The Reason for the Season: My thoughts on Christmas this year

"Tis the season to be jolly..."

I love the Christmas season! This year I am particularly excited. I have been looking forward to Christmas for 2 main reasons.

1. Meric would be home from deployment.

 2. We are going home to spend the holidays with family.

It has been almost 2 years since I have been home and I am really excited to see family and friends again. I am so excited I broke out the Christmas music at Halloween. (No worries I celebrated Halloween too.)

Now that it is actually the Christmas season, I have had a few thoughts about different things I have seen or heard. I have seen several postings and pictures on facebook saying things like "Keep Christ in Christmas" or "It is Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays" and things like that. 

With the world the way it is Christmas break has become winter break and the work Christmas party has become a holiday party. You hear more and more happy holidays  and less merry Christmas for fear of offending someone. But seriously why would someone saying "Merry Christmas" offend you? I would not be offended in the least if someone said "Happy Hanukkah" to me.

That being said why should I expect someone to accept my "Merry Christmas" if I am not willing to accept their "Happy Holiday"? Christmas is a holiday after all. And why should I be offended if someone doesn't "keep Christ in Christmas"? Is there any religion that believes Christ was actually born on Christmas? Besides a lot of Christmas traditions were adapted from pagan traditions. (I am not saying Christmas is a pagan holiday but look up the origins of Christmas sometime.) 

Christmas should be a time of giving not judging. It should be a time when we are a little more tolerant of our fellow man. A time to unite in love and not focus on our differences. I am not going to stop believing what I believe because it might offend someone and I won't be offended if you don't believe the same as me.

So whether you say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" read Luke 2 or T'was the Night before Christmas, I hope that you enjoy this time of year. And I wish you the Merriest of Christmases!

Locks of Love

I have had long hair off and on my entire life. I grew my hair long over the summer, longer than it has been in a long time. Having hair so long gets to be annoying so I decided to cut it.

This is how long my hair was back in October

Locks of Love is an organization that accepts donated hair to make wigs and benefit children who have lost their hair due to a medical condition. I have long hair and want to cut it + Locks of Love (a good cause) = me being charitable.

It was a little nerve racking cutting my hair that much at once. Luckily I had enough hair that I didn't have to cut it super short.

My ponytail that will be donated

Locks of Love is a great way to help children. I definitely recommend donating your hair. Here is a link with all the information  you will need: http://www.locksoflove.org/donate.html  Some hair salons will send your donation in for you, while others don't. The website includes all the information you will need to send in your donation.

New cut, new color

I have always wanted to dye my hair black but have always chickened out. This time I had the guts to go through with it. I dyed it a blue/black and I love it. I alove my shorter hair. I am already planning to grow it out again though. As soon as it is long enough, I will be donating it again.

Welcome Home!

Saturday (11/24) I started a 7 hour drive to Fort Benning GA. Why? To pick up Meric!

Sunday morning I got up early to a text message from Meric saying he had landed in Altlanta GA. He told me he would let me know when they left Atlanta on a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to Fort Benning. Of course I was way too excited and was at Fort Benning long before he left Atlanta. I got to Freedom Hall (the place we thought he would would be arriving) and found someone else waiting as well. He was waiting for his son. We stood outside and chatted for a bit and then went into Freedom Hall. Inside there was food and chairs awaiting the returning soldiers. There were also some more family members and I started chatting with a woman whose husband was returning as well. (Most people on the flight were not from Fort Benning and would be flying home later that night so only a few family members were actually there.)

Then the buses arrived and the soldiers started coming in. I could hardly believe it when I saw Meric for the first time. It was so surreal seeing him in person and not on a computer screen. Everyone came in and sat down. Then someone got up and told everyone they had 5 minutes to do whatever and then they would start the ceremony.  It was so nice to hug and kiss my husband again. I didn't want to let him go. (And yes I cried.) Then there was a short ceremony and they started the process of paperwork and turning in gear. A few hours later Meric was all mine.

I treated Meric to a lunch at Red Robin, his favorite. We spent that night in Columbus GA and then drove 6 hours to Bowling Green KY. It was a nice trip and only had a minor delay when we witnessed a car accident on the freeway. We stopped and waited for the police and paramedics to arrive which wasn't too long. We ate dinner at a cute hole-in-the-wall place and then checked into our hotel. I learned to swim over the summer and Meric hadn't seen me swim so we got a hotel with on indoor pool. It was a lot of fun playing around in the pool.

The next day we headed to Fort Knox so that Meric could check in and get a 4 day pass and then we would stay one more night away from home before heading back to the campground. That's when things didn't go according to plan. They didn't give Meric a pass and instead wanted him to start in-processing immediately. Also a call to Kelli that morning informed me that the trailer was once again having electrical problems. Because of all the problems we decided to just head home that night.

When we pulled into the campground there was a big Welcome Home sign in front of our trailer and Kelli and the Smiths (campground owners)  were all waiting for Meric. It was a great sight to have so many people welcoming him home. Inside the trailer there were several balloons and 3 dog who were very happy to see their daddy. The Smiths also invited us over for pizza. It was really nice to sit and relax.

I am so happy to have Meric home. It will take a little getting use to but it actually is pretty normal already. It is SOOOOOO nice to have my husband home!