Christmas Eve...and so much more

Once again, December has flown by. It's been a whirlwind of planning, preparing, journeying, doing, making, and enjoying.  Last you heard from me, we were on our way to graduation. We made it, had a wonderful time, saw family, and most importantly...brought my baby home!!

I know you are probably overwhelmed with home tours, but for my own sake of remembering, I'll share my home this Christmas....(sorry that I didn't edit the photos, I'm lucky I got the energy to blog this, suffering from a major head cold the last 4 days along with getting ready for Christmas. Oh and I haven't looked at anyone's blog in almost two weeks, so I hope to catch up sometime this week, I hope everyone is well)....

The foyer....

 The half bath...

 The kitchen....

 The front hallway...

 The family room...

 I decorated the game room too, but forgot to take pics of it :(

The weekend we left for South Carolina, two of my children were in the community play...Twinderella.   My youngest daughter was the fairy godmother....(70 yards of tulle in that dress!)

 And my 12 yr old son was "Lou the ups guy".  They both did an awesome job!!!

 And here are some photos from our trip....  we took hundreds but I won't bore you with them all!

South of the Border in South Carolina....it was like a ghost down, no one there.

 Here we are waiting Thursday morning in the cold for our first glimpse of Cameron during the motivation run. We made big signs, he saw them and so did his whole platoon!!

 His platoon... he's somewhere in there...

 Later on that day we got to have him for the first time for a 5 hour liberty.

 Visiting his barracks... it wasn't as bad as I pictured it. He was in a newer building and it was bright and airy.

 All of us!

Some pics of the island....

 How they first see the island, a long line of palm trees(funny for us to see from Maine)

 The island is actually very pretty. The kids loved all the moss on the trees.

 Friday morning... graduation....6 platoons of 90 or so men each.

 My sons platoon.

 The band....

 The colors....

 My son, my Marine :)

 Three generations....

 My parents...

 My children....

 Mason was beyond happy about having his biggest brother again. He held his hand and didn't let him out of his sight.

 Me, my mom, and my sister Shelly.

 Cameron !

 Thank you to all who have served, are serving, and will serve. Your courage to protect our country and our freedom is immeasurable.

All my love,

Tiff

Halfway There!!

Last week was a very busy week, preparing for this week. I have lots of pictures to share of the house decorated for Christmas, but that will have to wait until next week when I have normal internet connection again.   Right now I'm posting from a KOA outside of Fredericksburg, VA.  We are about half way to Parris Island, SC.  We are headed to my oldest son's graduation from the Marine boot camp!  Saturday he officially became a Marine after making it through 54 hours of the Crucible, but he doesn't actually graduate until this coming Friday.

We were getting a bit worried because we hadn't received a letter from him in almost 2 weeks(though his last one did say that he was going to be very busy).  Then  yesterday(Sunday), we were outside working on the Christmas lights' timer and my 12 yr old comes running out of the house with the phone in his hand saying that it was Cameron.  Now, we were anticipating this call because we knew after he became a Marine on Saturday that he would get his first Liberty on Sunday and would have some on base freedoms(he at subway, go to the bowling alley, socialize, and make phone calls home for the first time in 12 weeks).  However, I was totally unprepared for the huge emotions that would overcome me at that moment. My son handed me the phone, but I couldn't speak and the tears started to flow, I had to hand the phone to hubby.  After a few minutes I was able to speak and I was so happy to hear his voice.  He sounded good and told me all about the crucible and how he is looking forward to seeing all of us.  He said he may be able to see us on Wednesday during our tour, but if not, we have him for the day on Thursday for Family day, then after graduation on Friday we get to bring him home.  Because of the holidays, he gets longer than the normal 10 day leave, so he will be with us until Jan. 3rd!!!

I'll try to post from the campground on the base(we get to stay right on Parris Island) and share some pics of graduation.

Thank you all for the sweet responses to my gingerbread party, it really was a nice time and you all should throw one next year for you family and friends :)

Proud mommy,

Tiff

Gingerbread House Party !!

Last night I hosted my first ever gingerbread house decorating party.   Step inside and I will show you how the evening went....

The kitchen was ready....

 Houses were baked and assembled, ready to be decorated....

 Candy cups at every seat....

 The houses were attached to plastic trays that I found at the dollar tree. I also found the red placemats there but I jazzed them up a bit with some ric rac.

 I made every one a gingerbread apron and stuffed in the pocket is a homemade template of the gingerbread house so that they can make one next year.

 Getting the food ready on the island....

 Hot cocoa warming in the crockpot and vegetarian chili simmering on the stove(btw, it was my own recipe and came out great).

 My youngest daughter decked out in holiday attire...

 My girls hanging out by the food.

 And the decorating begins!!!.....

A picture in their aprons...

 I joked that I was going to put each of their houses on my blog and have you all vote for your favorite, with the winner getting a small prize....  But why joke, let's do it.....  Cast your vote by leaving your favorites' number in a comment :)   Here we go, gingerbread houses on parade.....

House #1 Front

 Back

 ____________________________________________________________________________
House #2 Front

 Back

 ___________________________________________________________________________
House #3 Front

 Back

 _________________________________________________________________________
House #4 Front

 Back

 ____________________________________________________________________________
House #5 Front

 Back

 ___________________________________________________________________________
House #6 Front

 Back

 ___________________________________________________________________________

And the whole village.....

I had a great time and I'm so glad I did this. I think everyone else enjoyed it too.  I hope you liked your glimpse into my gingerbread party :)

Have a wonderful day,

Tiff