How Lovely Are Thy Branches

I've been meaning to post these for a while, but it's been a whirlwind of a week!

After the dough ornament adventure with Price, I was looking forward to decorating the tree.  I think it turned out pretty well, I even (mostly) like the colored lights...

Once the tree was up, time just started to fly by!  We got into a little bit of a holiday frenzy.  However, it's really not as bad as what we would experience in the States, this frenzy is more laid back.  Kind of like a riptide, just going with the flow, until it slows down even more and then we can relax.

It all started last weekend.  We took a little break from our routine and headed to the Westin for the Med Group Christmas Party.  We got a room for the night so we could have some pool time on Saturday and Sunday.  We had a blast!   It was so much fun hanging out by the pool with friends, having fruity drinks, looking out at the ocean.  Price's harem of tweenage girlfriends played with him most of the time we were in the pool, so he had fun too. Our little water baby swam and swam until he turned blue.

That night, we got dressed up in real clothes (I even wore heels, the invite specifically requested NO FLIP FLOPS, and panty hose), left Price up in the room with his favorite babysitters and had a great night NOT trying to entertain a 16 month old at dinner, eating, drinking and being merry- I even got a case of disco fever and hit the dance floor more than usual (I wasn't even tipsy)- it just felt good to cut loose.  As usual, I forgot to take pictures, but I think some were taken, so if  I get copies I'll post them later.  We did take some pictures from our balcony before we checked out of the hotel on Sunday...

We also spent some time on the beach, trying to get some Christmas card worthy pictures...

Now that Price is walking, he walks right into the water.  Luckily, it's pretty much like walking into a warm lake.

We got home from our mini-getaway and I still had to bake 10 dozen cookies for the base's Unaccompanied Airmen Cookie Drive.  I procrastinated all afternoon and didn't start baking until 9 at night and didn't finish until about 1 in the morning.  I got a call the next morning asking if I could bake about 10 more dozen, so I did.  After making 20 dozen cookies, I don't really want to see another cookie for a while.  That is good news for my scale, the bad news for my scale is that I decided I wanted to give Don's element and some other folks homemade, from scratch cinnamon rolls (by the way, if you ever make these, make the icing in this recipe-even if you're a traditionalist like I am- I never knew adding a little coffee to a cinnamon roll would make my heart go pitter-patter and not because of the sugar rush or infusion of caffeine, but because it is the best subtle flavor explosion, I can't even describe it, just trust me on this) .  So, I made 17 pans of them.  They turned out great, especially considering it was my first time making them (I am learning to love baking here, it's the perfect climate for yeast to work- I am currently 2 for 2 on successful attempts).

 

Anyway, between all the baking, Christmas shopping, meeting attending, Christmas shopping, and trying to get ready for my brother's arrival this weekend, it's just been busy, busy around here.  I am looking forward to this weekend- Saturday is Rota Walk and Sunday, my brother will be here.  I CAN'T WAIT!!  The anticipation and all the preparation is making it feel more and more like Christmas every day.