Bring it on, Christmas.

-Christmas tree up and decorated? Check.  Witch candy canes from last year? Check.
-It's a Wonderful Life watched by the light of the Christmas tree?  Check.
-Hopes of ever owning a Kindle dashed? Check.
-Holiday parties avoided? Super-check.
-Christmas music in the car? Check (six weeks ago).
-Warm beverages daily?  Check.

Well, I'm ready for Christmas.  What about you guys?

Holiday Cheer.

I think that best way to spend a "Buy 10, get one free" coffee card is on a large peppermint mocha. Happy Holidays to all!

Songs that WILL NOT be on my Christmas playlist this year.

-I'll Be Home For Christmas (most specifically: Josh Grobans's version - not to be played under any circumstances)
-All I Want For Christmas is You
-Blue Christmas
-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
-Happy Xmas (War is Over)

Songs that will be played often to make up for the lack of the songs above:
-Purple Snowflakes by Marvin Gaye
-Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Cyndi Lauper
-Soulful Christmas by James Brown

Children's Day (Flying Fish!).

On Sunday, Matt, Molly and I took a walk to an area in town designated to celebrating Children's Day. We both got sunburned and Molly found a chicken to befriend.
Check out some pictures here.

H is for Half-Hearted Hostess.

(I hope I'm getting double and triple points on all those Hs!)

So, I always get excited when we are going to have people over. I make plans and find recipes and think about how fun it will all be.

It never goes according to plan. By the time the actual date come, I have worn myself out thinking about about everything I have to do. And I never have the right stuff. And I always end up thinking "What does it matter? Marines won't notice, anyway."

It's true. They never do. Take Easter, for example. I had a ton of food ready. My girls brought food. I was planning on feeding four hungry men, three women and a kid. There was a TON of food.

Do you know what I was left with after the guys were gone? Seventy-five percent of that food. They wouldn't even take a tupperware of leftovers. Matt said the guys were hung over. Stacee said she thought they had eaten before they got to our house. Either way, they are so not invited ever again.

To End.
You are not invited to my house if: You are hung over. You already ate. You expect something fancy. You expect my glasses to match. You expect anything I own to match. You do not want sweets or baked goods. You do not want to get things for yourself.

You are invited to my house if: You enjoy Jambalaya. You like to try new sweets. You love fresh bread (I'm working on this one). You like to talk about celebrities. You care more about the people you're with than what you are doing. You love leftovers.

Easter Run Down.

Easter was not what I had expected. I had a lovely time with my good friends and I suppose that's what counts. I also have a fridge full, Full, FULL of leftovers. And no husband home this week to help clear it out. Let me know if you want some ham or mashed potatoes.

Easter.

I started thinking about Easter about two months ago. I asked my husband what he wanted to do. "Go to Church." Not having any of the single guys over. "No, we're just going to church." No ham? No eggs? "No. Why? We'll just go to church."

Fine. I resigned myself to a non-celebration, but I could not accept a lack of ham. I would check in about once a week, just to be sure. Not even a ham? "No. Church."

So, you can understand my frustration when, after coming home from the commissary (with a mini-ham) Matt tells me, "I invited some single guys over for Easter dinner." Oooh, for Pete's sake.

I am making as many baked goods as I can to show Matt he can invite people last minute, but he can't stop me from making cupcakes. And ham (I got two mini-hams).

I'm back. Or here, at least.

Obviously, I blame this lack of blog posts on Gmail's decision to remove their Blogger link. This was supposed to be all about ease for me. We all know that if it isn't easy, I probably won't do it. Washing my face before bed being a case and point. (Case in point?)

Another lot of blame is to be placed on the holiday season and the following season of sickness. I went to more parties than I care to remember last month and, of course, came down with strep earlier this month. Oh well, it's all behind me now.

Work is depressingly routine. It keeps me busy, gets me out of the house and give me people to talk to. All things I have been known to shrivel up without. It pays well and affords my shopping habits. Though eventually, I will be looking for something more.

While I thought my love for American Idol would be quelled with this season's lack of David Cook, I was intensely wrong. We are not yet done with auditions and I am already rooting for Anoop Desai, who I choose to refer to as "Indian Matt." His audition outfit was standard Matt issue summer wear. Long sleeve button up shirt and khaki cargos. Check him out here: http://clefhangers.com/ Good stuff. And not a plant like Joanna Pacitti. Boooooo.

Well, I will try to keep updating regularly. Hopefully Blogger isn't blocked on my work computer and I can update there. We'll see.

Holiday season!

Remind me not to start a new job around the holiday season ever again.

Work is actually really good. I am at work by 5 am MWF and 6:30 am TuTh. Early. Really early. But I am slowly catching on. Somedays seem filled with filing projects and phone calls while others seem to stretch for days with nothing to do. Overall, it's nice to leave the house and get paid. And I've met some great people.

My dear, dear car died almost three weeks ago. It's been in the shop ever since. And I've got a good two weeks until I get it back. It's really frustrating to be sharing a car again but it's great that my job is close enough that I can walk. God sure knows what He's doing, doesn't He?

Our Christmas tree is up and filled with all of my favorite ornaments! Check Picasa for the pictures. I'm glad we got a pre-lit tree because I think the plethora of lights fills the empty spots.

I've done all of my Christmas shopping (online) and have recently become obsessed with SpongeBob SquarePants. It's really funny. You should all watch it.

I will try to update again sooner than usual.

Work, work, work.

Work is keeping me very busy and so are Thanksgiving preparations! After Thanksgiving I will try to update, probably with some Christmas decorating pictures too.

Holidays!

In lieu of a holiday party, Matt's CG decided to throw a lovely Oktoberfest themed party. The food was great, the music was great, and Stacee was there so I had someone to chat with. We even got our picture taken with the guy in lederhosen. Overall a successful Oktoberfest.



Thanksgiving dinner will be far smaller than first anticipated. We are expecting a total of seven or eight (including ourselves!). I did most of my shopping today to ensure procurement of all of the Thanksgivingest foods. I also have some other good news that I am going to hold off on until I can make a couple more phone calls.

Et cetera...

I am so excited that we have a Christmas tree. I was worried we might end up doing without because of our island bound status. I cleaned out our storage area to find all the Christmas stuff and put it together with the tree. Day after Thanksgiving, I am ready. Well, almost. I still need some garland and a few more ornaments... and a tree skirt. Better get those before they are Okinawa-extinct.

Re: gift cards (because I have been asked). We have a Chili's and a Macaroni Grill here. We also have Starbucks, but I'm not 100% sure if they take the gift cards there. I'll check soon. Also, internet shopping is popular, although I have heard Wal-Mart charges a ton for shipping. We use Snapfish for photo printing. iTunes cards are always, always a hit.

I am starting a scrapbook for 2008. Starting, as in, thinking about it, but not yet actually doing anything for it.

I am also serving Thanksgiving dinner to approximately 20 Marines. More on that later.

Weekends.

It seems to me that there are two major downfalls of a long weekend. Although they are long and luxuriously relaxing, they shorten the week, often squishing five days of work into three. Also, after the weekend that seems never to end, the following weekend feels short and as though you have been cheated. This is my situation.

Matt had four days off last weekend. Then a stressful three day week. And now we are at the end of a two day weekend that just flew by. I know what we did all weekend, but I just don't know where the time went.

On the up side, we do have a Christmas tree which is probably the happiest thing we've bought since we got here. I can't wait to get more Christmas tree accoutrements.

Fourth of July Weekend

Of course my first big holiday out of the States would be the holiday that celebrates everything about the States. Of course. That crankiness said, it was a pretty good holiday weekend -- four days off for Matt. Woohoo!

We spent Thursday doodling around and snorkeling. We learned that I am not a good swimmer and thus not a good snorkeler. When I wasn't afraid of dying in the East China Sea, I did observe some very lovely fish. The colors on those guys are amazing. At the end of the snorkel adventure, we decided it was best to purchase a life vest to prevent the whole Andrea dying and being eaten by pretty fish scenario.

On July Fourth, we gathered our dear friends and took a trip north to the Okinawa Ocean Expo. We were surprised to find most of the Sea World-like park was free. We watched a couple dolphin shows and saw sea turtles, manatees and a gargle fountain. Much like a water fountain, the gargle fountain dispensed Listerine and was used by all six Americans with much enthusiasm. As always, photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/never.dexter/IndependenceDay

Matt and I took Molly over to Kadena Air Force Base that evening for the fireworks show. She wasn't scared one bit, but was more interested in the kids around us than the fireworks. One little guy spotted a bat flying around and when his mom told him it was "bat-san," he got super excited that he was seeing "Batman" flying around. It was way cute.

Saturday, Matt and I went down to American Village for some shopping and my first Starbucks since Tucson. There are Okinawa mugs and tumblers for sale that have little Shisa dogs on them. I will have to get one before we leave. For lunch, I had the very Okinawan meal of Taco Rice: taco meat and fix'ns on rice. It's pretty good, actually. And it's served at almost every restaurant.

Well... I'm not sure how to wrap this up smoothly, so I will just say that I love hearing from you and I hope you all have lovely days today. Fin.