WoF: What Christmas Means to Me

Christmas means to me...

...knowing that the deep joy of this season doesn't come from gifts exchanged, lights shining bright, beautiful trees, mailboxes filled with Christmas greetings, special songs, a table full of food, a house full of family and friends and the invisible heart-strings that connect us to those separated from us due to duty stations, war, and other military barriers.

It's knowing that the reason for the celebration is that we are free. Free because of a baby born one starry night 2,000 years ago to redeem us and bring us back to life - eternal life with our Heavenly Father.

If you're missing that joy, I don't want you to be without it another moment. Leave me a comment and you can bet I'll be in touch.


Join the conversation here.

WoF: My funniest Christmas memory

My funniest Christmas memory may not be all that funny to you, but it sure taught me a good lesson that Christmas is what you make it!

My parents are volunteer firefighters and EMTs on their local volunteer fire department. I grew up in a rural part of Wisconsin and they have been doing this since I was a baby, so rescue and fire calls are natural in our family. It never fails that there's a call during Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, etc...and generally right in the middle of getting the food out of the oven and having a house full of people.

This particular year it was Christmas Eve, my parents had planned on taking my sisters and me out for dinner. As we were getting ready to head into town for dinner, there was a rescue call. My parents threw on their gear and tore out the door. By the time they got back home for dinner it was pretty late. I don't know why one of us didn't just make dinner, but it must not have crossed our minds. We headed into town and the restaurant we had planned on going to was already closed for the night. We headed down the road to another restaurant. And then another. All closed. Even McDonald's was closed!

We stopped at a gas station which was still open. We all got to pick out a tv dinner (which was pretty neat in itself because our parents NEVER let us have tv dinners!) and we headed home and enjoyed our frozen dinners! Those dinners were awful.

I'm not exactly sure why I find this story funny - when I read it, it's kind of sad. But we laughed so hard that night. And I'm still laughing at it as I think about it.
Maybe that's why I stick it out as a military wife. Each crisis could become a tragedy if we don't choose to laugh it off. After all, as The Man says, "Why worry about it? No one is shooting at you."

Read more military wife experiences here!

Apology!

My sister called me out. I used her twice in my blogs...stealing her favorite cookie recipe and claiming that Molly was a family gift when she was really a gift to Kendra (due to the Haley vs. Kendra war). She is right! She's way cooler than I will ever be, so I had to steal her identity!

Sorry, Kendra! :) You win this round! Hope this super cute pic of you and Jess makes up for it. Now you are the real star of this blog!

Love ya!

WoF:You must be a military spouse...

You must be a military spouse at Christmas time if you...keep a sense of humor!


This is only my second Christmas as a military spouse, so I don't have a whole lot of experience to fall back on. What I do know is that if I didn't have a sense of humor, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't make it through Christmas (or any other day!).


Last year The Man was in training for the first few weeks of December, he popped in for about a week or two for Christmas, then headed to Florida for the majority of January to assist with a deploying group. During the time he was gone, we had boatloads of snow. I can't tell you how many times I shoveled our driveway last year. Each time I shoveled, I thought to myself, "Next winter he's shoveling it all!"


HA HA!


The joke is on me!


The Man was deployed in March of last year...and just last week the snow season began. We had about a foot of snow fall in a handful of hours. I pulled out my trusty shovel. Actually, two trusty shovels (one is better for the heavy wet snow that fell last week, and the other is exceptional for the light, airy stuff - yeah, that's right, I know my tools!) and I got to work.


Yep. Joke's on me.


It was a similar story with the Christmas decorations, we decorated together between his schedule, and then, The Man was off to Florida and the decorations were still up. We had purchased an artificial tree that was really marked down right after Christmas. It sat in the box in our kitchen until February! I said to myself, "Next year the Christmas decorations will be put away in a reasonable time!"


....but I think we might be in the same predicament this year. The difference is that I'm smiling about it now. What's a few weeks or months!?!


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WoF: The Best Gift I Ever Gave

I am the worst gift giver known to man. I don't mean to be so crummy at it, I generally put a lot of thought into people's gifts, but they never are really all that great.

Every year, I try to do better, but usually end up bummed out and days away from Christmas knowing that I've fallen short another year! I haven't given up, yet! Maybe next year?

So, Wives of Faith bloggers and readers, I'm sorry for coming up short on this one!

I'm excited for tomorrow...I have two really great gifts I have been given (well, one might be this year!). To find out what great gifts other military wives have given, click here! You just might find a good idea for this Christmas!

WoF: The Best Gift I Ever Received

I haven't received my Christmas gift yet this year...but if all goes as planned, The Man will arrive sometime around Christmas this year for his R&R! Dates don't mean much to me, so Christmas Day 2009 will be when I pick him up from the airport, whether it's the 25th or not!

Because this Christmas isn't here quite yet...I'll take you back in time...

The best gift I ever received for Christmas was a black lab puppy. My parents gave us Molly for Christmas and I won't forget it! Maybe someday when we have kids, I can surprise them the same way.

That Christmas morning, I woke up and I hopped in the shower before my sisters woke up (four girls in one bathroom, you take the shower when you can get it!). While in the shower, my parents kept banging on the door and saying, "First one up gets to open the first present!" Which, didn't make any sense to me. We always waited for everyone and opened gifts in an orderly fashion.

Out of the shower, I got dressed and headed downstairs. As I was getting a glass of water, my parents were really starting to drive me crazy with their, "First one up gets to open the first present!" mantra...

...and that's when I heard scampering.

It didn't sound like the familiar padding through the kitchen from our dog, Haley. I whipped around and there went a little black thing scuttling across the kitchen floor. A pudgy little black puppy!

We brought the puppy upstairs to wake my sisters up. First Amanda and Jess, and finally Kendra. Side note: Kendra and Haley didn't really get along (baby of the house syndrome maybe?).

We plopped the wiggling puppy onto Kendra's bed and Kendra shouted, "GET HALEY OFF ME!" as she tried to pushed the puppy off her bed. It only took a second for her to realize that this wriggling thing wasn't Haley...the mood changed dramatically :)

Kendra and Molly...


I'll never forget that Christmas! We love our little Molly. Although she's pretty old and her muzzle has greyed, she's still our Christmas Pup. And no one has better Christmas spirit than that dog!

She loves to "hand out" the presents (she usually picks out the presents under the tree that are hers before Christmas arrives!). She helps unwrap the presents. And, she loves to play fetch with wrapping paper balls!

Here's Haley covered in wrapping paper. We'll miss her this Christmas!

Read more great gifts other military wives have received!

My Favorite Christmas Recipe - Take 2

This blogging carnival might have caused me to go a little crazy...I just baked up another favorite Christmas recipe for my cookie exchange at work tomorrow. I thought I'd post it too!

Another recipe with an ambiguous name. I've heard them called Mexican Wedding Cakes or Russian Tea Cakes. No matter the name, they melt in your mouth!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cups finely chopped nuts
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Additional powdered sugar

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Whip butter for 30 seconds.
3. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar to butter and beat until light.
4. Add vanilla and mix until combined.
5. Stir in flour, nuts and salt.
6. Roll into 1-inch balls and place on cookie sheet with about 1-inch spacing.
7. Bake 10-12 minutes until set but not brown.
8. Roll warm cookies in powdered sugar. Place on wire rack to cool.

(This recipe was from www.bettycrocker.com - but you can find variations - sometimes I add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon almond extract)