So I went home for the holidays, wait wasn’t that a movie title? Anyway…when I last updated I had to do that FRG party. It wasn’t bad. It did work as a counter agent to my biological clock ticking madly in my head. I’m sure my husband will be quite grateful;) Anyway aside from the ham juice disaster it was fun. (ham juice ended up in the back of the car and ALL over my coat) The kids liked the craft table we set up. I was so exhausted when I got home I fell right into bed. In fact I went back to bed an hour after I got up from that nap. The next day was filled with getting ready for the ardurous journey. Monday I packed up the car and left. It was four fun filled hours of yowling featuring a three kitty chorus. So thus the holidays begun. I ended up spending the majority of the vacation laboring upon my mothers house since I really am that compulsive. I had done this a few years ago but there is nothing I love like throwing stuff out so I did it again. For a woman that says she has no clothes I filled three lawn and garden bags with stuff to pass on to new homes.  So then Christmas arrived, we had the usual big family thing. My grandparents handed out their usual checks and we do a gift exchange since we are just too catholic (ie large family) to buy for everyone. I had gotten on cousin a gift card to borders since I knew he liked to read. Now a different (male) cousin had me and I got what had to be the most thoughtless gift ever. However since I exchanged it for a calandar I love, my desire to rant has gone away. The party was fun I got to watch my cousins get stupid on wine. I also met my uncles new girlfriend and we had a lovely conversation about my husband and things along that line. I really liked her. We also had *the meat* its traditional that we feast upon barely cooked cow. It truly is the best meat ever. I suppose I should torment you alll with selected photos from the party so without further ado….On second thought if you feel like tormenting yourself its in the gallery. After the party I ended up meeting my cousins Kristine and Christopher for a drink. Now they had been drinking all day so I was *really* behind. I barely had time to have half my drink before Chris was whinging on about getting some good greasy drunk breakfast food. Now remember its Christmas, hardly anything is open on Christmas. We did eventually find a Denny’s open. So we get there and discover he’s passed out in the back. So we go and try to get a table and it gets snatched! I also sadly ran into someone I had hoped would never grace my life again. But by the time we do get a table Chris is out of the car and speaking sort of. We order and the food comes and he takes 2 bites and goes to pass out in the car again. So we finish our grease meal and he’s passed out in my car with it on and the doors are locked. Took us a good five minutes of pounding to get him up. So after that I dropped him off at my gran’s and went home. We also had a party for my aunt which was very nice. I got a huge compliment from another cousin (deal with it I have 10 first cousins on that side alone). Christmas money was spent on yarn-y goodness. I also spent some time with old friends which was alot of fun. It sort of reminded me of me. I mean not like I have this double life or anything but things are different now and I remembered more of who I am if that makes sense. So now I am home and the real truth of the deployment is sinking in. I think I was lucky to have him leave right before a busy time so that I had other things to focus on. Now its more of a challenge to fill my days. I also just miss him so much. He’s been a part of my life for so long. We’ve spent almost every night together for 5 yrs almost. It’s just somehow wrong.  However I do have some plans for this month. There is a cake decorating class I want to take, I am going to pursue my dream of a weekly knitting night with claire, I also have a website to develop which should be pretty swank. Also its not like I didn’t add buckets of yarn to my stash. I just feel incredibly guilty taking time to do things like knit. So I am working on that.