Nearly there

Well, we have "only" a week remaining. In the larger scope of eight months I suppose that it won't be that long, particularly with what we've been through in this eight months, but its bittersweeet to have him coming home so near to the holidays, yet not in time for the holidays - particularly when this year the kids finally started to "get it" in terms of Santa and presents and so on. (I base the statement that they really "get it" on their reluctance to take down the decorations or the train we set up under the tree because they want it there for "when Santa comes back.")

So, tomorrow my mom leaves and by the time we return from New Orleans, the day will be over - one more down in a long string of days that loomed endlessly before us at the start of this blog. Haven't decided if I'll continue here, or create a "homeport blog" or consider the name to be a daily mantra appreciative of every day that we are able to share with F once he's home - more of a coming home from the daily grind, than the long deployment.

In any case, seven days and hopefully (as of now) he'll be home, but as always that will be subject to the whims of the military, the command and I'm sure the weather.

Musings of age

I was thinking last night as I snuck in a quick bath that I should be thinking profound thoughts and analyzing my life in some way today. Rather I was rushing to get my hair washed before C woke up hungry or K had a nightmare or H got bored with late night cartoons on Boomerang. That's about as profound as things get around here these days, although I was also debating finding myself a good quality face cream to keep the age lines from showing, but for now I guess I'll just accept them as part of me - as the kids do and my husband will if he ever gets home.

The kids and I went and made welcome home signs for F's return. The command puts them up all over the base so that people know the guys are home (and chicks too, but really there are only a relative handful of girls in the unit so let's get real, deal with being called one of the guys, you're in the military for goodness sake). It was nice, but they use house paint for durability, so I really wasn't thrilled with the kiddos "helping" if you know what I mean.

It seems odd that its less than a month until we have our big arrivals - dancin' grandma, the jolly fat man and last-but-certainly-not-least DADDY! Kind of seems like it will be a little bit of a let down after its all over, but we'll see what the new year brings.

The kids are getting a HUGE (for them) play kitchen for Christmas. I got a pretty good deal on one, I think and it just arrived. Hopefully I can figure out a way to set it up before Christmas Eve without them seeing it or grandma and I might be up most of the night assembling!

We're hoping to take the kids on a mini-vacation in January or February just because we can, and to give ourselves a break before returning to the real world - a kind of thank you to ourselves for surviving this deployment and thriving and growing.

In the meantime, I think we're going to get ourselves in the holiday spirit and go get a Christmas tree. Should be interesting trying to get a tree put up with the "helpers" here, but we'll see how it goes. So the tree ends up horizontal across the couch - whatever. We don't exactly have a Better Homes and Gardens kind of house as it is - more like something from Elmo's World (including the crayon walls - grrrr)!

Off to locate Christmas decorations and child-proof stuff to scatter about the house! And for anyone who is missing holiday cuteness...