Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

The day after Christmas is as good of a day as any to pick this blog back up, right?  While I did have a pretty good Christmas Day, it certainly wasn't the happiest of days.  Remember that post I shared about six months ago mentioning a possibility of my husband deploying?  He wasn't selected for that mission (which is good, as the hypothetical four-month time frame which was being tossed around turned into one year).  But he was picked up for another one which saw him leave ahead of the holidays for six months.

My daughter and I spent Thanksgiving Day home alone with our pups.  I prepared a scaled-down version of Thanksgiving dinner, complete with usual dishes such as stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, and Abby's great grandmother's sweet potato casserole.

Before we found out about the possibility of my husband deploying, we had planned on traveling to see family for Christmas ahead of the holiday, returning on Christmas Eve in order to have Christmas morning in our own home, so that Abby could see what Santa brought her under her own tree after waking up from her own bed.  While I know she's still too young to remember it at 18-months old, I really wanted to begin our own Christmas traditions as a family.

Once the deployment orders were handed down, I immediately thought about just staying home for Christmas, but my husband insisted that I still follow through with the plans we had laid out to visit with his family in Georgia and Tennessee.

While traveling solo with a toddler was no easy feat, I'm very glad that I stuck to our original plans and made the trip to spend time with my in-laws.  She got to see her great grandparents, great aunts, one set of grandparents, and two of her aunts.

This wasn't my daughter's first time traveling on an airplane, however I was much more nervous about this trip than I was her first.  First off, I was traveling alone, unlike last year when my husband was with me to assist.  Secondly, Abby's first time flying was last Christmas when she was 6-months old, so I was able to count on her passing out shortly after receiving a bottle on take-off.  This time around, she's much more active and strong-willed.  I wasn't sure that I'd be able to contain her in my lap, let alone get her to be calm and quiet for the duration of the flights from Texas and back home.  Thankfully, she slept for half of the flight out of town (and was reasonably well-behaved and quiet for the second half), and she slept like a rock for the entire flight back home.

Christmas morning proved to be very exciting, with the slew of presents Abby received from Santa and all of her grandparents, aunts and uncles.  She is one very loved little girl.  I just hope she doesn't get used to getting so many presents each year!

The only presents under (or around) that tree that weren't for Abby were just a few gift card envelopes.

She had such a fun time opening her presents that she wore herself out pretty quickly, and I actually had to coax her to open her final few gifts, as she just wanted to curl up on the floor and rest.

It really was an enjoyable Christmas.  And thankfully my husband was able to call a couple times during the day, so I got to hear his wonderful voice.  I just wish he could have been home to share the day with us.

I hope everyone else is having a great holiday season and has a terrific New Year!