December 26th may not be a holiday in the US but this Canadian girl is declaring it one in our house! I slept in 'til 8:30 this morning, am still in my pj's at 10:30 and have my morning coffee in hand as I begin to finally get caught up on the happenings of this past month. Hard to believe that another Christmas and another year has come and gone. As we reflected on the season and on the past year the overwhelming feeling has been one of incredible thankfulness. We feel so blessed for all that our God has done for us this past year with welcoming Reece safely home from Afghanistan in May to family visits this fall to preparing to welcome our baby girl into the world in the new year (DV). It was my first Christmas away from family but also my first Christmas spent with Reece after our 3 years together. Although we missed our crazy families, we were thrilled to finally share this special holiday together, rejoicing in the birth of our Saviour!
I was really bad and hardly took any photos of our actual Christmas but I'll at least give you a re-cap of all the fun and festivities leading up to it!
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| The Christmas tree lighting on the base. |
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| Reece was thrilled to be there ;) |
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| Sharon and Anthony joined us (Robert, her hubby, was away training on the Big Island) |
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| Shave Ice on the North Shore |
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| Some of our Christmas decor |
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| Nathan and Malorie came out to visit from Washington! We had such a great time with these two! |
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| Christmas party at our friend Brittany's place! |
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| The delicious spread |
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| Reece and Nate ready to get their party on |
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| Reece filling in as bartender for the evening |
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| The atmosphere was great |
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| Jessica, Brittany, Laura, Me and Natalie! (I could still squeeze into one of my formal dresses!) |
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| Tyler, Melissa, Hannah & Lisa |
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| During Nate and Mal's visit Reece had his Reenlistment ceremony |
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| Looks like the Lodders are in it for another 4 years! |
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| Speech! |
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| Out for dinner at one of our favorite spots, Haleiwa Joe's! Those are giant Mai Tai's they're sippin on. |
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We did some kayaking and stand up paddling on the bay.
There were a few good down pours to add to the adventure.
After Nate & Mal left we welcomed more friends, Jo & Kay, for another week of fun. Unfortunately I didn't
take out my camera once :( We had an awesome time with them though.
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This month I had to say good bye to my little Ranger.
She served me well the last 20 months but since we cannot put a car seat in the back she had to go. |
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This is our new set of wheels. We'll only be driving this one for a short time since we'll have to sell it again
before we move back home to Washington in August.
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| The 'baby bump' at 25 weeks! Only 15 more to go (actually, 14 more as I write this). |
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Since our Church here has a Christmas Eve service rather than one on Christmas morning we got to sleep in,
hang out in our pj's and enjoy a lazy morning and delicious breakfast. |
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The President and First Lady visited the base here on Christmas Day. Regardless of our political opinions it was
neat have the opportunity to meet them. We got our picture taken with them by the White House Photographer, but
we are still waiting to have that one e-mailed to us since personal cameras were not allowed in that area. |
