Off Again

We are accustomed to Brian's trips, which happen on a fairly regular basis. The past several years have seen an increase in the number of trips and the length of those trips.

He was away for six weeks this fall, home for about a month over Christmas and now has gone again. We feel his absences greatly. We know his trips are short compared to many we know, but it is still hard on all of us. This time of year can be especially hard as winter seems to cause more problems with the house, vehicles, storms, etc. and we don't spend as much time outside, so all feel the cabin fever a bit.

He said goodbye to Rachel, Hannah and Dan as they got on the bus. Bess, Gabe and I took him to the airport. It was a beautiful winter day. He checked in and then we hung out in the observation room. Eventually we have to say goodbye. We have learned to be a good military family, no tears until after he leaves us. We gave hugs and kisses, smiled and sent him on his way.

We watch him pass through the security area. It is fun to watch the people go through here. They allow military families to go all the way through if we like, but we find it is harder on all and just prolongs the inevitable.


When he finally passes through and we can't see him anymore, then we sometimes cry. We are fine. We manage. We miss him. His homecoming will be sweet and much anticipated. The cycle repeats.

New Year's Day Walk

The weather the last few days has been quite warm. After a very lazy morning, Brian and I decided to take a walk.

We pass the same river several times as we walk along our road and each bend has it's own character. Even though it has been warm, there is still a lot of snow and most of the river is frozen.

I love the sound and sights of the water. It swirls under, over and around the ice, making interesting patterns.


We took a detour over to the falls as it is always lovely. Most of it was still frozen over, but there was a nice splash of water at the bottom.

We appreciate the opportunity to get out, just the two of us, to walk and talk without the bustle of the children. It was a splendid walk.

New Year's Eve

This year we decided to try and let the younger guys stay up until midnight. My online friend Michele has this great tradition of revealing a new activity each hour as her family celebrates New Year's Eve. We decided to give this a try.

We set up nine bags with clocks on them and set them in front of the Christmas tree. We started at 4pm and went until midnight.

The kids were very excited by the idea of this added to the fact that we were going to let them stay up so late.

Bag #1 was a new Wii game. This was a lot of fun and got everyone up and moving to start the night.

Bag #2 was make your own pizzas. We used canned biscuit dough, sauce and many toppings. We had cake for dessert.

The pizzas were a big hit and everyone enjoyed picking out their own toppings.

Bag #3 was a new movie. We watched for the hour and then stopped to open the next bag. Part way through, Bess went to a friends to spend some time there. It is hard to realize that she will not always be with us for family times any more.

Bag #4 was a scavenger hunt. We split the kids into teams and gave them copies of the list. We made the items small enough to fit in a bag and I knew that there were at least two of each item on the first floor of the house. What a mad dash. It was fun to watch them search for things.

Gabe and Dan were the winners but everyone got some chocolate for their effort.

Bag #5 was decorating party hats. We had pom-poms, feathers, glitter glue, and stickers. What a wild assortment of creations. The girls were careful and wanted to make their hats pretty. The boys went wild and came up with the craziest hats.

Ready to ring in the new year.

Bag #6 was going sledding. The kids really loved this one as they do not usually go sledding after dark. Brian set up his work light to shine on the hill and away we went. Brian and I even got a few runs down the hill.

We followed up with hot cocoa and cookies.

Shortly after the sledding, Bess came back home. She wanted to finish out the evening with us. I was pleased.

Bag #7 was new containers of Play Doh. This helped calm things down a bit after the sledding. Everyone got into their pjs and we had a nice relaxing time of making dough creation.

Bag #8 was a game called Guesstures. This is a great Charade type game. I must admit that by now Hannah and Dan especially were getting quite tired and the game probably would have been better earlier, but the kids did great and we had fun.

We opened the last bag about 15 minutes before midnight. The bag contained noise makers, Champagne glasses with paper umbrellas and silly glasses. We opened our sparkling grape juice, put on our hats and watched the clock.

After a countdown, we blew our horns loudly and raised a toast to the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011.

I think this will become a new tradition for us as everyone enjoyed the hourly activities. It kept the evening fresh and interesting and helped the younger guys stay awake.

I hope you all have a terrific 2011.