Christmas in the Stan

I was very much surprised at the effort that went into making the NKC Christmas a festive experience.  Sure it was fun activities broken up by meetings and emails, but it was still a much enjoyed break.

Scheduled events I was interested in:

1400-Reindeer Shuffle-5k Run-(NKC track)
1500-Santa Claus Tactical Ride around NKC (ECP1 to ECP2)
1520-Pictures with Santa Claus-NKC Parking Lot

For Christmas Eve day we started out with a fun run.  I opted for the photography of said fun run.  It gave me a chance to practice high shutter speeds.  That’s my story, plus I’m still healing up my poor blistered toe from the fins on our last night dive. But this didn’t slow down my getting as many shots in of the runners:

Afterwards, Combat Santa arrived at NKC.  There is something a little odd about seeing the man in red climbing on into an MRAP.  He was a right ol’ jolly man waving from the gun turret.  I’m still wondering what the locals would think to see him rolling on down the road, waving away.

That night we joined in the festivities with my husband’s shop – the J4 did a white elephant present exchange that was hilarious!  It was funny to see some of the things people came up with.  A boot brush!

Calendar’s, Massage gift certs [ I could go for that! ] and Fletch’s famous leather haji vest.  Ugh, he says he actually wants one of these things!  Craziness.

On Christmas, we enjoyed a very much coveted “DAY” off, full day no work.   We woke up around 0900, attempted to FaceTime with my parents and Kay but the internet was just not cooperating.  So we opened presents!  It was fun, we took our time opening one at a time.  I never take for granted how fortunate we are to be deployed together.  It makes each day just a little easier.

My Mom & Dad surprised me with an iPad of my very OWN.  It was too funny opening it, I got all teary eyed and Fletch was like “well heck I guess I don’t have to go shopping now!”  He’d gotten me a card reader for my SD card from my camera the night before [ an early Johnny Elf present ] and it works beautifully on the iPad.

After lugging around my Laptop all over Thailand the days of cables and big bulky bag are over. It was the final straw on the laptop = that and the fan dying.  But this was one of the last reasons I had the laptop was to edit my photos, they are in a RAW format not JPG so I didn’t think I’d be able to work with them on the iPad.  I can!

Anyway with that he knew his iPad was going to be commandeered – but he was outpaced by Mom & Dad.  As we settled into open the next couple of packages from them he was like “So we just need to get you a good cover for it…” – mmm Nope! BAM Mom had sent us both new covers that include a blue tooth keyboard!  Which work AMAZINGLY!  As I was fiddling with it and plugging it in to start the charge he said “We better get the glass cover so you don’t get any scratches too … BAM again! Mom nails it with a good “military strength” cover.  It was just too funny each item he thought he was going to go out to get I had a package ready to go.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC531ZM/A/apple-ipad-camera-connection-kit

Christmas music was playing on our new Bose stereo from his parents and we realized that we were close to the 1115 meeting time with the guys I work with.  We were going to meet up for Christmas dinner with my coworkers, after some confusion and trying to find a table big enough we were able to settle in and enjoy a festive meal filled with stories from home.  A lot of the guys were able to Skype or FaceTime home and watch their kids open presents, makes my heart warm at the pleasure on their faces as they told of moments from home.

After Christmas “dinner” Fletch went to the gym while I went through the steps to activate my iPad, not an easy feat with the log in process but I finally pieced together connecting to his iTunes and voila! I was surfing and configuring apps, YEA!   After that we chilled out in the CHU for a bit, then we went out to the Gazebo for some cigar time.  It was lovely out – the weather was giving us a break with clear skies, and the air wasn’t too cold.  We got to sit and chit chat with some people we know and some we had not met yet.  Another dinner in the evening, followed by some TV Shows and Christmas music as we cleaned up the CHU.

I’ve got some boxes of Bazaar purchases and left over Thailand clothes that need to go back to our house in Germany.  I’m not sure what it is about Christmas but no matter where I am at it seems to lead to a mass cleaning, and the Hubster was in full support, so we got to pulling things out and arranging, tossing, or boxing up.

Our evening was topped off with Christmas Yoga.  Hubby finally broke down and went with me.  It was a Christmas miracle!

Anyway that’s our Christmas in the Stan in a nutshell.  Today we are back to work, I got the chance to FaceTime back home with Mom & Kay as last night the connection was still kind of sketchy, it was also nice as it was just the 3 of us.  Fletch was a fantastic hubsters and brought me back breakfast so I could stay and chat with the girls.  I miss my family more than ever this time of year.  I am SO happy to see the year

2013 loom in front of us and be able to flip to a new calendar and countdown these months.  6 for Fletch, 7 for moi.  Both of us should have more of an idea on location by the end of January where we will go after that and I can’t wait to plan a California trip in.  It’s time…

beyond time.