The first day after Christmas...

...my true love and I had a fight. I took and chopped that pear tree down and burned it just for spite..!

Okay, that was a song I remember from Junior High Concert Choir. Sadly enough, that's the only line I remember...

I can only hope that everyone reading this (and those who don't) had a wonderful Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. I had a very Merry, peaceful, and quiet Christmas. I'm in San Diego visiting my friend, Cindy, who recently had surgery and is a little on the sick side. That's okay...she's been lying around making fun of me going to Iraq and I've been sitting around making fun of her stitches. :) What a pair. Right now I am uploading all of her CDs into iTunes and then will dump them on her iPod. I knew that she wanted me out here for a reason! She's on a total liquid diet (most of it through an IV) and I've shown my solidarity by joining her in a liquid diet. But we're consuming two different types of liquids.

Tomorrow I head back to Bryan through Houston and then start final prep for mobilization after the New Year. So much to do! I remember sitting in my den last year, in Minneapolis, looking at my Christmas tree and sadly thinking that it would be 2, maybe 3, years before I saw my tree again. Since my stuff stayed in storage after I moved to Texas, I didn't have a tree for Christmas 2008. No lights, no tinsel, no lighted village underneath. No garland on the mantel, no wreath on the door, no Advent wreath on the dining room table. Well, here it is...Christmas 2008...I wasn't able to put my tree up and since my friend has been ill she and her husband didn't get their tree up either. You would think that I would be sad. But I'm not...because I've had such a great time here with them, eating cookies and swapping stupid stories, that I didn't even notice there wasn't a tree. Well, I did notice, but it didn't bother me because I always know that Christmas means more to me than decorations. Religious beliefs aside, Christmas is a time to remember how lucky I am that I have my health, my friends, and my life. It's a time to reach out to those who mean so much to us or even to reach out to those we dislike...even if it's just to say "Merry Christmas" and move on.

So, I didn't get a tree this year and the reality is that I probably won't get a tree Christmas 2009, either. But be warned...next time I do get the chance to get my tree up there will be so many ornaments, lights, and tinsel on the tree that the branches will droop down!