Home for Christmas

I really don't believe in advanced packing. I believe that if I pack too far ahead I just end up repacking. I truly wait until right before we leave. So yes Sunday night and Monday morning I was packing, packing and packing. I was able to get everything packed and ready to go and get our apartment cleaned. We loaded up with our neighbor in tow to head off to the airport. Our awesome neighbor took our van to the body shop to be repaired while we are home in Tennessee. Not sure if you all know, but I decided our van needed to meet a concrete pole. Yes that pole just jumped right out in front of me and yes it won. So it will get some MD-TLC while we are getting some TN-TLC.

A little bit of traffic and our hungry bellies got in our way, but we made it to the Manasses VA airport in perfect timing. We met our pilot's son and he helped get us into the tarmac and drive right up to the plane to unload our van and pack up the plane. Once again we took a Veterans Airlift Command flight home. If you know a wounded warrior family please let them know about Veterans Airlift Command. These amazing Americans give up their time, money and resources to help our families get places quicker. Their services are open to all veterans who were wounded while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. You can learn more about them today at http://www.veteransairlift.org/ so take a minute and check them out!

Here's a few pictures from our awesome VAC flight!!

  

VA KY

We got home to our beautiful home that my mom and friend's church had cleaned up. Our friend's church raked all of our leaves, trimmed back our bushes and made our home look picture perfect. Mom added the decorations and made it look like a Christmas card.

We came inside and brought our things in, but our girls' friends who live on each side of us we waiting patiently to play. Our girls were inside our home for about 5 minutes, if that, before running out to play with their friends. I went through our house and just thought how great it feels to be home. Then I went to my desk....

This is what three months of mail looks like, except our friend who watches our home was kind enough to throw away all of the junk mail. So I sat down for a few minutes and went through and was able to throw some more of it away. Of course I had to open the boxes. Here's what I found...

I found new Christmas Stockings that my friend and fellow Kappa Delta sister made for our family to have this year.

Then I discovered a little box with handmade ornaments that my Great Aunt Martha Sue had made for us.

Both of these were great surprises to have on our first day back! Then Deryn and I went to her Girl Scout Christmas Party and got to catch up with our friends. Her fellow Girl Scouts were so excited to see her. She has been skyping in with them for months now. But last night she got to giggle with them in person. De and I returned home from scouts and then with Grannie's help we decorated our tree. I forgot to get Chaz's picture. He was sitting off to the side supervising!

We had a great first night back home. Chaz had to rest up a little after the flight. Traveling wears him out way more then it did before. Then of course he had to spend time catching up with his cyber buddies.

There was one Allen family member who was very, very excited to see us and to be home too and that's our dog, Arf. Our cat, Callee, still lives with my sister and Callee does not travel very well. I am not sure when she will be able to join us. But one thing is for sure having as many pieces of your life back together under the same roof makes everything so much better.