year, I think I'm going to have to take the cookies at mid-day instead of after Mass, just because of everything we have going on (read on, if you have the energy!). So, at some point on Christmas Eve, I'll drive down to the Norfolk Waterfront, find my old ship, USS NORMANDY, and deliver cookies to my old shipmates. Or maybe I'll take them on Christmas. We'll see. But CG-60 will have their cookies, come hell or high water!!

While I baked my cookies, I watched the 2005 foreign film Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas, in French). It's based on a true story and describes Christmas Eve, 1914 when Scottish, French, and German soldiers put down their weapons and celebrated Christmas together, amidst World War I. It was a wonderful movie and one I highly recommend for anyone looking for a "new" movie to watch along with Rudolph, Miracle on 34th Street, and all the other classics.

Tomorrow, chaos will ensue!! As many of you know, I'm lucky to live merely five miles from my parents and younger brother, which makes separation due to deployment so much easier! And it allows me to help my mom with the circus that seems to surround the holidays!! Anyway, I digress... My mom's youngest brother and his wife are stationed in New York (Uncle T is in the Army). A few days ago, they drove to Southern Illinois to collect my grandparents and left yesterday to bring them here for Christmas. They, along with my older brother (coming from DC), should all arrive some time tomorrow afternoon. Which brings the head-count over at Mom and Dad's house to eight. To relieve some of the bedding and bathroom scheduling issues, I will not be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas night at their house as I usually do, but my two brothers will come stay with me. That said, I am super excited to see so much of my family over the holidays and I can't wait for everyone to arrive!

Christmas Eve, also Mom's birthday, will begin with Birthday Breakfast at my house, where the head-count will be ten, as my dad's mom, who recently moved to Norfolk, will be with us. Later that night, my parents, grandparents (two of the three that is), brothers, aunt, and uncle will pile into a couple cars and attend Children's Mass followed by Mom's birthday dinner...with so many people, Midnight Mass just isn't in the cards!

Christmas morning, Nana will be back with us for gifts and presents, before she spends the afternoon with Dad's brother and his family. Poor Nana gets shuffled around on the holidays like a kid whose parents are divorced and have joint custody!! But we'll make sure she is able to take a nap in between opening gifts!!

Sometime after Christmas, my older brother will return to DC and my aunt and uncle will return to New York. After the New Year, Mom and I will fly to Illinois with my grandparents to spend a few days there and see my other aunts and uncles!

Whew!! Makes me tired just thinking/typing about all that!!! Stay tuned for pictures of all the events....if I survive!!!