I've been reflecting a lot lately on what my life was like last year at this time, and what I'm doing this year.
Last year on Halloween, I think I stayed home . . . or went to a family get together with my friend Tracy. I made it to the local corn maze with my friend Debbie for her son's birthday. It was fun, but I wasn't with Brad.
Last year, I spent thanksgiving with 3 other Army women at a cabin and it was the best thanksgiving I'd ever had.
Last Christmas I flew home and spent 3 weeks with my parents and a few days with Brads. It was nice, but I sure was missing my husband and majorly bummed that we didn't get to spend our first married christmas together.
He however surprised me on New Years Eve. I was over at Nicole's house spending time with her and her family and my phone was attatched to my hand, eagerly awaiting a phone call from Brad. With minutes before the clock struck midnight on MY side of the world, I got a phone call from Brad and he helped me bring in the new year in Seattle. It was an amazing new years eve!!
So far this year, spending halloween, thanksgiving and soon enough Christmas and New Years with Brad has been GREAT!! We got candy for trick or treaters but we weren't sure if we'd have any, so once 9 pm came around, we went down to the local bar and had a few beers. My kind of halloween! :-)
We made it a point to go to the corn maize this year and we made it through in record time for us! I think it was 39 minutes . . . it was a hard maize!!
Thanksgiving snuck up on us quickly but we were ready to spend it together. Our first Thanksgiving together, as husband and wife! :-) We didn't get the turkey as soon as I'd like, but I left that big part up to Brad. He wanted to fix the turkey this year, so I let him and it turned out perfectly! We filled our average size kitchen table with all of our favorite thanksgiving fixin's. Brad told me that he had no problem fixing all of this food because last year, he ate his thanksgiving dinner out of a styrafoam container and then worked his late night shift. So this year, after we said what we were thankful for, he just looked at his plate and smiled from ear to ear. This is what he had been waiting for. Sitting next to his wife, in his home, eating a wonderful home cooked meal. It's those small pleasures in life that we take for granted most of the time.
A few days later, we went to pick up our first christmas tree as well. I don't think I've been THAT excited for christmas in a very long time, probably since I was a small child. I've never had a real christmas tree and Brad made a promise to me that the first christmas we get to spend together, we will get a real christmas tree, one that I have to water and everything! So we did that. We went to Lowes one night after I got off work and picked out our first tree. This is when I had my smile from ear to ear. We tied it down to the top of my little honda and drove it across town, stuck it in our elevator and took it to the 5th floor! We put lights on it and all of our childhood ornaments are hanging proudly! We had to do this early because Brad was scheduled for some Army training in California for two week, from Dec. 1st to the 16th and I wasn't going to wait for a tree!
I thought that the two weeks of Brad being gone would be a nice break for us . . . ya know, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Well, it worked. The first few days were kind of nice. Coming home and being able to watch as much "Say Yes To The Dress" as I want and have the WHOLE bed was nice, but that wore off pretty quick. I miss holding his hand and having someone to talk to when I get home from work. It's reminded me of how lonely I was last year at this time. Yes, I had great family and friends by my side, but none of them could fill the void that Brad fills for me.
We've been discussing what we want to get each other for christmas and on the way to church the other morning, I said to myself "I have my husband home for the holidays, that's a gift in it's self" . . . so I might just tell Brad that all I want is to sit by his side and spend quality time with him. He could shower me with gifts, but its nice to just spend time with him, time that was taken away from us for 350 some odd days. The fact that he came home to me safe, with 2 arms, 2 legs and everything else is amazing. He has adapted back into civilian life very well, a whole lot better than I thought he would.
There is a lot to be thankful for this holiday season and I'm just so happy to have my husband by my side!
