The First Christmas Eve Away

The cute little tree I found on bookoo!

 I have to admit - I felt like a grinch yesterday. Everything seemed to be going wrong with my preparations for Christmas! I had not had time to find any stockings to hang since the exchange had already sold out. Due to the increased volume of packages arriving on the island, we had exactly zero presents under the tree. No presents from friends or family or even Matt's gifts to me ordered from the internet. I went grocery shopping to pick up a few last minute essentials for baking cookies. The store was packed and every single packet of sugar cookie mix was gone. Just gone. I could feel my stress level rising...and then I just started grinning like a maniac in the middle of a packed store. I realized that I was missing the entire point of Christmas!

To quote from How the Grinch Stole Christmas: "But this... this sound wasn't sad. Why... this sound sounded glad. Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small, was singing, without any presents at all! He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming, it came! Somehow or other... it came just the same."

Christmas is not about stockings or sugar cookies or presents under the tree. It's about remembering the birth of Jesus and spending time with loved ones. I get to spend Christmas with my Marine husband, something not every military wife can say. I have so much to be grateful for! 

Today I finished my preparations for the big day completely stress-free. I baked peanut butter cookies instead of sugar, had two packages arrive in the mail, and wrapped my gift to Matt. There are presents under the tree after all! 

Why all this emphasis on cookies? Well, Matt had a wonderful idea to bring homemade goodies to his single marines that could not go home for Christmas. We made plans to deliver them Christmas morning. I asked how many Marines I was baking for, and he responded "around thirty." Thirty!? That's a whole bunch of cookies! I baked three batches of three dozen each. Whew!

3 x 36 = 108 That is 108 peanut butter blossoms right there!

Tonight we attended a candlelight church service at our chapel on base, and afterwards we drove to American village to meet up with some friends for ice cream! We rode the big ferris wheel! It was high and slow. It took fifteen minutes to go around once. On our way from the ferris wheel to ice cream we noticed a pattern: Japanese girls wear Santa costumes on Christmas Eve. Sexy Santa costumes. Dressed in jeans and a sweater I felt completely left out! I guess I have time to get prepared for next year. I just need: stockings, sugar cookies mix, and a santa costume. 

I'm not making this up! Sexy Santas were everywhere!