Christmas Exodus

Well now that the New Year is officially upon us I wanted to get things started with updates about the season. In the Army, the whole Army gets something called Christmas Exodus. No actual work days starting on the day of the 21st and goes until January 2nd. So KC finished up his initial check flight a few days before Exodus began. So now he has started instruments and goes back this week to fly a few days and then check flight in that category. That ride is to test the pilots on their ability to fly during days of heavy cloud cover and night flying-only to rely on their instrumentation. After that, it is onto Basic Combat Skills which will last for the duration of his commitment to flight school ending sometime in March. Then begins a month of Survival Evasion Resistance & Escape. I am really looking forward to that being OVER. I am planning a trip up to Idaho/Oregon during that time while he is in SERE. So we shall see what happens.
Christmas Eve:
But we did have an absolutely wonderful Christmas here at the Chase household! Despite our lack of snow (I was sorely tempted to tape up winter scenes to the windows of our home to try to capture the White Christmas feel), we celebrated in style. I do have to mention that it started clouding over this day. We headed to St. Johns for the Children's Christmas Eve Mass. Thomas was part of the children's carols that took place before the service. It was a great time and everything was fantastic. The church was decorated beautifully and Thomas is now at the point where he will sit still for most of the time. Ben, of course, has a little bit less patience. We came home and got ready for bed. We read the Nativity Story out of Luke and then after the bath and teeth brushing we read the Night Before Christmas. Just before crawling under the covers, Thomas helped me put out a plate of cookies and milk for Santa and some celery for the reindeer.
Christmas Day:
In the morning, everyone was delighted to see that Santa had in fact showed up! Thomas woke up and announced to KC and I, as we were sipping coffee, that is was morning time and that it was Christmas. He was so happy to look at the gifts under the tree and was a little upset that Ben hadn't woke up yet! So we gentle coaxed Ben out of sleep and started off the day. After gifts and a light breakfast, I put the turkey in the oven and loaded it with KC's mom's stuffing! A treat we missed at Thanksgiving. In the pouring rain and heavy grey skies, we headed out for Sean and Sharon's house at around 3 o'clock and were armed with Pinochle and Catch Phrase. At all of our family gatherings, a board game or card game usually follows the food. Sharon said they were just planning on eating and while food and myself have a great relationship, I couldn't possibly have a holiday with no games! We started a great time of Catch Phrase with all her family and I think they are still talking about it! A lot of laughing. The boys played with all their new toys and then played with Stephen and Leanna's new toys. :) We were the last ones to go home and after such a day, the boys went right out!
On December 27th, we headed off for Montgomery for an appointment and since we were done very early in the morning KC drove around so we could see the capital. While KC much prefers the backdrop of the mountains and God's canvas in nature and could really not much care for man-made things, I really do enjoy sight seeing older and magnificent structures. (I have to admit I do miss my mountains too!) Montgomery is a beautiful city. While most of the bigger cities in the south are complete holes, made up of ghettos and trailer parks, there were genuine historic gems down here. The houses were old and stylish, architecturally beautiful and very neat to look at. There was a private Christian college there that had some of the most beautiful buildings. The Churches were magnificent and it was a very clean city. We were able to stop by the capitol building and get a few pictures. I am looking forward to heading back whenever we can to visit a museum we saw in passing. Quite a bit of civil war history there to seek out.
New Years Eve:
Up until today, the sun had been hiding since before Christmas and it was nice to see it shining. We still have the small dog that we found a few weeks ago. Because of the rain we were not able to put up posters until today. So we are waiting to see if anyone is going to call us. She has been a delight though. She is a very well behaved dog. KC has dubbed her "Princess Underbite" because of the moderate under bite she has in her jaw. Thomas has just boiled it down to "Princess". But KC and I put the kids to bed and rang in the New Year by watching Live Free or Die Hard. At midnight we heard firecrackers and saw fireworks go off outside. It was a great feeling and yet at the same time we were both wondering what sort of life experiences the new year and the Army would have in store for us.