Christmas Excitement

Christmas is over now. It has been quite the week. I arrived home in GA on Sunday afternoon after a very very long flight. I was tired, to say the least. Evan and my parents drove to the Atlanta airport to pick me up. It was so great to see my husband and my parents again. Evan's absence was very difficult for me and I now have a newfound appreciation for all the military wives whose husbands are gone for months or years at a time. We stopped and ate dinner on the way home and then pretty much went to bed when we got back to the house. I think I slept about 11 hours Sunday night. This week was spent wrapping presents, baking cookies, and just generally gearing up for Christmas. The Christmas tree had many many presents underneath by the time I was finished wrapping everything. Evan and I made several batches of cookies to give to the neighbors. My mom made several other kinds of Christmas goodies. Needless to say, we definitely did not go without sweet things this week! It was great for those of us with a big time sweet tooth!!
Evan and I enjoyed spending the week with my parents and getting to spend the time together as well. On Christmas Eve, my brother, grandmother, and aunt all came to the house. We all went to church for the candlelight service and then came home and ate a very well prepared, very large meal. It was definitely a nice night. The night ended with the Walton family Christmas tradition of reading the Christmas story out of the Bible and also reading The Night Before Christmas. Eventually, everyone went to bed. It was a late night and we were all tired. While we were sleeping, Santa Claus came to visit. He left many presents for Tim, me and Evan. Evan got some screwdrivers, some legos, some clothes, and a razor. I got a North Face jacket, some clothes, some puzzles, and a bride doll to name a few. We enjoyed getting up Christmas morning to find what Santa had left us all! Then it came time for breakfast. Evan had his famous strata that his mom makes every year. It was quite delicious and Evan was happy that he got to continue that tradition. We began to prepare for the day and after a while, the rest of the family arrived. It went from mild chaos to pretty chaotic for a while. It was so nice to have all of my family around though. We had tons of food, lots of presents and lots of fun. We all ate Christmas dinner and ate so much that most of our pants didnt fit anymore but it sure was delicious! Eventually we got around to opening all the presents. That lasted for several hours and everyone had lots of stuff to open. Towards the end of the night, everyone started leaving and eventually it was quiet in the house again. It was great to have all the family gathered in one place and I was glad to be a part of it. Who knows what the next few years will hold, but this year we had a large family gathering and it was great!
Mama and I took Evan to the airport yesterday afternoon so he could go back to Anchorage. I think he was sad to be leaving and kind of regretted having to go back so soon. However, he had to be back to sit alert for his squadron to make sure the Russians dont attack. It is really too bad that he had to go back early but Im sure he was glad to get home to our house. We werent sure he was going to make it because of airport delays but he managed to get back to Anchorage this morning around 2ish. He told me that he went home and had to shovel several inches of snow off of the driveway before he could pull the car in the garage this morning. Welcome back to Alaska, Evan!! :) Today he started sitting alert and will be doing so until Monday morning at 7:30. Basically all that means is that he has to stay on the base at the "alert hut" for two days. He can not leave and has to always be ready to jump in his jet and take off in case there is a problem. He is glad to be getting this part of his job out of the way for this month while I am not there. I will be in GA until Monday morning. I will take off from Atlanta early Monday morning and will be back in Anchorage Monday afternoon. I have really enjoyed being here and seeing my family and friends. It has been in the 70s all week and it has been wonderful! I even wore my flip flops one day this week! WOO HOO! It sure is going to be tough to go back to 13 degree weather. Oh well....suppose I will be ok!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I hope you all got to spend the time with family, friends, and everyone who is important to you. I also hope ya'll got everything you wished for. We are sorry we didnt get to see everyone and hope to see you all soon. As always, you are all invited to come to Alaska and visit us at any point you would like to. We love having company and have an extra bedroom that always has clean sheets waiting for you! We hope to talk to you all soon!
Jessica

Well, it is finally here! Tonight my plane takes off at 12:05, headed to the land where the peaches grow!! I can not wait. I am soo excited to be going home. I am also excited to see Evan tomorrow. My plane lands in GA at 4:30 pm tomorrow afternoon. Evan and my parents are coming to the airport to pick me up. I will be tired but happy. Evan is getting to my parents' house today. He rented a car from Panama City and is driving to their house today. He will be there sometime tonight. He is driving the rental car to Atlanta tomorrow and my parents are taking us both home when I get there. It will be nice to be back with some warm weather. I will definitely enjoy the time with my family as well. Evan and I are waiting until we both get back home to exchange our Christmas presents with each other. We have quite the pile of presents under our tree at home. :) How exciting!!

I went out to dinner with some of the wives last night at a restaurant in town. Dinner was nice, but boy oh boy were they SLOW!! It took forever to get our food and they were slow slow slow. Oh well, the company was good. We enjoyed hanging out and catching up. One good thing that has come from Evan being gone is that I have made some friends with the other wives. It is nice to hang out with people who understand what you are going through.

I have a cookie exchange to go to this afternoon. I had to bake 10 dozen cookies. Whew!! What a stinking lot of cookies! I baked cookies all morning. This is the never ending project! But the cookie exchange will be fun and I will get to take home 10 dozenish cookies so that is a good thing. I like cookies! :)

For now, that is all that is going on. I have to go get in the shower and eat some lunch so I can get ready for the cookie exchange. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend and this joyful merry time of year!

Yay! Only one more week before I get to see Evan!! His whole squadron has been in Florida for the last week-week and a half. They can not fly in Alaska when it is snowing. So during the winter months, they leave and go warmer places. They leave their poor wives here to freeze their buns off while they go and gallavant in the warm weather. Seems fair huh?? I think not. I pretty much think it sucks! So anyway, Evan has been gone and I am here alone. It is kind of lonely...no, it is really lonely. Our house is empty and quiet. I do not like it much. But I suppose I will manage. It is only for another week or so.
Evan is meeting me in Georgia to spend time with my family for Christmas. We really wish we could be with his family as well. Christmas is such a fun time. It is my favorite time of year. I love all the decorations. We put our Christmas tree up in our house before Evan left. I have gotten to enjoy it at least! It looks really pretty. It has red lights and a star on the top. There are also lots of presents under it! Evan finished his shopping before he left and I have finished mine too! WOO HOO!! That is exciting!
Anyway, I think I am tired now and I need to go to bed. I have to get up and go to work in the morning. Blah! But at least this is a fun week to work at an Elementary School...Crazy but fun!! We like Christmas and Santa Claus and all that fun stuff there! Hope everyone has a good week!
~Jess

Today is the day...

Hello everyone! I thought this would be a nice way for our friends and family to keep up with what is going on in the lives of Jessica and Evan. We are so busy that we dont often have a lot of time to catch up and we are 3-4 hours behind almost everyone we would want to catch up with! The time difference makes it difficult to talk on the phone. I figured if I can post things on here at least once a week, it would be a good way for everyone to know what is going on in our life. So here is the update since the wedding. Most of you know that we went on a cruise for our honeymoon. That was awesome! We had a great time. When we got back, we went to the Chicago area for a few days. We spent the time with Evan's parents and had a great time. They threw us a reception/party to celebrate our wedding with all of their friends and family who were unable to come to the wedding(and some who were able to come!). The party was fun. We talked to lots of people and had a really good time! After that, we started our trip across the country. We drove from Chicago to Washington and had many fun stops along the way. We stopped at the Corn Palace, Wall Drug, Yellowstone National Park, and in Seattle. It was a true road trip and it was a ton of fun!! Once we got to Washington, we put our car on a ferry and rode on that up through Alaska's Inside Passage. Some of the most beautiful coastline in the country, right?? Well, we wouldnt know. We couldnt see any of it because it rained for all 3 days we were on the ferry. That was kind of disappointing. But we passed the time by reading lots of books, doing crossword puzzles, playing lots of games of cards and fighting off sea sickness. (well, i was anyway!) When we finally got off of the ferry, we were very glad to be on dry land. We drove for the next 2 days through Canada, the Yukon Territory, and Alaska until we finally reached Anchorage. What a long way!!!! We were really ready to get out of the car by then. We checked into our hotel room on the base and enjoyed sitting farther apart than just 1.5 feet. We started looking for a house soon after we arrived in Anchorage. It took us a litte while but we finally found a house that we liked and that we could afford. We have since bought the house (it was the third one we put an offer on!!) and are working on getting settled. I will try to put some pictures of it on here soon. I started my job and Evan has started his as well. He is really enjoying his new squadron and really likes flying over the mountains. My job is ok. I am working at an elementary school in Anchorage as the speech therapist. It is ok. I dont love it but I am managing. My kids are great. It just isnt the best working environment. So, I dont love it. It is definitely not as great as my last job was but I will make it work for this year. And who knows, maybe next year I will switch jobs. For now, I will make the best of it. It has already started to snow. We have a lot of snow on the ground. I am not so sure that I like snow but it is a fact of my life now. For now, I am going out to dinner. I will write more later....
Jessica